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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Chicken Gyros

Afternoon, Internet! :)


So sorry I've been gone again for a few weeks, I've been very busy packing up and moving. I'm finally settled back into Indianapolis, and am currently writing this to distract myself from unpacking. I had no idea how much junk I've not only accumulated over the past 4 years while at university, but that I've also stashed at home. Yikes!

It still hasn't hit me that I'll most likely be spending the year as a roommate to my parents for the first time in 4 years, and I have a feeling that it won't truly sink in until I'm all settled. Yet another reason why I'm refusing to unpack, I suppose.

Leaving IU was very bittersweet, but I truly enjoyed the last few weeks I got to spend with my best friends and roommates before we all headed our separate ways. We spent most of our time sipping on drinks, eating good food, and playing in the sun since this late-Summer weather has been absolutely gorgeous. We spent a lot of time posted up with beers around our dinky little charcoal grill on the front porch, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.


Not that we were sick of burgers and dogs (how could you ever?!), but week before last I decided to try something new. I'm just beginning to get into cooking, and had a hankering for some Greek food. Now, one thing that Bloomington has in abundance is absolutely gorgeous restaurants that have food from just about anywhere, including Greece, but I wanted to test our dingy old kitchen and see if I could make something just as good. Using inspiration from a few blogs and websites I tried my hand at some good ole chicken gyros, and I (as well as my roommates and friends) were all very pleasantly surprised.

Mostly I was surprised at how simple it was to make something so delicious!

All you really need for the chicken and marinade is:

1.5 pounds of chicken (I cut mine into smaller chunks for easier cooking)
3 tbsp of EVOO
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp basil (I just used dried basil from a tin)
4 cloves of garlic, diced
Salt & pepper to taste
A bottle of your favorite wine


Mix me, baby!

Open the wine and pour yourself a big glass. Mix everything else besides the chicken in a bowl, and then pour over the chicken. Let it marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. Pour yourself another glass of wine afterwards.




While I was letting the chicken sit, I went ahead and got to work on the Tzatziki and the salad I planned to make.

Tzatziki:

2 cups plain non-fat yoghurt
Juice from 1 lemon
1/2 of a cucumber, finely diced
A splash of EVOO
1 clove of finely diced garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
A sprinkle of dried dill

Just mix it all together, season to taste, and then throw it in the fridge to set! I absolutely adore Tzatziki. Its very similar to a snack common in Persian culture that I've fallen in love with, so naturally I stole a few bites after it was made.



The Tzatziki is super easy to make, and I wanted a bit of salad with my gyros, but wasn't feeling lettuce. My best friend Cameron was in town for the week and was coming over for dinner, so I decided to make a bit of a variation of his favorite salad since its absolutely delicious and would go great with the gyros. Its a Persian salad, called 'salad Shirazi'- I'm not sure if that's the actual name, but thats what his family calls it.

Salad Shirazi:

1 cucumber, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 of a white onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 tbsp EVOO
Crushed mint leaves or dill (I used dill, from a tin)
Juice from 2 lemons or limes (I used lemons)
Salt to taste. Its traditionally a very salty dish, so I used a lot of it.


Lots and lots of salt...

Making the Tzatziki & salad took about the whole hour, so I proceeded to trade the salad for the chicken in the fridge and heated up my pan to medium, and put the chicken pieces on the stove to cook. It took about 7 minutes for the chicken to cook up to a nice light brown, so it was relatively quick, which was good because we were getting hungry!


& thirsty!

Once the chicken was done, I put all of the fixins' out on the counter and called everyone 'round to dig in! I cut up some extra tomatoes and cucumber pieces, as well as onion and avocado to top our gyros with. I had never tried avocado on a gyro before, but got the idea from one of my favorite blogs, The Londoner.


Needless to say, everything turned out even more delicious than it looked. The prep was a bit time consuming just because of all of the vegetables that needed to be cut up, but it was well worth it! I'm certainly adding this to my recipe book.


Now if only I could actually go to Greece! :)


 
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