Greek Chicken Souvlaki Bowl: A fresh chicken power bowl recipe that packs the tastebud tickling flavors of a healthy Greek chicken recipe into a bowl filled with other nutritious ingredients. This souvlaki chicken recipe is fast, flavorful, and served over quinoa or rice, roasted and fresh veggies, crumbled feta, and tasty olives. It is a well-rounded, nutrient dense, and delicious meal.
This is sure to be one of your favorite nourish bowls, power bowls, or Buddha bowls…whatever you want to call it, I call it delicious! This flavorful chicken souvlaki inspired recipe gives you amazing pizazz with the depth of flavor, and freshness that is a hallmark of Greek food.
Chicken bowls are fantastic ways to have a well rounded lunch full of fresh and roasted veggies. I love that I can make them ahead of time so that when I’ve inevitably run out of time because of a busy schedule or, lets be honest, a Netflix marathon, I can grab my quinoa, veggies, chicken, and a little feta cheese and presto: I’ve got a healthy meal with very little time or effort required. And because they’re so versatile you can travel the world culinary flavors without ever leaving your kitchen. Enter the Greek Chicken Souvlaki Bowl.
What is the difference between a gyro and souvlaki?
A Gyro and a Souvlaki are like two delicious cousin foods, they have similarities but are both distinct in who they are. First they both are served with pita, they’re both cooked over a pit, and they can look alike. This is where the differences come in though. Gyros are primarily pork, where Souvlaki can be a lot of different meats. Gyros are long strips of meat, and Greek Souvlaki is cooked as marinated cubes of meat on skewers. Both so yummy.
It is important to understand the difference, and understand that while this is technically neither, it represents the souvlaki more. Often Greek Souvlaki is skewers of meat and vegetables, roasted to perfection. This bowl uses grilled chicken and roasted veggies, like a Souvlaki, but instead of skewers of meat, we simplify things, and cut out the time of threading the skewers by grilling the whole chicken breast, and slicing it after the fact.
What is in a chicken souvlaki?
Souvlaki, or plural souvlakia, is a popular Greek street food. The equivalent of fast food! It typically consists of small pieces of meat and vegetables grilled on a skewer. While in Greece the meat is typically pork, it can be chicken, beef or lamb, and for the purposes of this amazing Souvlaki bowl, we went with chicken.
Chicken Souvlaki is also often called Shish Kebab! It’s chicken marinated in a greek chicken marinade put on a skewer then grilled with salt and pepper.
Only today, I’m sharing the same idea, in a power bowl form!
How do you make chicken souvlaki?
Making chicken souvlaki for your souvlaki bowl is eazy peazy! You marinade your chicken in olive oil, lemon juice and greek spices (a super easy marinade you can make up ahead of time). Then you grill the chicken sprinkling with salt and pepper while it’s cooking. So amazing, so flavorful. And because you didn’t have to skewer it, so simple!
When you pair this simple and flavorful greek chicken with fresh veggies and herbs, as well as roasted veggies, creamy feta, and nutty quinoa, you get a bowl full of flavor and nutrition.
How long does it take to cook chicken souvlaki?
Here’s the beauty of theses low carb greek chicken bowls. Chicken Souvlaki is so quick to make. It does take a little forethought to marinade the chicken. But once it’s on the grill it takes an all-told time of about 10 min. How fantastic is that? It’s Souvlaki fast food.
And the vegetables can be roasted in the oven, or can be grilled. If you want to grill them, you would use a grill pan, and put them on at the same time as the chicken. This can simplify things even more, and give you a vibrant, colorful, flavorful, and nutrition rich meal with almost no clean up!
One of the things I really love about this particular bowl is a lot of the ingredients can be prepped ahead and stored for a quick way to throw a healthy lunch or dinner together on a busy afternoon or evening. Simply keep some cooked quinoa on hand, or use one of those nifty microwavable bags of brown rice. Pre-roast your veggies, and grill your chicken. Then assemble with fresh veggies! Delicious.
Some Other Bowl Recipes to Try
- Bibimbap Korean Beef Bowls
- Chicken Banh Mi Meal Prep Bowls
- Easy Pork Carnitas Meal Prep Bowls
- Greek Chicken Orzo Bowl
- Acai Bowl
Some Tools to Help You Out
Greek Chicken Souvlaki Bowl
Ingredients
Roasted Greek Veggies
- 1 cup sweet bell peppers red, orange or green, chopped
- 1 cup zucchini chopped
- 1/2 cup red onion chopped
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 Tbs greek seasoning
- 2 tsps Olive oil
Greek Chicken
- 1 recipe Greek Chicken Marinade
- 1.5 lbs chicken breast
Cucumber Salad
- 1/2 cup English cucumber diced
- 1/2 cup grape tomatoes halved
- 1/4 cup red onion sliced
- 1 tsp lemon juice fresh
- Salt and pepper to taste
The Rest
- 2 cups cooked quinoa or rice
- 1/4 cup feta crumbled
- 1 tsp fresh dill weed chopped fine
- 1 cup Kalamata olives
- 8 Pita bites or pieces of pita bread
Instructions
Roasted Veggies
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees
- Chop veggies, and toss in olive oil and Greek seasoning blend. Pour onto a baking sheet in a single even layer.
- Roast for 15-20 minutes, until veggies are soft and slightly browned.
- Remove from oven.
Grilled Chicken
- Use a meat mallet to pound chicken to even thickness, then place in a zip top bag and cover with Greek Chicken Marinade.
- Marinade chicken for up to 12 hours but at least 2-3 hours.
- Preheat grill over medium-high heat (to about 425 - 450).
- Brush grill grates lightly with olive oil.
- Place chicken on grill, close lid, and grill about 4 minutes per side, or until chicken reaches 160 - 165 degrees in thickest part of the chicken using an instant read thermometer.
- Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then slice for bowls.
Cucumber Salad
- Dice cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onion, and mix in a bowl, toss with a little lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
Assemble
- Divide quinoa between four bowls.
- Divide and evenly distribute grilled vegetables, cucumber salad, olives and chicken.
- Sprinkle with feta cheese and serve with fresh dill garnish.
- Serve with pita bites, or pieces of sliced pita bread
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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