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You and your family will fall in love with this recipe for Instant Pot chicken souvlaki rice served with Greek salad and yummy tzatziki yogurt sauce. Marinated chicken and rice are cooked as a one-pot dish, freeing up your hands to make the salad and the sauce. This amazing Greek dish is full of flavor and color and is nutritious and gluten-free friendly.
WHAT IS SOUVLAKI?
Whether you've been to Greece or to a Greek restaurant, you might have come across a dish called Souvlaki. Greek souvlaki is essentially well-seasoned, often marinated meat grilled on skewers, similarly to kabobs, and served as a souvlaki pita wrap or on a platter with a side of cooling tzatziki sauce, rice or potatoes, and salad. As a pita wrap, it's popular street food in Greece but it can also be found one many trattorias and restaurant menus.
Souvlaki is traditionally made with pork meat but these days you can find lamb and chicken souvlaki as well as beef and fish. Even if you don't have an outdoor grill at home, you can easily recreate a Mediterranean dish in your kitchen.
Souvlaki Marinade
In our opinion, this dish is ALL about the Greek souvlaki marinade made with oregano, rosemary, lots of garlic and lemon juice, paprika and olive oil. It flavors the meat and keeps it nice and juicy.
ONE-POT CHICKEN SOUVLAKI RICE
Today, we are going to show you how to make Greek souvlaki chicken and rice as a one-pot dish using the Instant Pot. The meat and rice are cooked at the same time, during which you can prepare a colorful Greek salad and the accompanying tzatziki sauce. It's an adaptation of the traditional souvlaki as we're not grilling the meat, but TRUST US, this dish is delicious and the juices from the chicken and the marinade add lots of flavor to the rice below.
As a meal, it's very nutritious covering all the food groups. We've got fibre, protein, carbohydrates, healthy olive oil, lots of veggies, a bit of fermented dairy, and plenty of herbs and spices.
HOW TO MAKE SOUVLAKI CHICKEN RICE IN THE INSTANT POT
You will find the full list of ingredients, instructions and nutritional breakdown for this dish in the recipe card below. Here are some basic steps and a quick video showing you how to make it.
PART 1. Marinate the chicken. Add the rinsed rice, stock and lemon zest to the pot and store. Place the chicken and all the juices on top. Cook on HIGH for 5 minutes with a 5-minute natural pressure release. Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. Diced chicken is small enough to cook quickly, so it's perfect for this one-pot method.
PART 2. Prepare the Greek salad and the yoghurt-cucumber tzatziki sauce. To save time, you can pick up ready-made tzatziki dip from the supermarket.
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Instant Pot Chicken Souvlaki Rice With Greek Salad & Tzatziki
Learn how to make a one-pot dinner meal of Instant Pot souvlaki chicken rice (cooked together) and served with gorgeous Greek salad and cooling tzatziki yogurt sauce. It's great for the family or when having friends over dinner. The recipe will yield 4 grownup servings.
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Prep Time25 minutes mins
Cook Time20 minutes mins
Total Time45 minutes mins
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 592kcal
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts skinless, diced into cubes (about 1 lb. of meat)
Chicken souvlaki marinade
- 5 garlic cloves peeled and minced or grated
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika or mild
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Juice of ½ lemon
- A pinch of pepper
For the rice
- 1.3 cups long-grain rice rinsed 4-5 times with cold water cup long-grain rice
- 1.5 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
- Zest of 1 lemon
- To finish the chicken and rice: A drizzle of olive oil & extra lemon juice
Greek Salad With Herbs
- 2 tomatoes sliced into wedges
- ½ bell pepper sliced
- 1 medium cucumber sliced
- ½ red onion sliced thinly
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped mint
- 1.5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- A generous pinch of salt and pepper
- ⅓ cup Kalamata olives
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Tzatziki Sauce
- ½ cup Greek yoghurt or plain unsweetened
- ½ medium cucumber grated
- 2 small cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- A pinch of pepper
- A little olive oil drizzle optional
- To finish the chicken and rice: A drizzle of olive oil & extra lemon juice
Instructions
Place the diced chicken in a bowl and add the marinade ingredients. Combine well and set aside for 5-10 minutes while you get other ingredients ready.
Rinse the rice under cold water 4-5 times and set aside. Prepare the chicken or vegetable stock (you can use ready-made or dissolve a stock cube). Grate a teaspoon or so of lemon rind. We’re ready to cook.
Turn the Instant Pot. Add the rice, vegetable stock, and lemon zest. Stir through. Place the marinated chicken pieces on top of the rice, pour in any remaining juices to get all those flavors in. Dicing the chicken in cubes allows it to cook quickly so you can use the same time for both rice and the meat. Plus, the marinade in the chicken will also flavor the rice beneath.
Pop the lid on top, lock and make sure the top valve is positioned to Sealing. Press Manual/Pressure Cook and set to 5 minutes at HIGH pressure. The Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure and the timer will begin. Note that cooking starts during the pressure build-up.
Prepare the salad and tzatziki. While the chicken and rice are cooking, move on to your sides. Grate the cucumber and squeeze some of the juice out with your hands. Transfer the flesh to a small bowl. Add ½ cup of Greek yogurt, minced garlic, a pinch of salt and pepper, drizzle of lemon juice (about 1 tablespoon), and olive oil. Mix and set aside.
Cut up the salad vegetables, red onion and herbs and add to a large bowl. Dress with red wine vinegar (or lemon juice), olive oil, salt and pepper, and combine. Top with a sprinkle of dried oregano and Kalamata olives. Set aside.
Once the timer is up, allow 5 minutes for natural pressure release and then point the top valve to Venting (press it down on newer models) to let off the remaining pressure. Open the lid, the rice should have absorbed all the liquid. Drizzle a little olive oil and lemon juice over the top.
Serve the chicken and rice in bowls or plates with a side of Greek salad and a tablespoon or two of Tzatziki on top. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Rice: you can use regular long-grain rice such as Basmati or Jasmine but medium-grain will also work. Make sure to rinse the rice really well under cold water (4-5 times), which will keep it nice and fluffy (not stodgy).
Chicken: We use diced chicken breast but you could use turkey, chicken thighs, diced pork, lamb or beef for this recipe.
Greek salad: While it's lovely to keep with the whole Greek theme here, you can make any kind of salad you like. No time to cut up the vegetables and herbs? Pick up a pre-made salad in a bag!
Tzatziki sauce: As with the salad above, if you're short on time or energy, feel free to pick up ready-made tzatziki sauce or dip from the supermarket.
Stock: If using low-sodium stock, add a little salt to the rice when cooking.
Nutrition
Calories: 592kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 33g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 74mg | Sodium: 1409mg | Potassium: 1010mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 2013IU | Vitamin C: 43mg | Calcium: 121mg | Iron: 3mg
CourseMain
CuisineGreek
KeywordChicken, Dinner, Gluten-Free, Mediterranean, one-pot, rice
Made this recipe?Mention @instantpoteats or tag #instantpoteats!
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