Deconstructed Chicken Gyro Salad

One of my standard weeknight go-to dishes is a Greek style dinner salad. The combination of feta, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a tangy red wine-oregano vinaigrette is my idea of heavenly. I usually just toss it all together on a plate in a hurry but this last iteration was my best yet. John grilled two boneless chicken breasts that I had seasoned lightly with a mixture of: 1.2 tsp kosher salt a few grinds of cracked black pepper 1/4 tsp each of of garlic salt, dried oregano, and paprika I mix the seasonings together in a little bowl and then rub them onto the chicken with some olive oil. If I'm not feeling patient enough to wait on a marinade, I go with a similar quick dry rub for pork, fish, shrimp, what have you... I also sliced one small red onion into wedges and him grill those up also. In the meantime I made a quick Tzatziki sauce: 1 cup greek style yogurt (Fage is great- I used fat free)

1 very small garlic clove- pressed/minced

zest of a lemon (about half of one lemon's worth)

juice of half the lemon

1/4 cup cucumber- grated with a rasp

1 tsp chopped fresh dill kosher salt and pepper

Next I mixed up a TANGY Lemon Juice and Red Wine Vinaigrette: 1/4 cup of olive oil 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar juice of half a lemon 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried mint one tiny garlic clove- minced salt and pepper Both the vinaigrette and the tzatziki sauce are just mixed together quickly in a small bowl. As the chicken was coming off the grill, I arranged my veggies onto the two dinner plates:

Mixed baby greens

Cucumber slices

Grape tomato halves

Feta cheese- cut into cubes

Grilled red onion wedges

I also warmed some store bought naan bread (similar to pita but better in my opinion) in the oven and sliced it into pieces for dipping into the tzatziki sauce. Once the chicken had rested 10 minutes, I sliced it and arranged on the plate with the veggies. I dressed everything lightly with the vinaigrette and then served tzatziki sauce on the side. I drizzled some over the top and used a little extra for dipping along the way.

It was a healthy easy dinner for two in this case but could also work for company. You could arrange all of the ingredients on a huge platter to feed a crowd, letting everyone build their own gyro or salad. I would plan on at least 1/2 chicken breast per person.