Grilled Chicken Gyros with an Authentic Greek Tzatziki Sauce

[Wingman]

I have had this cook on my list of to do's for some time. It contains cucumbers in the recipe and I am not a cucumber fan so I put it off. I figured today was as good as any day to try a cook with cucumbers.

So here it is.. Grilled Chicken Gyros with an authentic Greek Tzatziki sauce. This is the sauce that has the cucumbers. The marinade for the chicken is a white wine vinegar based marinade with smoked paprika, oregano and pepper. I loved the flavor of the chicken. Its a quick marinade. One hour or two no more or the flavor will be too strong. All in all the Gyros were delicious even though I could have done without the cucumbers.

Thanks for viewing!

My Recipe Details

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Ingredients:

Tzatziki Sauce (Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Sauce)

3 Cups Greek Yogurt
1 Medium Cucumber - Seeded and Diced
3 Tbsp. Juice of One Lemon
1 garlic clove, chopped
Kosher Salt for Salting Cucumbers (to taste)
1 Tbsp. Finely Chopped Fresh Dill
Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Chicken & Marinade

3 lbs. Chicken Breast
1 Cup White Wine Vinegar
2 1/2 Teaspoons Smoked Paprika
1 1/4 Tsp. Ground Oregano
1/2 Tsp. Pepper

Gyro Fixings
4-6 Large Pita Breads
Romaine Lettuce
1/2 Medium Red Onion (Sliced)

[Hannibal]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Try adding a little bit of white pepper to that tzatziki sauce. I think you will like it.

[Fishawn]

Great vid Rob! ......... Think I saw a piece of that chopped chicken get test tasted at aboot 6:14

Looks fantastic & I love cucumbers

[Wingman]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Try adding a little bit of white pepper to that tzatziki sauce. I think you will like it.

Hannibal, thanks. I did use coarse ground pepper in the Tzatziki sauce. Does the white pepper have a different flavor? I thought it was just lighter in color and folks used it to hide its visual presence. I'm often wrong... Just wondering...

[Wingman]

Great vid Rob! ......... Think I saw a piece of that chopped chicken get test tasted at aboot 6:14

Looks fantastic & I love cucumbers

Thanks Scott and yes you did see me have a taster there. It smelt so damn good. I'm not kidding. I had to reach in and snag me a taste. The jury is still out on the cucumbers. Man they just don't do it for me.

[Vermin99]

That cook looks like a real winner!!

[curious aardvark]

huh - round pittas, who'd have thought it
Always oval over here :-)

You can leave the cucumbers out if you like and use mint leaves instead. tzatziki often has mint instead.

Tasty looking kebabs though
I could put three of those away

have some 'I spelt tzatziki correctly' :-)

[barkonbutts]

great looking plate there! very nice!!

[Mark R]

Hannibal, thanks. I did use coarse ground pepper in the Tzatziki sauce. Does the white pepper have a different flavor? I thought it was just lighter in color and folks used it to hide its visual presence. I'm often wrong... Just wondering...

Yes it is a different taste. A bit hotter and quicker heat, not as much flavor. You can use more of it without the flavor getting overpowering. Maybe cleaner taste is a better choice of words.

Oh...yea, looks great!

[1Cavman]

Very nice Rob...

FYI.. If you take regular plain yogurt and use cheese cloth to drain off the whey you'll end up with same thickness of "Greek Yogurt" without the higher cost.

[jwbtulsa]

I snagged this recipe from TasunkaWitko's post some time ago.

Here is the basic recipe for Greek tzatziki:

Ingredients:
16 ounces (2 cups) of strained Greek yogurt
4 to 10 cloves of garlic, diced
1/2 cup of peeled, diced or shredded cucumber
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Preparation:

Prepare all ingredients in advance. Combine oil and lemon juice in a medium mixing bowl. Fold the yogurt in slowly, making sure it mixes completely with the oil. Add the garlic, according to taste, and the cucumber. Stir until evenly distributed. Garnish with a bit of green and serve well chilled.
Yield: about 2 1/2 cups

Add mint or dill: Slight variations include 1 tablespoon of either finely chopped fresh dill or fresh mint. Either one makes a tasty addition.

then lightly salted them and set them into a strainer over a bowl to drain off their excess moisture.

The amount of garlic used seemed to be a good middle-of-the-road approach, and one can adjust up or down according to taste. I diced the garlic pretty well, but in the future I might see about crushing and mincing it even more, to the point where it is nearly a paste, in an effort to get a smoother texture; either way works, though, and your method should be guided by preference or whim.

Next, I combined the olive oil and lemon juice:
And drizzled it into the strained yogurt:
The entire time I added the olive oil/lemon juice mixture, I was drizzling slowly and stirring vigorously, in order to ensure proper blending.

Once all of the oil and lemon juice had been incorporated into the yogurt, I added the garlic:
Finally, I added the shredded cucumber, stirring well to mix all of the ingredients together:

It is at this point that one can add some chopped dill, mint or parsley according to their preference; I suppose nearly any herb could be used, depending on the direction one wants to push this condiment.

We really enjoy gyros in the summer and always appreciate new variations

[RowdyRay]

MMMMMMMM....That looks delicious. I love Gyros and the tzatziki sauce. One of these days I'll try my hand at the traditional meat for these.

[erain]

I second the MMMMMM! not to mention I love cucumbers especially fresh from the garden. Looks like an excellent summer feed!

[Hippy]

As usual the Wingman Kills it!

We eat lots of gyros during the summer.

With a big patch of Rosemary, Oregano, and parsley in the back yard it works out well.

Anything that can use fresh cukes and maters in the summer is a bonus!

Our favorite side is a lebanese Saffron Rice. Simple but amazing!!

2 pinches good quality saffron threads (or you can use 1tsp Tumeric)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
2 cups white basmati rice
3 3/4 cups chicken stock, or substitute water + extra pinch of salt
1 tsp salt

Parsley for garnish



Grind half the saffron in a mortar. Then add the rest of the saffron and a litle hot water to soak.

Saute the onion in the oil untill carmelized. Add the rice and brown it a little.

Then the stock and the saffron. Cover and cook the rice. ~(20 min)

Garnish and serve. Nutty tasty goodness!!!!!

[Mark R]

Hippy, thanks fer the recipe, be a real nice addition!