Greek Chicken Souvlaki with Lemon Rice

Ingredients:
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
**vegetables like mushrooms, onion and zucchini, if desired

Marinade Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice {about 3 lemons}
• 1 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp finely minced garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme

Instructions:

Trim chicken and cut into large chunks- mine were about 1.5" big and I got 4-6 chunks from each chicken breast.

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, oregano, and thyme into Ziploc bag or plastic container. Add in chicken. Seal and squeeze bag or turn container over and shake gently so all pieces of meat are well-coated with marinade. Put into refrigerator and marinate 6-8 hours or more.

To get ready to grill, remove chicken from refrigerator, pull out chicken pieces and dump remaining marinade. Thread chicken onto skewers.  Spray grill with non-stick spray or mist with olive oil, then preheat gas or charcoal barbecue grill to medium high.

Grill skewers about 12-15 minutes, turning the first time as soon as you see nice grill marks. Souvlaki is done when the chicken is slightly browned and firm, but not hard to the touch. {If you use a meat thermometer, the temp should register 160 degrees. It will increase to 165 degrees even after you take it off the grill. I love using a thermometer as it really helps me not over-cook the chicken!}

**If you'd like to grill some vegetables along side your chicken, I highly recommend it! We did a skewer of mushrooms, plus we also sliced some white onion to thread along with the chicken. The mushrooms were amazing!! To marinate vegetables, if you just have a few, set aside 3-5 TBSP of the marinade prior to mixing with the chicken. Then just put vegetables & marinade in a separate ziplock bag in the fridge, turning the bag occasionally to mix it. If you're doing a good amount of vegetables, I'd double the marinade instead!

Greek Lemon Rice

Adapted from Kayln's Kitchen
Serves 4-5 as a side dish

• 1 cup long grain rice
• 2 TBSP olive oil 
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-3 TBSP lemon juice {I loved 3 TBSP but my kids preferred it less lemony}
• 2 cups hot chicken broth 

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. {Make sure pan has a lid!} Add in oil. After about a minute, add in rice and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring often so it doesn't brown too much. Add salt and lemon juice to rice and saute 1 minute more.

Slowly add in chicken broth. Let it come to a boil, then reduce heat to the lowest setting and put the lid on the pan. Cook for 30 minutes.

If all the liquid has been absorbed after 30 minutes, remove lid, turn off heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes prior to serving. If there's still a bit of liquid, let it cook without the lid on for another 5 minutes or so. Then turn heat off and let it sit for 10 minutes.

***I highly recommend making this rice the night before you're planning on serving! The flavors are so much better plus the rice is able to absorb the liquid and turns fluffier when it's had time to sit. I just heated it in the microwave just before serving and it was fantastic!