Chicken pitas, and tzatziki sauce

I know you can't see the chicken, but it's under the veggies and tzatziki sauce!

Today was a fly by the seat of my pants kind of day.  I hadn't meal planned for this week, but thankfully I knew I had to go to the store for meat anyways.  The kiddos and I made the trek out to Trader Joe's today and picked up some organic free range chicken.  Unfortunately there was a bit of a mishap when I started to prepare it.

I opened the package to get ready to marinate the chicken and something smelled really off.  The raw chicken smelled like rotten eggs.  Lame.  The sell by date isn't even until the end of the week.  I wrote Trader Joe's an email about it.  Even though the thing only cost me $3 ($1.99 a pound for organic drumsticks!) I was still pretty irritated about having to throw away a whole package of chicken.  I don't know if they'll refund me or anything, but I wasn't really up for putting the rotten chicken back into the plastic packaging and making the 20 minute drive back out there to try and return it.  Ugh, smelling rotten chicken in your first trimester is not a fun ordeal. 

It took a good 40 mintues to muster up the courage to open up another package of chicken I bought from them today.  I even took a good sniff just to make sure I wasn't going to poison someone with it.  Ah, that's what raw chicken should smell like.   Nothing!!  At least I think that's what it's supposed to smell like.  In any case I"m just glad it didn't smell like rotten eggs, or pulp mills, or sulfur.  Blech. 

So now that I've thoroughly grossed you out, let me tell you more about the pleasant chicken souvlaki/pita dinner we had tonight! 
It looks like a long process, but it didn't feel like very much work.  Here's how it went.

Chicken Pita Souvlaki filling
(sort of adapted from Here)  I just used the chicken marinade recipe loosely.  I pretty much disregarded everything else

1lb meaty chicken pieces
3tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
2tsbp oil (sunflower as usual)
1tbsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

1.  Place everything in a ziplock bag and let marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.  The longer the better, up to a day.

While the Chicken is marinating start your ......

Pita bread!
Here's the recipe for that.  Sorry, I forgot to take shots of the pita bread process.  It's basically a bread maker deal, so I wasn't all that involved except for the rolling out circles and the baking in the oven part.

This is the easiest pita bread recipe I've tried so far.  I swapped out 1/3 of the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour and the pitas turned out wonderfully.  Definitely put them in a paper bag and seal it (I used a chip clip) until they cool, otherwise they'll be rock hard and crack easily.  They didn't crack and they held up to the tzatziki sauce very well. 

Speaking of tzatziki sauce, while the bread is doing it's thing in the machine get your tzatziki sauce ready!


Tzatziki sauce

(adapted from allrecipes, but I don't know where anymore it's been so long since I accquired the recipe)

Tonight I made half a recipe.

1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon dill
3 cloves minced garlic
1 grated cucumber (some people like to let it drain on paper towels to get the moisture out, I've made this recipe without doing that and it turned out fine).  I use 2 persian cucumbers or 1 regular.  If it were an english cucumber I'd probably only use half.

Mix it all together and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes at least before eating.  The flavors meld together really well if you let it sit for a while before using it.

Okay, so after your Tzatziki sauce is ready, bake your bread in your 500 degree oven.  It took me 2 batches (10 minutes total).  Turn your oven down to 400 degrees and bake your chicken for 30 minutes until the skin is dark and crispy and the juices run clear.

While your pitas are cooling and your chicken is cooking chop up....

1 large tomato (I happened to have an heirloom tomato today, yum!)

2 small cucumbers

romaine lettuce (I only had spinach today so that's what we used!)

When your chicken is done, shred it up and stuff your pitas with your chopped veggies, chicken and tzatziki sauce and voila!  A great dinner.

Tonight I didn't have any kalamata olives or red onion, but I would have definitely added those if I had them.  If I weren't pregnant I would also have added feta cheese.  Yum.  Don't be frightened, it's really not that difficult at all.  There are just a few steps to it!

It's not the prettiest picture, sorry I was in a rush!

In the name of the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear Jesus, whenever I make some sort of flat bread I'm reminded of you, the last supper, and the Eucharist.  We are so thankful that you humbled yourself and come to us in the form of food and drink.  Thank you for this incredible and amazing gift.  Help us to always be in awe of the Blessed Sacrament.  Amen.