Popular in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines, pita bread can be used in any meal that calls for bread. Besides eating it with hummus as a delicious snack, I decided I needed to use up my large Costco pack of pita bread and cook something up. Impress your whole family (like I did) by showing you can cook a healthy and juicy dinner (or lunch)!
Liliana Linan / Daily Nexus
Chicken Gyro
Serving: 4-5
Ingredients:
For the chicken:
- ¼ cup of olive oil
- 1 lemon
- ½ orange
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
For the tzatziki sauce:
*Disclaimer: I personally didn’t want to buy a container of Greek yogurt so I cheated a bit and bought the premade Trader Joe’s tzatziki dip, but this recipe is convenient if you like Greek yogurt and will use it for other recipes!*
- 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
- 2 cucumbers, peeled and diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped dill
- ½ lemon
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the final product:
- Pita bread
- Diced tomato
- Lettuce
- Sliced onion
Directions:
- In a large bowl, use olive oil, lemon, orange, garlic, oregano, cumin and paprika to make the chicken seasoning.
- Cover each chicken breast in the seasoning and then liberally add salt and pepper.
- Set the chicken aside for about 30 to 40 minutes (do not leave the chicken to marinate for any longer because the lemon’s acid will ruin the texture)
- While waiting for your chicken, you can prepare the tzatziki sauce by combining together all of its ingredients in a blender until smooth and then place it in the fridge for later.
- After 30 minutes have passed, heat your grill or a pan with some olive oil on medium-high and then cook the chicken (about five minutes on each side).
- Assemble the chicken gyros by grabbing a pita bread (I like to heat up my pita bread like a tortilla), spreading some tzatziki sauce on the bread, filling it with the sliced grilled chicken and topping it with the tomatoes, lettuce, onion and, finally, more sauce.
