Greek Time!

Montreal is a great city :) One of its best assets is the food culture and diversity. You can find any type of food on any street. David and I miss this aspect of Montreal. In Spain, people are really proud of their food culture (with reasons) but they have a hard time embracing international food. Younger generations are more open to this concept and will venture more out of the Spanish spectrum but the older one is really hard to convince.

Montreal has a very big greek culture. There are so many greeks there! This can only mean one thing: amazing greek food on every street corner (depending on the neighborhood, most commons: Parc X, Chomedey or St Laurent). Who does not enjoy a gyro or souvlaki pita with tzatziki. :) David and I have a pending appointment at Marathon Souvlaki in Laval :) Can't wait! We went to a greek restaurant last week and although the food was great, they didn't have the typical souvaki pita. It was a more refine restaurant... and the tzatziki just wasn't the real deal. Mind you, the yogurt was amazing but I have never seen so little cucumber or garlic in a tzatziki. Oh well, it subsided our thirst for greek, but left us wishing for Marathon souvlaki :)

So, after that little trip leaving a urging taste of garlic and cucumber in our mouths, guess what we had for supper on saturday: Chicken Souvlakis with Tzatziki :) David and I were eating the tzatziki like no tomorrow. Our friend was there and she loved it as well.

Souvlaki is marinated meat (chicken, pork or lamb) in oregano, lemon and oil mostly. The meat comes out amazing :)

Chicken Souvlakis and Tzatziki

Ingredients

500grs chicken breasts
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 individual natural greek yogurts
2 tbsps oil
1 tsp of white wine vinegar
2 cucumbers
1 tbsp fresh dill
salt and pepper
skewers
oil

The day before, cut into cubes the chicken breasts and slice the onion and 2 garlic cloves. Place them in a ziploc bag and add the oregano, oil, vinegar, pepper, garlic cloves and onion. Mix well. Marinade in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven at 180C.

For the sauce, drain the yogurt from excess liquid. Normally you use a cheesecloth but since I don't have any, paper cloth works just fine. I place the papercloth in a colander over a bowl and pour the yogurt. Works great. You can leave it overnight or only a few hours. I left it about 1 hour since I didn't have much time. My tzatziki was a tiny bit more liquid than usual but the taste is the same.

In the meantime, remove the chicken from the ziploc.

Make skewers with the chicken. Place on a oven dish. (If you have a BBQ, please use it! Tastes awesome!)

ETA: I cooked the skewers in a heated pan last time and the taste was a lot more moist than in the oven. So, I rectify the cooking process: cook your souvlakis in the pan (for those that do not have a BBQ)! :)

Since I don't have a BBQ, I place them in the oven at the highest height.  Cook the chicken souvlakis for about 15 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, finish off the sauce. Honestly, the sauce can be done the day or 2 before. Helps the flavors to blend together. Remove the yogurt from the colander and place into a bowl.

Shred the cucumbers and the 2 remaining garlic cloves. The smaller the pieces, the better. Cut the dill.

Add the cucumbers, garlic, dill, salt and pepper, a bit of oil and a drop of lemon juice.

Mix well. Taste and rectify if necessary.

Your chicken should be ready by now. If you want to give it a grill look, broil it for a few minutes before removing.

And there you have. A great greek meal to satisfy our hunger. A true delicacy made from my little kitchen. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!