Greek Pork Souvlaki Recipe (Taverna-Style Skewers)

Souvlaki means little skewer, and in Greece it refers to the meat itself rather than to the wrap. Order a souvlaki in Athens and you may well get two bare skewers on a plate with bread, lemon and a pile of raw onion. If you want the wrap, you ask for it in a pita.

The meat is almost always pork. Chicken is common, lamb appears in tourist areas, and beef essentially does not feature. Pork shoulder is the cut, because it has enough fat running through it to survive a hard, fast fire without drying out.

The marinade has four ingredients and no exceptions worth making: olive oil, lemon, garlic, oregano. Everything else is decoration. What matters far more than the recipe is the heat you cook it over and the fact that you do not overcook it.

Key preparation steps

1. Cut pork shoulder into 3 cm cubes, keeping the fat on.
2. Marinate for at least two hours in oil, lemon, garlic and oregano.
3. Thread loosely, leaving small gaps so the heat gets between the pieces.
4. Grill over a fierce fire, turning often, for 10 to 12 minutes.
5. Rest briefly, then hit with more lemon and oregano before serving.

Which cut of pork for souvlaki?

Shoulder, sometimes sold as pork butt or collar. It is the only answer worth giving. The intramuscular fat melts during grilling and bastes the meat from inside, which is why taverna souvlaki is juicy despite being cooked over a very hot fire.

Loin and tenderloin are leaner and will be dry and stringy by the time they are cooked through. If loin is all you can get, cut the cubes larger, marinate for longer, and accept that you will need to pull them off the heat earlier.

Cut cubes around 3 cm. Smaller and they overcook before they colour, larger and the outside chars before the middle is done. Leave the fat on. It is doing the work.

How long should souvlaki marinate?

Two hours is the minimum for the flavour to register, and overnight is the practical maximum. Beyond about twelve hours the lemon juice starts to break down the surface of the meat and the texture turns slightly mealy.

If you are short on time, two hours at room temperature does more than four hours in the fridge, since cold meat absorbs marinade slowly. Just do not leave pork sitting out beyond that.

Do not add salt to the marinade at the start. Salt draws moisture out over a long soak. Season the skewers just before they hit the grill.

Charcoal or a griddle pan?

Charcoal, if you have any way of managing it. Souvlaki is a charcoal food and the smoke is part of the flavour rather than a bonus. Build the fire hot and cook directly over it.

A ridged cast iron griddle, properly preheated until it is smoking, is the best indoor substitute and gives you the char lines and most of the crust. An oven grill on its highest setting, with the skewers close to the element, is a distant third but workable.

Whatever you use, it needs to be genuinely hot before the meat goes on. Souvlaki cooked over moderate heat stews in its own juice and goes grey.

Should you put vegetables on the skewer?

Not in Greece, no. Onion and pepper on the same skewer is a British and American barbecue habit. The problem is timing: vegetables and pork cook at different rates, so by the time the peppers have softened the pork is overdone, and the moisture the vegetables release stops the meat from crusting.

If you want grilled vegetables, put them on their own skewers and cook them separately. Raw sliced onion served alongside is the traditional accompaniment and does the job better anyway.

Building a proper souvlaki pita

The order is not arbitrary. Warm the pita on the grill for a few seconds a side, brush it with a little oil. Then tzatziki first, directly on the bread, because it acts as a barrier and stops the wrap going soggy. Then the meat, pushed off the skewer in one motion. Then tomato, then raw onion, then a small handful of chips.

Yes, chips go inside. This is not a novelty, it is how it is done across Greece, and the wrap is noticeably worse without them. A pinch of paprika and a squeeze of lemon over the top, then wrap tightly in greaseproof paper.

Use a soft, thick Greek-style pita without a pocket. The thin pockets sold as pita bread in most supermarkets are a different product entirely and will split.

Souvlaki, gyros and kalamaki

Souvlaki is meat cubes on a skewer. Gyros is meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie and shaved off in strips. Both go into the same pita with the same accompaniments, which is why the words get mixed up abroad.

In Athens the skewer itself is often called a kalamaki, meaning little reed, while souvlaki refers to the whole wrapped item. In Thessaloniki the usage runs the other way. It is a genuine regional split and Greeks find it funny.

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