Grilled Chicken Gyros

I recently discovered that I like Greek food. It's understandable why this was so recent...I loathe the taste of olives (including olive oil), raw tomatoes, don't really enjoy mint with savory dishes, was more fond of the smell than the taste of basil, am seriously close to detesting cucumbers, and until the past couple of years thought that feta cheese was "weird." Not to mention that the greasy excuses for gyros that the school cafeteria served were...well...strange flat pieces of meat that smelled odd and tasted bizarre. However...Spyro Gyros converted me. The absolute best gyro I have ever eaten...chunks of tasty lamb and beef, tender and juicy in the middle, lightly crunchy and caramelized outside, onions, feta, a delicious tzatziki sauce, all rolled up in a seriously soft-yet-crunchy pita. Mmm. Not to mention an absolutely awesome greek salad...spring mix with beets, feta, onion, greek dressing...

Anyway. I like greek food now, mostly. I might pick off olives and tomatoes, and drench cucumbers in dressing...but I've expanded my horizons. It's true. So when I saw a recipe in Weis Market's Healthy Bites for chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce...I thought "What the hell! I've got most of those ingredients!" and this version was born.


Grilled Chicken Gyros
Serves 4
About 220 calories each

2 chicken breasts
Dash of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1T italian seasoning
4 pitas, or two enormous pieces of naan bread, sliced in half
Feta cheese
Onion
Lettuce and tomato for topping

Sauce:
1 regular (small) container of Greek plain yogurt
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, minced
2t lemon juice
2t granulated garlic
S+P to taste

1. Grill chicken. This will take about 30 minutes if you use the whiffy sniffy frozen kind.
2. Make sauce. I prefer one of the shaker things from Tupperware. To seed the cucumber, first peel it and then use the peeler to scrape out the center.

Seeding a cucumber is oddly satisfying.

3. Cook the stuff that goes with the chicken. Combine the oil, minced garlic, diced onion, and italian seasoning in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring incessantly.
4. Chop up the chicken. Add it to the saucepan and stir until combined.
5. Warm the naan. Throw them on the freshly turned-off grill for a few minutes.
6. Serve. If you're using naan, cut it in half. Throw all the stuff on there and EAT IT!