Howdy, folks. Happy Friday. We’re catching a nice Indian Summer here in New England, with beautiful weather. Hope you can take advantage of it. The darkness at 7pm is a tough look though.
Wanted to take a moment to reflect on the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. I’m sure you all have memories of it. Being in Florida, and in fifth grade, the enormity of the events didn’t really hit me. But I do distinctly recall being in gym class, when they had everyone sit down and gave an announcement over the PA system, in broad strokes explaining what happened. Very surreal for a middle schooler. To those of you who were closer to the scene, or were more personally impacted, I can only imagine what this weekend means. Don’t want to get too political here, but God bless America.
Let’s talk about food. A week or so ago, one of our readers was so kind to drop off some dinner for us. Pitas, onions, and Greek marinated chicken. Delightful — and thank you! I can only imagine the disgust your vegan hands felt as they tenderly seasoned those raw chicken thighs!
When it came to cooking them, I wanted to try something new. I’m sure you’re all familiar with a Greek gyro — vertical rotisserie-cooked meat, thinly sliced, and served in a pita. While I don’t (yet) have a rotisserie cooker, I figured I could get a similar effect by doing the following:
Grab a few pounds of chicken thighs and season them liberally with salt, pepper, some dried (or fresh) oregano. Stick them in a bowl and douse with olive oil, diced garlic, and lemon juice. Let those sit and heat up your grill.
When the grill is hot, chop an onion in half and stick a skewer in it vertically. Then, stack the chicken thighs on the skewer, rotating each one slightly, until either the skewer is full — or the onion can’t support the height. You may need a few onions for this (I tried to jam it all on one and was left with a mess).
Place the chicken tower on a sheet pan or cast iron skillet, and put this on the grill and cook until the chicken is done (for the health conscious, that’s 165(F)). Remove from the grill, let it rest, and heat up some pitas on the still hot grill. Slice the chicken vertically and thinly, add to the pitas, and top with greens, cucumbers and tomatoes, feta, and tzatziki sauce. Enjoy!
So there you go. A nice little spin on grilled chicken. Megan, feel free to chime in if I screwed up the marinade!
No links this week, because I’m lazy. Enjoy the weekend, and never forget.