OPA! Yummy, Yummy Greek Feast!

I don't know what the deal is but Brian and I have been seriously craving Greek food lately. So on Saturday when we made our shopping list/meal plan we decided to make chicken kebabs, pita, rice, green beans, and tzatziki. And it was delicious!

For our rice we just used are good ol' stand-by AB rice pilaf. So delicious. Same pilaf from No Pilates Pilaf Monday. Green beans was just a can and pita was store bought-hey we can't be fancy all the time. Below you will find the breakdown on the chicken and tzatziki.



Chicken Kebabs

About 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
About 2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. rosemary
1 tbsp. thyme
1 tbsp. oregano
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp. lemon juice

I started out by defrosting the chicken in the microwave. When it was thawed I cut it into kebab sized chunks. I combined my olive oil, spices, garlic, and lemon juice in a bowl and tossed the chicken chunks to coat. I prepped my wooden skewers by running them under the water for a bit. This was to avoid them catching fire in the oven. I don't know if they would, but better safe than sorry! I put about 6-7 pieces of chicken on each skewer. To cook the kebabs in the oven I used a cake pan and rested the ends of the skewers on the edges so they layed horizontally along the length of the pan. The oven was already at 350 for the rice so when it was done we put the chicken in for about 20 minutes. Super tasty!

For the tzatziki we used AB's recipe from his gyro recipe. I'm planning on making that some time soon too. We'll have to get some lamb from the Mediterranean Market for that one! But anyway, the tzatziki was delicious! After all the ingredients were combined it was still a little chunky so we threw it in the food processor for a bit (my awesome ex Pink Box Bakery $5 food processor!). It was perfect after it had been blended a bit more. Here's the recipe.

Tzatziki Sauce:
16 ounces plain yogurt
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
Pinch kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
5 to 6 mint leaves, finely minced

Place the yogurt in a tea towel, gather up the edges, suspend over a bowl, and drain for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Place the chopped cucumber in a tea towel and squeeze to remove the liquid; discard liquid. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the drained yogurt, cucumber, salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and mint. Serve as a sauce for gyros. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week.
Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Oh! I almost forgot. We put our yougart in a dish towel the night before and suspended it over a bowl using kebab skewers. It says 2 hours, but over night was fine. Made for less prep today!

Here's a picture of the final product! It was really good and I think not bad for our first attempt cooking Greek. I'm excited to try something more complicated next time. I've got my eye on AB's gyros so watch out for that!