Greek Chicken Gyros

Rick, Paul, and I decided to have fun with food and eat a different ethnic food together once a week. This week, it was Greek food as a theme. I found a whole bunch of Greek Gyro recipes and bunched them all together to come up with my own recipe. And man, it was SO good! I felt like I was in Greece again. Sigh...I miss Greece a lot right now. I suppose I will just have to eat this gyro recipe every once in a while to reminisce until we can afford to travel to Greece! :)


What I loved: the tart, creamy tzatziki sauce combined with the starchness of french fries, the crispness of onion, the sweetness of tomatoes, the marinade on the chicken. Yum yum yum!

Ingredients:
Souvlaki Marinade:
*3/4 - 1 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
*3 tbsp. lemon juice
*spices of your choice: I used Italian seasoning and black pepper. Oregano would be good too, etc.

*4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed

Tzatziki sauce:
*1-2 cucumbers (depends on size, I used 2 small ones), mostly peeled (leave a few stripes for decoration), and shredded (best to shred in food processor for quick results)
*1 tsp. kosher salt
*12 oz. Greek plain yogurt
*6-10 oz. sour cream
*1 tbsp. lemon juice
*1/2 tbsp. rice vinegar
*1-3 cloves garlic, minced (depends on how much garlic you like)
*small handful of parsley, finely chopped
*1 green onion, finely chopped
*3-ish tbsp. olive oil
*spices of your choice and salt and pepper to taste


*pita bread (10-12 pieces)
*roma tomatoes, sliced
*red onion, sliced
*crumbled feta cheese
*french fries
*olives (optional)

Directions:
1) Prepare the marinade and place over chicken either in a large plastic sealed bag or in a dish with a cover. Marinade the chicken for at least an hour.
2) Prepare the Tzatziki sauce at least an hour in advance as well: Shred the cucumber and put in a small bowl. Cover the cucumber with 1 tsp. kosher salt and set aside for at least 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. Start with just 6 oz. of sour cream and mix everything up. Traditional Tzatziki sauce is a bit tart, but you should still make it your fit your taste buds. The more sour cream you add, the less tart the sauce will be. After mixing with just 6 oz. of sour cream, go back to your cucumber. Squeeze the shredded cucumber to remove all of the excess water. Add the cucumber to the yogurt mixture and mix again. Now, taste the sauce. Is it too tart for you? If so, add more sour cream until it is tart but tasty. When ready and happy with the taste, cover and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
3) About 30 minutes before dinner time, cook the fries according to the package directions, and cut/prepare the pita bread (slightly warm it up), the tomatoes, onions, olives, and feta cheese. Cook the chicken on the grill.
4) For a delightful presentation, have separate dishes with all of the toppings (pita bread, red onion, tomato, olives, feta cheese, fries, tzatziki sauce, and chicken) on their own dishes. That way, you can make your gyro the way you want. Enjoy! :)

Comments:
1) In Greece, most of the restaurants put fries in a gyro. It is so incredibly delicious. However, if you don't think fries make a gyro very authentic, you can easily do without them. It will still taste good.

2) If you DO make the fries, you will find that dipping additional fries into the tzatziki sauce is also amazingly good. You won't need boring ketchup at your dinner table!

3) I used chicken in my recipe because even though I don't mind spending money on food, I just can't justify spending tons and tons of money on lamb. In Greece, both chicken and lamb can be used for gyros. The marinade for this chicken helps make it taste more "Greek-like" so I was very happy with the results.

4) When I was in Greece, tzatziki sauce was always served with a large pool of olive oil in the middle. I think that is because Greeks put olive oil on EVERYTHING. So if you want to make an authentic presentation, give that a try!

5) If you don't have rice vinegar, white vinegar should probably work just as well...

5) This recipe made about 12 gyros. And trust me, between the three of us, there were few leftovers. :)