Greek lamb marinade (for lamb souvlaki, chops)

This Greek lamb marinade - whether to make lamb souvlaki skewers or to marinate chops or steaks - is easy to prepare with only a few ingredients. It creates tender, flavorful meat and is the perfect base for a summery Mediterranean meal.

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One of the things I love when we have visited Greece and Cyprus is how much lamb is on the menu. It's one of my favorite meats. As I've discovered over the years, though, the US is quite different, with lamb much more rarely found in restaurants and I know some people who have never eaten it.

Being one of my favorites, I've shared quite a number of lamb recipes here with a whole range of flavors from lamb tagine with apricots to braised lamb shoulder chops. This marinated Greek lamb is another easy and tasty one that is great for fellow lamb lovers. It may also persuade those generally less keen given the marinade lightens the lamb flavor.

Lamb in Greek cooking

Greek cooking is a classic Mediterranean cuisine with heavy use of vegetables, olive oil and grains as well as moderate meat and seafood. In Greece, lamb has been one of if not the most popular meat for centuries as the topography and climate is well suited to grazing sheep (and less so cattle). 

As a result, many traditional Greek dishes feature lamb, from moussaka to roasts like lamb kleftiko and grilled lamb like souvlaki.

What is souvlaki?

Souvlaki is a classic Greek street or fast food that cocsists of meat cooked on a skewer. It's an ancient tradition in Greece, believed to date back as far as the Bronze age. You'll find versions with pork, chicken and lamb. Generally, all start with meat marinated with very similar flavors from lemon, olive oil and herbs.

The name "souvlaki" comes from the Medieval Greek word "souvla" meaning "skewer". Lamb used to be more popular, but it is often more expensive so pork is the more common version these days. I love all versions, but there's something special about lamb, to me.

Souvlaki v gyros

The Greek dishes souvlaki and gyros can sometimes be confused. Souvlaki is made up of chunks of meat cooked on a skewer. You often eat straight off the skewer, but you might also serve souvlaki with pita bread. 

Gyros, meanwhile, is made by stacking pieces of meat vertically and cooking on a vertical rotisserie. You then shave the meat from the outside to serve it. They can both be served rolled in pita as a sandwich, but the texture is a little different given how they are prepared. Souvlaki, to me at least, is generally juicier. 

Simple ingredients

For this Greek lamb marinade, all you need is onion, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, dried oregano and salt and pepper. You can optionally also add some dried thyme and paprika. It's a simple combination that adds a lovely flavor and tenderizes the meat.

Ideally, use red onion for this as it's the most typical, but other onions will work too. You can either thinly slice the onion or grate it. If you do the latter, I'd discard some of the excess juices. Extra virgin olive oil has a more intense flavor so is great here if you can, but virgin olive oil would also be fine. 

How to prepare and use this Greek lamb marinade

To prepare, you simply mix everything together so that the meat is well coated with marinade ingredients, then refrigerate and leave to marinade a few hours. Even just half an hour will help, but a couple hours will be better.

You can use this marinade with chunks of shoulder or leg to make lamb souvlaki, but you can also use the marinade with lamb chops or lamb leg steaks. Scale up the marinade quantity for more meat, as needed - it will cover a little more weight-wise with bone in than chunks, but keeping the proportions the same no matter is a good guide.

Whatever piece of meat you use this with, I recommend the meat is of a thickness you can grill easily. This is not intended for large, thick joints that are better suited for roasting. Though you could chop one of those up to prepare the meat for souvlaki.

This Greek marinade needs just a few minutes of preparation earlier in the day, then the meat is ready for a quick cook at dinner time. I love marinating in the summer as it fits well with being out a lot of the day. Other favorites include chimichurri marinated steak, chicken satay and pinchos morunos. 

How to serve lamb souvlaki (or grilled marinated lamb chops/steaks)

As mentioned above, Greek lamb souvlaki skewers are often served relatively simply. You could either serve with fries and a salad or wrpa with pita bread with some lemon sauce or tzatziki spread inside. You might add some tomato, onion and fries inside as well (you could try this air fryer fries recipe to save frying or using the oven), but little more.

However you can also make the lamb part of a fuller meal with a range of other sides. Why not try sides like a Greek salad or some mezze-style sides like Greek zucchini fritters and stuffed grape leaves. The flavors are relatively mellow so there are lots of options.

This Greek lamb marinade is so easy to prepare and adds a lovely flavor and tenderness, whether to make lamb souvlaki or marinade lamb chops or steaks. A delicious way to enjoy some Greek flavors at home, so be sure to enjoy soon.

Try these other marinated grilling ideas:

• Vietnamese lemongrass pork
• Carne asada (Mexican marinated beef, great for tacos)
• Sosaties (South African apricot and lamb kebabs)
• Plus get more summer recipes and Greek recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

This post was originally shared in September 2016 and has been updated, primarily with new photos, added video and additional information.

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