Adventures In Greek Chicken

In the summer, when my appetite wanes, I’m always on the lookout for recipes that are a full meal, but aren’t heated, and aren’t heavy.  My Greek Chicken Wrap recipe meets all three criteria and really hits the spot.

Served with a lovely cool tzatziki sauce, these wraps have plenty of protein and flavor but are also full of crunchy, tasty veggies, wrapped in a soft piece of flatbread.  Delicious, filling, and absolutely perfect for summer.  Or anytime, really, but especially summer.  I also like the fact that all the components of this keep well for a few days, so I can have this for lunch and/or dinner over the course of a week.

I adapted this recipe from one I found somewhere on the internet a million years ago and it couldn’t be simpler.  First, make your tzatziki sauce by grating up cucumber, squeezing out as much liquid as you can, and then adding it to some plain Greek yogurt. Yes, regular yogurt would also work, but the resulting sauce is liable to be a bit too runny, so the thicker Greek yogurt is better.  Add in pressed garlic, chopped dill, fresh lemon juice, white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper, stir it up, cover it, and chill it.  This really needs at least a few hours for the flavors to meld and bloom.  Leaving it overnight is even better.

Then prep the rest of your ingredients.  Slice your cherry tomatoes in half, julienne your cucumber into thin strips, slice your red onion as thinly as you can possibly manage, slice some Romaine lettuce leaves into long ribbons, and slice your chicken breast pieces into long thin strips.  The recipe calls for a “whole chicken breast”…I’d just like to remind anyone who has forgotten that when you buy chicken breast in the store, it’s generally cut into two pieces.  You need both pieces…à la, a whole chicken breast.  It’s easy enough to buy one already cooked, or you could cook your own.  I like to arrange all these components as attractively as I can manage (“plating” not being one of my skills) on a platter, cover it with plastic wrap, and chill until I’m ready to serve.

The last component of the dish is the wrap.  I really like whole wheat Greek pitas, which are the kind that are flatbread, rather than those thin ones that are hollow inside.  You could also use a tortilla wrap of your choice.  I think the flatbread tastes better, but it’s lot of bread for me for one meal, so sometimes, I just use a tortilla.  Cook’s choice, of course.

When you’re ready to serve, set out the bowl of tzatziki sauce, a plate with the flatbread or other wraps of choice, and the platter of fillings.  Smear the sauce all over your wrap, layer in the chicken first and then your other ingredients, and enjoy.  Oh, a word of warning…don’t overfill your wrap or you’ll have a mess on your hands.  But hey, at least it will be a delicious mess.

Give this a try…you won’t be sorry.

Greek Chicken Wraps

Click here for a printable PDF of the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

Tzatziki Dressing:

1 Cup plain Greek yogurt

1 seedless cucumber

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 Tbsp minced fresh dill

1 large clove of garlic, pressed or very finely minced

3/4 Tsp salt

1/4 Tsp freshly ground black pepper

Serving:

1 whole cooked chicken breast

Romaine lettuce leaves

1/4 red onion

8 oz cherry tomatoes

6 large Greek pitas (flatbread) or tortilla wraps

DIRECTIONS

Make tzatziki:

Place the yogurt in a medium bowl. Take half the cucumber, slice it in half, and scoop out whatever seeds there are. Coarsely grate cucumber onto a clean dishcloth and wring out as much liquid as possible. Add wrung-out cucumber to yogurt bowl along with lemon, vinegar, dill, garlic, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill until needed. This is best if made several hours before serving or, better yet, the day before.

Prep other ingredients:

Slice the second half of the cucumber in half lengthwise, scoop out whatever seeds are there, and then julienne into strips. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Slice the red onion into strips as thin as you can make them. Slice the chicken breast into long thin strips. Slice the Romaine lettuce into long ribbons. Arrange all these “fixin’s” on a platter, cover, and chill until ready to serve.

When ready, set out the platter of fixin’s, the flatbread, and the tzatziki sauce and allow the diners to create their own wraps.