Oh, roast chicken leftovers, how I love you so.  Being at a photography shoot the past few days where all we’ve been shooting is picture after picture of gorgeous food (and eating awesome Thai Basil for lunch every day), my guilt over just eating cold chicken with a salad once I got home finally got to me.  Normally I would make a yummy chicken salad and serve it on fluffy, sweet wheat bread, but I saw this on Gourmet a few months ago and thought how it would be something great to do for when I had leftover roast chicken instead of just buying a rotisserie substitute.

Tstasiki is right up there with Dijon mustard in my list of favorite condiments, and despite knowing how easy it was to make, I never actually did it.  The lazier part of me just always picked up a container whenever I was in the store, and frequently my after-work snack is me dipping celery into the container (thankfully I live alone) while I put dishes away and make my lunch for the next day.  Cooling, tart and decadent without the fat, I use it as a sub for mayonnaise in chicken salad (great calorie reducer) and even as a salad dressing.

The tsatsiki is the only ‘recipe’ here, really.  The rest is tossing the chicken with some herbs and oil, adding some veggies and topping everything with the tsatsiki on some pita bread.  It’s a great fast weeknight meal and even better if you have the time to roast some potatoes with oregano alongside it. Otherwise, just enjoy on its own!

Chicken Gyros with Homemade Tsatsiki

Based on the recipe from Gourmet.

Makes enough tsatsiki for 4 servings.  Use as much chicken as you have around if you don’t have enough called for.

Ingredients:

• 2 Kirby (also known as pickling) cucumbers (These can be tricky to find sometimes. I see them at Wal-Mart but then my King Soopers didn’t have them. If you can’t find them, just use a few inches of English [seedless] cucumber.)
• 1 ½ cups 0% Greek yogurt (2 cup containers of Fage 0% are exactly 12 ounces so I used that)
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, divided
• 6 garlic cloves, 2 minced and 4 sliced.
• About 1 cup roasted chicken meat (light or dark, whatever you have around)
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped, fresh mint
• ½ tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• Grape tomatoes
• Minced red onion
• Shredded iceberg lettuce
• Whole wheat pita bread

Directions:

1. Peel the cucumbers and grate 1 of them.  Squeeze as much liquid from them as you can, otherwise your tsatsiki will be bitter.  You can let them sit a bit over a strainer and then press them out.   Stir together the yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, and  minced garlic cloves.  Season to taste, adding about ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper each.  Refrigerate and let marinate while you prepare the chicken.
2. In a saute pan, heat a few turns of olive oil over medium-high heat and then toss in the remaining garlic, rosemary, mint, and oregano.  Cook for about 30 seconds until the garlic is fragrant, and then toss in the chicken.  Saute a few minutes until well coated and heated through, then spoon the chicken out and set aside.
3. Return the pan to the heat and warm the pita bread in the pan with the leftover seasoned oil, turning a few times to heat through and coat somewhat.
4. Assemble your gyro.  Add some chicken to the pita and top with your choice of veggies in whatever amount you like.  Top with plenty of tstatsiki, and enjoy.

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