Greek Chicken with Tzatziki on pita — Simple and Versatile

One of my long time “go to” dishes is Greek chicken with tzatziki. It is a Greek inspired grilled chicken served with cool cucumber dressing.  Either the chicken or the tzatziki are wonderful and versatile on their own. But together, they make an unbeatable combination.  I have been serving this dish for close to twenty years in all sorts of situations. 

Easy, versatile, and delicious are the winning traits that have me coming back to this over and over again.  I have served this for family dinners and catered bridal showers. It works well at both casual backyard barbecues and dressed up dinner parties.  Simple and quick, Greek chicken with tzatziki can be prepared and made ahead. This makes it perfect for serving to guests. It is quicker still if you use a store bought tzatziki, but it is much better with homemade. Making your own isn’t that hard and oh so worth it!

Lemon Oregano Marinaded Chicken

Let’s start with the chicken. My preferred cut here is a chicken breast, but this marinade works well with any cut of chicken. I start by putting the chicken in a zip bag big enough to hold all the chicken with a bit of space remaining. I toss all the other ingredients in on top and close the zip top. Then knead it all together until the chicken is covered with the marinade.

Put the zip bag on a plate (in case it leaks) and place in your refrigerator. Let is sit for at least two hours, although longer won’t be a problem. It’s that easy. Zesting the lemon might be the most ‘complex’ part of the operation, but that it. It still takes less than 5 minutes to pull it all together.

When it’s time to cook the chicken, you have options. I think that grilling does the best job of bringing out the flavor. It also offers the dramatic ‘grill marks’ presentation. But you can’t go wrong cooking in a 350F oven for about 25 minutes . Either way, you want the chicken’s temperature to reach a safe 165F.

Once cooked, the chicken can be served whole, or cut and used as salad topping, in a wrap, or tossed on a pizza. Here, I’ll be putting it on a pita with some chopped tomato and cucumber, and topped with the tzatziki. .

Tzatziki

So what is tzatziki anyway?? It is a cucumber, mint, yogurt sauce common in Greek dishes

Tzatziki is a great topping for many grilled meats and fish. Besides with chicken, I almost always have it with lamb kabobs, beef or lamb koftas, and falafel. I’ve also been known to serve it straight up as a dip with toasted pita chip.

The cucumber/mint/yogurt combination is so darn good! You can find it all around the Mediterranean and beyond. In Turkey, it is known as Cacik. Thinned with a little water or milk, cacik served a bit looser than tzatziki. In Lebanon, labneh with cucumber, mint and yogurt is served with stuffed grape leaves. And even as far afield as Indian cuisine, you can find Raita, a similar yogurt/cucumber/mint topping.

Like the chicken, making tzatziki is mostly tossing the ingredients in a bowl and combining. Make the tzatziki ahead, which allows the flavors to more fully combine. I like to allow at least two hours in the refrigerator, but it will keep for up to a week. If it begins to separate as it sits, stir it back together to combine before serving.

Prep the cucumber

Admittedly, prepping the cucumber takes a bit of work. However, it isn’t difficult or time consuming. It takes longer to describe than to do! Here we go — start with an english cucumber. Peel it. Cut it in half the long way to expose the seeds inside. Using a small measuring spoon, scoop the seeds out so you have two small cucumber “canoes”.

Now take a box shredder and shred both of the cucumber canoes. Stack a couple of paper towels up, and put the shredded cucumber in the middle. Wrap up the cucumber, and over the sink squeeze it out.

I use a technique that is like making snowball. Pack all the cucumber together so the liquid drains off. The most critical step is to squeeze as much liquid as you can from the shredded cucumber. This keeps your tzatziki from being too watery. Toss squeezed cucumber on top of yogurt in a bowl. Done. Not that hard?!?

Chiffonade Mint leaves

One other helpful technique is how to chop the mint leaves. This works well for any leafy herb you want to chop such a basil or sage. Stack several mint leaves on top of each other, then roll them up tightly to form a small cigar like shape. With a small tight package of leaves, it is now easy to cut thin slices. Once you have a pile of thin slices, you can take the knife and chop in the other direction to create chopped mint.

When I first started making tzatziki, greek yogurt wasn’t available in stores. I used to buy regular yogurt and strain it overnight to convert it to the thicker greek style yogurt. But with widely available greek yogurts now, it is much simpler and quicker to make. If you REALLY want to Food-Geek out, you could make your own yogurt from scratch. That is taking it to a whole ‘nother level! How to do that will be the topic of a future post!

I have to say, I’ve been making this for so long, that I’m way past exact measurement for any of the ingredients.  I find that a single chicken breast is typically enough to serve two people comfortably. The recipe below is sized for serving 4.  I’ve done my best to give you a good starting place in the recipe below, but it’s a guide. Feel free to play with any of the amounts to suit your own tastes.  You can’t go wrong with Greek chicken and tzatziki. It is an excellent dish and a great opportunity to experiment.