Chicken Souvlaki Dinner

Here's another recipe from "The Good Food Book For Families" which I really like. Nice, simple, easy, family-friendly recipes and it is a Canadian book so you know you are going to be able to find all the ingredients, and they are going to be called what we call them here.

Chicken Souvlaki Dinner

Ingredients:

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice
4 to 6 whole wheat pitas
1 cup Tzatziki (Recipe for that to follow!!)
10 leaves romaine lettuce, shredded
3 tomatoes, diced
1 sweet green or red pepper, diced
1/4 cup diced red onion (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, oregano and lemon juice
3. Cut chicken into 3/4-inch cubes and toss with marinade
4. Line a cookie sheet with foil and place chicken on foil. Bake until chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes (Wrapping cookie sheet in foil facilitates easy cleanup).
5. Warm pitas in oven or microwave until softened
6. Place 3 to 4 pieces of chicken on each pita and top with tzatziki, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and onion (if using)
7. Roll souvlaki. Wrapping the souvlaki in a napkin or foil will make it easier for little hands to grasp.

Tzatziki Recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 English cucumber, grated (approx. 1/2 lb)

1 cup Balkan-style plain yogurt

1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. With clean hands, squeeze cucumber to remove excess liquid
2. In a bowl, combine yogurt, cucumber and 1 clove garlic to taste and mix thoroughly. (1 cup of yogurt usually requires 1 1/2 cloves of garlic.) You want to taste the garlic, but it should not be overpowering.

Verdicts:

Dave and I both really enjoyed this and it was so easy to make! I was super impressed with myself for making my own home-made tzatziki and I had no idea how easy it was to do! The girls didn't want to eat theirs all wrapped up, so we just cut the pitas up for them and gave them the chunks of chicken and slices of red pepper and tomatoes for dipping. They decided they would rather not dip them, though...saying the tzatziki was too "spicy" and just ate all the ingredients by themselves.

Definitely one to put into steady rotation. A nice change from the tacos, or fajitas, we always make.

For more recipe ideas please check out What's Cooking Wednesday and feel free to post one of your new favourites, too!