I am not Greek, nor can I claim that this recipe is Greek, but it totally reminds me of Greek spiced chicken and tzatziki in a pita.
Plus it's SO easy and delicious I had to make it a whole bunch of times, just to get pictures. The first time we just snarfed it down, smacking our lips. Kevin says it took self restraint not to just polish everything off and leave some for me as I came home late from work.
The original recipe for the chicken and cucumber salad was found in an issue of EveryDay Food from a long time ago, which had a surprising amount of recipes that just scream to be made. Don't you hate that when you get a new magazine in the mail and nothing is appealing? Not even one recipe? Not with that issue. Not only did I use it a lot but this one is a mainstay in our house.
The recipe tells you to make a yogurt cucumber salad, which is the tzatziki flavor that I was talking about. The only thing I found is that with this recipe, it goes all watery if you let it sit so you have two choices; drain your yogurt well before you make it (dump it in a cheesecloth lined colander and let it sit overnight) or just buy some really great tzatziki, which is what I did for the photo. I'll let you decide.
Okay so here we go. You need,
Chicken marinade:
1 1/2 lbs of chicken tenders, or just chicken breast sliced into strips
1 lemon (you need the zest and 2 tbsp juice)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, sliced
Cucumber salad:
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 garlic clove
2 tsp fresh lemon juice (zest the lemon too, it's yummy that way)
pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
Mix up the lemon zest and juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add your chicken and toss. Let sit as long as overnight, but even for 6-8 hrs is good. If you are making the yogurt cucumber salad, dump your yogurt into a cheesecloth lined colander, set it over a bowl, and put it in the fridge overnight to drain.
While your chicken is marinating, go visit Andrea at A Peek Inside the Fishbowl and get her recipe for No Fail Flour Tortilla 'Pitas'. Make them. They are easy, and I like them better than store bought. If you are like me, you'll forget to heat up the baking sheet before you put the dough on and they will take a bit longer to bake (like 3 min per side). At any rate, watch them carefully so you don't burn them!
While they cool, thinly slice a cucumber, toss the slices with some salt, and then let them drain in a colander for about an hour. If you do this AND drain your yogurt, it should get the water out and you won't end up with a runny end product.
When you are ready to eat, heat up a little olive oil in a fry pan and saute the onion until it's nice and golden. I season them up with some salt and pepper, and a little cumin. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Top up the pan with a little more oil, and saute the chicken over medium heat until cooked through. Toss with the onions.
In a bowl, mix together your drained yogurt, the garlic, lemon zest and juice, some pepper to taste, and the fresh mint leaves. Fold it into the drained sliced cucumber.
Serve the chicken with the cucumber salad, and pitas. I like to just pile the chicken, onions, and cuke salad in the middle of the pita, fold and eat. Or you can just spread some tzatziki on the pita and pile the chicken and onions on top. I also like to top mine with a little fresh dill, like I did in the photo.
Makes 4 servings.
