Chicken Souvlaki

I have mentioned a few times before on this blog how much I love Greek food. I have several Greek restaurants in Dallas I enjoy, and usually when I have a craving I Robert and I go out to eat there. Last night, however, I decided I wanted to make my favorite Greek meal, chick souvlaki at home. Outside of hummus, this is really the first Greek meal I have made in my kitchen. I modeled the ingredients and plating after the chicken souvlaki served at Ziziki's, my favorite Greek restaurant.

I made a few modifications due to a recent allergy I've developed for raw onions and garlic. Usually you see onion with the chicken and garlic in the sauce but I substituted bell pepper and garlic powder and was really pleased with the results. This meal really came together quickly and Robert and I even got to go workout at the gym while the chicken was marinating. Pair this with pita and roasted potatoes for a great meal.

So before we get to the recipe I have a slight confession. Initially I was only planning to write about the tzatziki sauce recipe and not chicken souvlaki so I didn't take any photos of marinating or cooking the chicken and bell peppers. The final result was so tasty, I knew that I wanted to post the whole meal, even if I was a few photos short. So hopefully you can forgive the lack of photos at the end, fortunately it's a pretty straight forward process.

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Chicken Souvlaki


Ingredients
2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
juice of 1 lemon
1 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Red bell peppers
Onions (if desired)

Instructions
Peel the cucumbers and cut them in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, remove the seeds and discard.

Dice the cucumbers and place in a colander. Sprinkle with kosher salt and set in the sink to drain off some of the excess water. (This will help keep the sauce from being too runny.)

After 30 minutes, place the cucumber in the bowl of the food processor along with the dill, garlic powder, lemon juice and pepper.

Puree until smooth. 

Pour the Greek yogurt into a large bowl.

Gradually stir in the cucumber puree.

When the sauce is ready, cube the chicken and bell peppers (and onions if desired) into 2 inch cubes and string on a skewer.
Place in a shallow dish and pour a good amount of tzatziki sauce over the chicken.
Let marinate in the fridge for about an hour.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat a grill pan over medium high heat and sear the chicken and bell peppers.
After 5 minutes, transfer the pan to the oven to finish cooking. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Serve on pita with more tzatziki sauce drizzled on top with roasted potatoes and enjoy.

Source: Tzatziki recipe slightly modified from Kalyn's Kitchen

Homemade Yogurt

I've always liked yogurt to some degree, but only the dessert flavored yogurts that Yoplait produces such as key lime pie and cherry cheesecake. It wasn't until I tried my hand at making my own batch of homemade yogurt at home that plain yogurt quickly became a daily necessity in my house. The consistency and very slight vanilla flavor of this yogurt is unlike any yogurt I've ever tried before. It's not as tart as plain yogurt and not as sweet as vanilla which lets fresh berries shine when poured into a fuit and yogurt parfait.

I made my first batch of homemade yogurt almost two months ago and I've been making new batches almost every two weeks to keep up with demand. Robert and I gave up sweets for Lent, so homemade yogurt parfaits have become the new dessert in our house in the absence of cookies and cake and we don't mind at all! In fact, we'll likely stick with this as a standard dessert even after next Sunday, it's just that good.

A few quick notes before I start with the recipe. First, the whole process takes a minimum of 13.5 hours from start to finish. I've found that the ideal time for me to start the process is around 5-5:30pm. That lets the heating and cooling phases complete around 10-10:30pm, then the 8 hour sitting period can occur while you sleep.

Second, you'll notice that the recipe calls for a half gallon of whole milk. I know many of you, like me, only drink skim or at most 2% milk in your households. I haven't yet tried using anything other than whole milk but I've read on the blog where this recipe originated that you can use skim or 2% milk after you get the hang of it and either strain out the extra moisture to make the yogurt thicker, or add some pectin to thicken it up. Personally, I love the flavor that the whole milk provides and I don't plan on changing it anytime soon.

Also, you will not be able to use most organic milk brands in this recipe. Most organic brands ultra-pasturize their milk which keeps the yogurt from fully thickening up. Regular store brand milks are just pasturized and they work fine. I made the mistake of using organic ultra pasturized milk in my first batch and while it still tasted good, it was really runny and not very yogurt-y. Now, let's begin!

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Homemade Yogurt
Ingredients
Half gallon of whole milk
1/2 cup organic vanilla yogurt with live, active cultures (I use Stoneyfield French Vanilla 0% yogurt)
4-6 ounce crock pot
2 large bath towels

Instructions
Pull out your crock pot and plug it in.
Pour the half gallon of milk into the crockpot.

Cover and heat on low for 2.5 hours. This will bring the milk to just under boiling temperature.

After 2.5 hours are complete, unplug the crockpot and let sit for 3 hours, allowing the milk to cool to the ideal temperature for yogurt culture growth.
After the 3 hours is over, ladle 2 cups of the warm milk and pour into a medium bowl.

Scoop 1/2 cup of store bought yogurt and add to the milk.

Stir to combine.

Pour the milk and yogurt mixture back into the crock pot and stir to fully incorporate into the milk.

Place one of the large bath towels on the counter and set the crockpot, covered, on top.

Fold the edges of the towel to cover the top of the crock pot.

Put the second bath towel on top of the first and tuck under. This will ensure the crockpot is fully insulated to keep the contents at the proper temperature.

Let sit overnight, or for at least 8 hours. When done the yogurt should be thick and soup like. If for whatever reason the yogurt is still runny like milk, let sit for a few hours longer, wrapped in the towels until the desired temperature is reached.

Store in the fridge in air tight containers.

Enjoy with fresh berries and granola for a nice parfait or in your favorite smoothie blend.

Source: Crockpot365 Blog