opa! chicken souvlaki with tzatziki and greek salad.

hubby and i ate at a wonderful greek restaurant on vacation.  we were so delighted with our meals that i thought i'd try my hand at making tzatziki and souvlaki.

i used this recipe for the tzatziki.  using a container of greek yogurt (i drained it first to remove more liquid), i peeled and shredded an english/burpless cucumber on my box grater (use the coarse grate, i tried the smaller grate and succeeded in making cucumber juice.  do not add seeds to the shreds.)  i salted the shredded cucumber with kosher salt to remove more liquid.  i added red wine vinegar, good olive oil, minced garlic, white pepper and chopped dill to the yogurt.  i squeezed as much liquid from the cucumber then added the shreds to the mixture, stirring it all together.  allow flavors to mingle at least an hour, preferably overnight (as i did).


i used this recipe for the chicken souvlaki.  first i cut chicken breasts into one inch strips, placing the pieces in a large ziploc bag.  then i combined olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice, chopped garlic, thyme and oregano and poured the mixture over the chicken.  i put the bag back in the fridge for an hour so the flavors would mingle.  then i folded each strip over and stuck them onto a skewer, six pieces per skewer. 

hubby cooked these on the indoor grill for 12 minutes.  (if you are grilling on a gas or charcoal grill and using wooden skewers, soak the the skewers in water for at least an hour, otherwise they will burn and might catch fire.)

holy hanna, as hubby cooked them, they smelled just like the souvlaki i had in canada.  talk about a remembering a good memory!

we had a delicious salad with our meal, full of romaine lettuce, black olives, tomato chunks, red onion (which i gave hubby), sliced cucumber and feta cheese.  i tried to replicate the dressing by using this recipe - i chose this one becos i liked the dollop of greek yogurt she added to the dressing.

there are different ways to eat the chicken.  my meal in canada was served on a skewer, with sides of roasted yellow potato, steamed green beans and herbed rice.  some people eat the meat in a pita with some tzatziki.  i bought pocketless pitas, so i dipped the pita or chicken in the tzatziki.  soooo good.


a skewer of meat is very filling, and we were left with a lot of leftover.  it tastes even better the next day!

we don't have any greek restaurants in our area so we have to make do with finding recipes online and creating our own meals from scratch.  this one is definitely a keeper!   this meal is a great low carb option, and boneless skinless chicken breast is a lean protein.  cheese is cheese, but feta cheese is very flavorful so a little goes a long way.

OPA!