Kotopoulo Souvlaki is chicken souvlaki: marinated chicken cut into chunks, threaded onto a skewer, and grilled over fire. This is the skewer itself, the cooked-meat core, distinct from the wrapped-in-pita preparations elsewhere in the Greek set. The interest is almost entirely in fire control, because there is nowhere to hide. A skewer of chicken is naked meat over heat, and whether it comes off juicy or dried out is decided in a few minutes at the grill.
The build is marinade, skewer, fire. Chicken is cut into even chunks so they cook at the same rate, then marinated, the Greek baseline being olive oil, lemon, garlic, oregano, and salt, long enough for the seasoning to carry into the meat. The pieces are packed onto the skewer close but not crushed, so heat reaches all sides. Then it is grilled over direct heat, turned to color every face, and pulled the moment the inside is just done. Good execution shows even chunks with a real char on the outside, a faint smoke, and an interior that is still moist and gives juice when bitten. Sloppy work is unmistakable: pieces cut to wildly different sizes so the small ones are leather while the big ones are underdone, a flabby pale exterior from a grill that was not hot enough to char, or the universal failure of chicken on a stick, dry stringy meat from sitting too long over the fire or holding cooked-out skewers under a lamp. The marinade does double duty, flavor and a thin moisture buffer, and skipping it or rushing it shows directly in a bland dry skewer.
Variation tracks the marinade and the service. Some versions lean hard on lemon and oregano, others add a yogurt component to the marinade for a softer, more tender result. The chunk size and char level shift the eating, smaller well-charred pieces give more crust per bite, larger pieces stay juicier inside. It is served straight off the skewer with lemon, or pulled and built into other preparations, but as a skewer this is the meat in its own right. The pita-wrapped grilled and lemon chicken forms each deserve their own article rather than being crowded in here.