Chicken Gyros
Greek Chicken Gyros are a healthy Greek marinated chicken recipe topped with fresh tzatziki sauce. You can make your own pitas or just eat the chicken with toppings by itself. This recipe can easily be made at home for a quick Greek dinner everyone will love! If you’re wondering how to make Chicken Gyros with warm pitas and tzatziki sauce, look no further.
CHICKEN GYROS
I think I was meant to be Greek. When I watched the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching my own family.
A big family with strong religious convictions who love to eat. And my family is BIG. I am the youngest of 10 kids. I have 85 first cousins on my dad’s side alone.
Oh, and the food. Sometimes when I am cooking for my family when I am in Arizona I feel like I am at a boarding house.
Last time we were there John and I took over cooking breakfast one morning. After 6 dozen eggs we still had only fed half the crowd. As soon as you set the plate of food down it was gone.
I saw these on Annie Eats and she said they were her new favorite meal and let’s face it…she’s cooked a few.
These are a healthy start to the new year. I made whole wheat version of her pitas to be on the healthier side and the tzatziki is yogurt based so it can’t be bad. I’ve never even attempted to make homemade pitas and even how it was done until now.
You can very well buy store bought pitas but I was having a Martha moment and felt like doing my own. And they were so soft and yummy. I loved the cool, creamy, refreshing tzatziki sauce on the chicken. So good.
Also, if you really want the flavors to blend make the tzatziki sauce the day before and marinate the chicken the day before.
Some Greek knowledge tidbits:
1) Gyro is pronounced Yee-Roh not Jy-Roh. But Jy-Roh is so much more fun to say.
2) Traditional pitas don’t have a pocket in them.
These Greek Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce are one of my favorite easy and quick recipes.
OTHER CHICKEN RECIPES:
- Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken
- Hawaiian Grilled Chicken
- Crock Pot Italian Chicken
- Easy Crockpot Fiesta Chicken
- Crockpot Italian Chicken
- Cheesy Bean Chicken Salsa
- Baked Chicken Chimichangas
- Chicken Parmesan Meatballs
- One- Pan Chicken and Spinach Orzo
Chicken Gyros
These Greek Chicken Gyros are a healthy Greek marinated chicken recipe topped with fresh tzatziki sauce. You can make your own pitas or just eat the chicken with toppings by itself.
Ingredients
Tzatziki sauce:
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 regular cucumber peeled and seeded
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
- Extra virgin olive oil
For the chicken:
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- Juice of 1 lemon (2-3 Tablespoons)
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 heaping Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 1 1/4 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- To assemble: Pita bread
- Fresh tomatoes seeded and diced
- Red onion sliced thin
Instructions
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Shred the cucumber or chop in food processor. Wrap in a towel a squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Mix together the yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
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Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.
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To prepare the chicken, combine the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
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Cook the chicken as desired, either in the skillet or with the broiler. Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Source: Annie's Eats
These were absolutely delicious and I’m DELIGHTED to have so much tzatziki left over since it was just two of us 🙂 Next time I’ll definitely cut up my chicken breast before putting it into the marinade, but the combo of marinade & the homemade tzatziki was a fabulous dinner–can’t wait to try grilling it now that it’s grilling season!
So happy to hear that!
This has been a family favorite for years! Have you tried this recipe in the oven on a sheet pan? I am thinking to try it for less mess and roasting peppers, purple onion and tomatoes. What are your thoughts?
Great idea! I need to tweak it. I’m on it!
COVID-19 Quarantine recipe! Trying all sorts of new things…this one was a win for our family. Thank you!!
So happy to hear that!
It looks so delicious…I am making the tomorrow night! Â
Good luck!
I’m not going to rate this because I changed the sauce a little. The chicken was very good. i used chicken thighs.
You helped me to make the best Tzatziki sauce I’ve been able to make so far! I used half yogurt and half sour cream and I added 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the mix. Just like restaurant style!
Nicely done!
Ooh that sounds delicious!
I made the chicken marinade part of the recipe today not realizing I had made it before. I came here to make a comment on the chicken and saw that I had left a review.
I followed the marinade recipe as written this time and used it on 1 1/4 pounds of chicken breast. I sliced some of the thicker pieces so they were about 3/4 of an inch thick. It’s really has good flavor! I was hoping it would be closer in flavor to American Gyro meat we’re accustom to at a Greek restaurant but it’s not. But it would still taste great on a pita with the Tzatziki, lettuce, onion and tomato.
Just tried these tonight Christy. They were excellent. Thanks for posting.
Good to hear!
Just bought all the ingredients and am going to marinate the chicken overnight, I can’t wait to actually eat them tomorrow for dinner! I’ve always known these to be Chicken Souvlaki’s, not sure what the difference is or if there is a difference, but I’ve never attempted to make them before. My cucumber hating husband has even promised to have one:)
Just popping back in to say I couldn’t hold back so I made these last night after marinating the chicken for about 5 hours and OMG, they were out of this world good!!! My husband only ate half of his due to his huge cucumber/yogurt aversion but he raved about the chicken and asked if he could have just that for dinner tonight so I have 2 whole chicken breasts marinating for him now. For the gyro’s, I cut it up into bite sized pieces to marinate and cooked it in a big frying pan. I used naan bread instead of pita, my ex H is Armenian and their pita bread is much more like naan than the pocketed type. The only thing I would add would be some dill to the tzatziki, other than that this was outrageously delicious!!!
Yum! I love gyros!
Tried this few days ago, it was so fantastic I’m making it again today. I’ve been searching for years for a restaurant quality tzatziki sauce, and this is the one! My daughter likes it by itself on the pita bread. Thanks so much for the recipe!
My husband was in the mood for chicken gyros. I was torn between this recipe and another from a different website. I am so glad I went with yours. The tzatziki sauce tasted just like the Greek restaurants and the chicken marinade was awesome. Let’s just say my husband was very pleased with your recipe and so was I. I plan on using many more of your recipes! Thanks Christy!
Gloria, thanks for your nice words!
Can’t wait to make these this week. Just a little point of clarity. The Greek food I have eaten typically does not open the pocket for the pita, as you note. But some ethnic foods do. Falafel made in the Moroccan style for example, does. Not sure why it’s different. Just thought you’d want to know. Totally agree on the should-have-been-Greek, though! I absolutely love Greek food!
Thank you soooo much for posting this recipe. My husband LOVED this so much he asked me to put it in our “favorites” recipe book as a go to for future meals. You are awesome and made me look like a domestic rockstar. 🙂 I can’t thank you enough. 😀
Rockstar you are!! Awesome!
This is one of our go-to recipes in our household! So delicious! The only thing we do differently is add some dill to the tzatziki sauce and we grill the chicken…yum!
This is my first home cooked meal of 2014 can’t wait to try it! 🙂
This was delicious. The spiciness made me sweat! And I loved every minute of it. Now I know what to do with all of the cucumbers that spoil in my fridge. I baked my chicken at 450 for about 20 minutes. Excellent!
Yum! These are delicious! I use the leftover tzatziki sauce as a salad dressing, it’s fantastic on romaine, cucumber, red onion, croutons and feta.