Easy Chicken Gyros for Kicking Up Summer Friendships | Sara's Kitchen Witchcraft

So good, so easy, so full of fresh and funky flavor.

Jump to Recipe | Jump to Witchcraft

Boy, it's been a while since our last post. So long, in fact, that my summer garden is now bursting with activity. It only took a couple weeks for the plants to settle in, and now they're going bonkers. Only struggle is keeping them moist enough with these 85-90 degree weather days we've had!

Anyway, I wanted to use more of my herbs, so naturally, I thought of making tzatziki sauce—but what to eat with it was a separate issue. And even though I don't have any of the equipment for making classic gyros, with the skewers and all that, I thought... why not just marinate and cook some chicken in the same flavor profile?

Lo and behold, we have our meal for the day. I borrowed this recipe from Miakouppa and adapted it a little bit for what I had on hand, and it was a hit. Made it twice, and the mans loved it both times—especially with the homemade flatbreads from my Palestinian Shrimp Stew!

We're looking at kicking up our friendships and sense of adventure with this dish, so we're looking at the lemon, paprika, oregano, and mint for this dish.

Magic in Easy Chicken Gyros

Now, as y'all might imagine, you can use a lot of different components in a gyro for your magic. Do you want to invoke the bread you're wrapping this in—the wheat and the olive oil in them? Or do you want to look at the tzatziki sauce, with fresh mint, dill, and parsley? Do you want to focus on your accoutrements, like the tomato and the spinach? Or do you want to focus on the marinade of the chicken, like we are here? Whatever you choose, you can actually do a lot of interesting stuff here, but for our purposes, it's this marinade that's got it all: the zest from the lemon, the kick of paprika, the yogurt (as dairy is associated with the moon and all things that come with that), and the little floral touch of oregano. It's a great blend of things, and when you combine it with the tzatziki herbs (or just toss a few leaves of mint onto the sandwich itself), you're looking at a powerful combination for lasting, exciting, and intellectually stimulating friendships to rock into summer with.

Just like with our cucumber radish salad, here, we have a touch of air and fire, as well as plenty of water. Our planetary influences are Mercury, Mars, and the Moon, along with a fourth player: Venus, who can keep us balanced, beautiful, and light as we navigate all the ambitious, adventurous spirit and more sensitive, emotionally connective, intellectually satisfying frequencies. It's the ultimate socialite's blend, fantastic as a main course for cookouts or summer dinner parties.

Easy Chicken Gyros

Prep time: 3 hours

Cook Time: 20 min

Makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

For the Tzatziki:

• 1 full container of Greek yogurt (32oz)

• 1/4 cup fresh mint

• 1/4 cup fresh dill

• 1/4 cup fresh parsley

• 5 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

• Salt & pepper to taste

For the Gyros (Marinade):

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut small

• 1 1/2 Tbsp paprika

• 1 1/2 Tbsp oregano

• 4 Tbsp lemon juice

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

• Salt & pepper to taste

For the Gyros (Assembly):

• Tomatoes

• Spinach

• 2 onions, sliced thin

• Pita bread or homemade taboon (Palestinian flatbread)

Directions:

1. Chop your tzatziki herbs fine and mince your garlic.

2. Combine your tzatziki ingredients in a big serving dish and put in the fridge for at least three hours, preferably overnight.

3. Cut chicken into small, thin pieces, about 2 inches long and 1 inch thick, after trimming fat.

4. Put chicken in a bag with all the marinade ingredients and combine well in the bag.

5. Leave in the fridge to marinate for 1-3 hours.

   1. (If you're making your own bread, set up the dough right before you set up your chicken.)

6. After the chicken is marinated, heat a thick-bottomed skillet and add one of your two onions. Between the slices, nestle half of your chicken and cook on both sides until both sides are lightly browned.

7. Repeat with the other onion and other half of your chicken.

8. Once all the chicken is cooked, smear a flatbread or pita with tzatziki sauce, then layer chicken, onions, and any other ingredients you like (such as tomatoes and spinach), and wrap up tightly for a gyro wrap.

You'll never make an easier chicken dish than this, honestly. Hardest part is just marinading it; actually cooking it is as simple as putting it in a pan. It's the perfect meal for summer nights, and so satisfying! Try it out! ♥

---

Other Recipes You May Like:

---

Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.

Follow Sara on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube, and explore her fiction writing here.