Monday, December 20, 2010

CHICKEN PITAS with cool CUCUMBER TZATZIKI

instead of chicken, you can use lamb or shrimp or just veggies. treat them all the same as the chicken below.


For filling:
  • a few chicken breasts or tenders, cut into strips and skewered. sprinkle with salt and pepper. let skewers soak in a bath of olive oil and lemon juice for 15 minutes. discard bath afterward.
  • a bunch of veg. onions, squash, zucchinis--anything. let veg soak in a bath of olive oil and lemon juice for 15 minutes.
  • fresh tomato, quartered.
  • fresh onion, sliced.
for cool cucumber tzatziki:
  • grated cucumber. use a cheese grater and shred a whole cucumber skin and all. put the grated cuc in a strainer, sprinkle with salt, and leave. the salt will remove much of the water from the cuc. after 30 minutes or so, use you hangs and squeeze out more liquid... you want the cucumber to be as dry as possible.
  • add cucumber to 1 cup yogurt. greek yogurt if you can find it (it's less liquidy and better). But plain yogurt is ok too.
  • to that, add 2 cloved minced or smashed garlic, juice of 1 or 2 lemons, salt and pepper, and olive oil. taste it and balance the flavors till you like it.
after grilling chicken and veg over a hot fire, assemble all the above in a warm grilled pita (see photo).