Have you ever gone to the grocery store with a mental shopping list of 4 items and you come back with almost more than you can carry in one trip up the stairs and a $100+ bill? I never learn not to go grocery shopping when I am hungry! I am still getting the hang of this full-time working thing, and some days I still miss my old student life. It takes a lot of time management to balance work with chores at home. Tonight I spent what seemed like an hour doing the dishes that have piled up in my sink for a few days (gross, I know – like I said, its only week 2 of this whole working full-time thing!!).
Gyros are one of my favorite foods! They are really easy to make at home for a healthy lunch or dinner. I made tzatziki dressing for them, which is just yogurt, garlic and cucumbers. I also chopped up some lettuce and red bell pepper and wrapped them up in whole wheat flat bread. You can also add some chopped red onion, but I hate red onion so I didn’t add them! They were so light and refreshing.
I just found out from my husband’s Greek friend that I have been pronouncing “gyros” incorrectly my entire life. Instead of the American way of pronouncing words just how they look like they sound, gyros is actually pronounced “YEEROS”, and you say it really fast. Maybe someday you will have the pleasure of hearing a Greece native pronounce it for you – I will probably never be able to say it 100% correctly, but at least I sort of have an idea now!
Thank goodness it is the weekend. Tomorrow morning I plan on going for a nice long run, then birthday shopping for my husband downtown. Oh, and I have a really exciting event coming up that I can’t wait to share with you guys next week!! Stay tuned 😀
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- ½ cucumber, quatertered
- 1 tsp dill weed
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- ⅛ tsp ground black pepper
- Pinch of salt
- 2 organic, free-range, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 1½ cups chopped iceberg lettuce
- 4 6-inch whole wheat flat breads
- Slice chicken breasts into thin strips,
- Add chicken breast strips, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, and oregano to a large plastic bag and shake well. If you do not have a bag, place everything in a large bowl. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Add all ingredients for tzatziki, except for ¼ cup of the chopped cucumber, to a blender and pulse.
- Stir in reserved cucumber.
- Cover and chill in a refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Preheat oven to broil setting, then add chicken to a broiler pan (if you do not have one, just grease a baking sheet).
- Broil the chicken for 3 minutes on each side, then remove from the oven.
- Warm flat bread in a toaster oven on the light setting if desired.
- Top the flat bread with lettuce, red bell pepper, and chicken strips.
- Drizzle with tzatziki just before serving.
Those look wonderful! I love that you used Greek yogurt for the Tzatziki sauce.
This recipe is the find of my morning so far. Thank you.
Thanks for your sweet comment
Tzatziki is one of my absolute favorite condiments! I think I would eat a shoe if I could load it up with enough tzatziki, although I’d much rather eat it on something as delicious as these gyros.
I have the same problem at the grocery store. Sometimes I have to restrict myself from going to the more upscale grocery/better stocked store in our area to keep my food spending under control!
Here in Greece we don’t use tzatziki in chichen gyros, we use it for pork gyros. In chicken gyros we add mayonnaise sause, tomato, lettuce and french fries but we love tzatziki anyway 🙂 Also for the tzatziki we don’t use the blender, we blend all the Ingredients with a spoon, usually we don’t add lemon juice. I use Total yoghurt. For the cucumber we use a grater and we squeeze it in a tulle or a strainer, the less water the best result for the tzatziki. This is the trandition recipe, sorry for the corrections 🙂 Keep up the good work, i love your blog and if you want help in any Greek recipe i’m here to help you.
Shows how much I know about Greek food!!! Thanks for setting the record straight 😀
Yum! I love chicken gyros! Haven’t had one in a long time! Wonderful recipe!!
You’ll get used to the full time working deal in about 10 years or so! 😉 Gryos are great, aren’t they? No matter how they’re pronounced! And I’ll eat anything with Tzatziki – love the stuff!
I never knew how to say “gyros” either, so I’d just point at it on a menu or ask, “My I have that please?” Oops… Your recipe looks so flavorful and healthy! I need to remember to buy more chicken at the grocery store this week. (And I do the same thing too — I tend come out with 5x as much as I went there for!)
Thanks for teaching me about chicken gyros, it looks fantastic 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love how you can put the words, ‘nice’ and ‘long’ and ‘run’ into the same sentence. I do wonder how that is possible. I have to meet my dreaded running club tomorrow morning and I am so not looking forward to it. I have been so stiff and sore since my last effort that I’ve barely been able to walk. I do hope I can get to your level where I can say, ‘I’m going for a nice long run’ xx
No matter how it’s said, they’re delicious looking!
Oh man I want this for lunch now! It looks amazingly delicious!! Its been a really long time since Ive had Greek food! And Ive never attempted it at home, so that really needs to change 😉
This gyros make me hungry, it look super delicious!
I just ran across your blog this morning and am already in love with your writting and recipes. So now I have dinner and a good breakfast. I may have to cook enough dinner to have lunch the next day.
Thank you for your kind comment Barb! 🙂
Ever since we came back from Greece my boyfriend has been pestering me to make Gyros and my response is always “I don’t know how!” …I don’t know why I didn’t turn to the internet sooner… Im going to surprise him tonight, he is going to be soo happy =)
Made this last night and it was delicious, even my picky husband liked it! He said it was so good that I should probably serve it next time we have company over!
Hi Kaisa,
Thanks for the comment, I am so glad you both enjoyed the recipe! 🙂