What’s cooking you guys?! Last night I shared a one-take video of me making my all time favorite marinade recipe for Greek Chicken on the grill, along with must-have Tzatziki sauce, that my family and I love. The video is up on my YouTube channel and I’m sharing the actual recipe here.
This is such a favorite meal, that if we ever have guests over, this is typically on my list of what to make and share. These incredible flavors taste amazing with a great big salad, or fresh cut veggies. If you want to work it out the way I did for dinner last night, serve them up with naan bread, jasmine rice and grilled zucchini. I’m also sharing how the leftovers can make a second meal of Greek Chicken Salad that I served for lunch at home today.
I’m excited to share all of this with you. Every now and then I post little videos or photos to my family and friends on my personal Facebook page, how I put my dinners/meals together. It feels good to try to connect with those that I love, and who love my food and can’t be in the same room to eat with me since we are all stuck at home right now during quarantine.
If you didn’t know this about me, I’m cooking dinner for my family most every single night of the week. So cooking in this time of quarantine is nothing new for me at all. Sitting down to dinner together basically every night is a part of our family’s culture. I love to cook, especially when it’s something that I love to cook (if that makes sense). This attitude makes it not a chore. There are plenty of nights when I don’t feel like making dinner and I do, because I’m tired, haven’t planned ahead or just want to chill. When I make this particular meal, it’s all happiness. Making good food for my family is a joy, and it can sometimes feel like another creative outlet in my life.
The best part for me, is the end result. My family always thanks me after every meal that I make for them – even if it isn’t always that great – because we all know I put forth the effort, or at least the time. Getting to hear and see the expressions on my family’s face when they are super excited about a meal is one of my favorite parts about being under this roof. It’s why I always ask after we sit down, “How is it?” I think these thoughts and feelings all stem from my Italian upbringing.
I have mastered making many favorite-dinners for my family to the point that I no longer need to measure or look to written notes. It’s such a contrast to baking/catering professionally with my job. That takes scientific precision, with measuring, timing, and an incredible amount of attention. I still follow my own written-down recipes for cakes, cookies and pastries, even after 10 years of making many of the same things over and over again. When I’m making dinner, I’m much more relaxed and there really is no stress and no measuring. Both of these jobs for me, have been about practice. It’s all in my head either way. To be good at any of it, or anything at all really, takes a certain amount of confidence in yourself that you can do it. You are doing it. You got this. So let’s begin.
This is one of those meals I feel confident that you are going to love and keep, and make over and over again at home, just like I do. I watched my little one-take video again (and laughed again when my husband walked in while talking on the phone and the puppy was barking to interrupt) and scribbled down some notes so that I can share these super-easy recipes with you here.
Just like the video, we’ll start with the preparing the sauce first. I’m sharing my written down recipe for half of the portion that I made for my family, since most people are not making dinner to serve five adult-size people at a time, who also look forward to left overs. If you’d like more Tzatziki sauce, I recommend doubling this recipe, so that it is just as I made it in my video.
Mili’s Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
- 16 ounces plain yogurt (about 2 cups/1 pound) I used organic, low fat.
- 1 cucumber, sliced and cubed with seeds removed about 1 and a half cups
- 3 tablespoons dill fresh or dried
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice the strained juice of about two lemons
- 3 cloves of garlic – minced substitute 1 tablespoon of garlic powder or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Prep and wash all fresh fruits and herbs. Cut the cucumber to remove all seeds and into small cubes. I used a whole 9-10" cucumber.
- Pour yogurt into a bowl. Add cucumber, and dill. Use dried, or you can can use your fingers to remove the herb from the stem and place larger chunks, or cut if you'd like finer pieces in the sauce.
- Add the juice of one lemon, or almost three tablespoons of fresh juice. I use a strainer so that no seeds get into the sauce.
- Add garlic, salt, and olive oil.
- Stir so that the ingredients are completely mixed together. Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour (or overnight) before serving.
Video
Now that we have the sauce down, it’s time to get to marinating the chicken. This marinade also works amazingly well with other parts of the chicken besides the boneless, skinless breasts that I use. It is great on beef, and shrimp for kabobs on the grill too. If you are vegan, or like tofu, this is great for that as well. Go with extra-firm tofu if you want to grill, and I recommend my marinade recipe as a brush-over before grilling, instead of a marinade that is soaked in from one hour to several hours. Chicken breast just happens to be my favorite way to enjoy it.
Whatever you decide to use, I always recommend thoroughly cleaning your choice of protein, and cutting into pieces that make it easy to place onto skewers. I pile them up to the top to save space on the grill. I always use my go-to metal skewers since they are re-usable and everyone can feel free to take a whole one, or simply slip as many pieces as they want onto their plate. This recipes is so good, most everyone comes back for second helpings. If we have people over and I’m making a ton of grilled kabobs, I also add in wooden skewers, and from my experience, they do not need to be soaked or prepared in any way beforehand. They just need to be tossed after a single use.
So let’s get to preparing the kabob marinade. Remember, this marinade I’m sharing is amazing for any protein, so switch it up with anything you prefer.
Mili’s Greek Marinade for Grilled Kabobs
Ingredients
- 4 cups cubed chicken, beef, extra firm tofu, or prepared shrimp I used about three and a half boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large cubes.
- 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 3 large cloves garlic. If you have little cloves, go with six. or 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 whole orange – grated/zested and juiced
- 2 whole lemons – grated/zested – only one juiced. You can use the juice of the second lemon for my Tzatziki sauce recipe.
- 1 whole lime (or 4-5 Key Limes) – grated/zested and juiced
- 1/4 cup light oil – either avocado oil or canola oil
- 1/4 cup soy sauce – I always use "light," not full sodium If you can't have soy, I recommend substituting the same ratio with coconut aminos.
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons Herbs de Provence or equal amount of half dried Sage and half Thyme
Instructions
- I'll share how to put it together with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, as I did in my little video at home. Clean the chicken. Cut into larger cubes. Season with salt and pepper.
- Use a marination bag by placing the chicken and all marinade ingredients into a gallon size plastic zipper bag.
- Add the garlic. I used a garlic press to mince it.
- Zest/grate the skins from all of your citrus fruits and add it all into the bag.
- Add the fresh juice from all of the citrus fruits: one whole orange, one whole lemon, one whole lime.
- Add oil and light soy sauce. Add Herbs de Provence.
- Seal the bag tightly. Use your hands to move all of the ingredients around – to mix it and to completely coat the chicken.
- Place the sealed bag into a bowl. (The bowl makes sure that nothing gets spilled on accident and your fridge is kept clean.) Place that bowl into the fridge for at least an hour to marinate. Meat can marinate for up to one day.
- Once you are ready to grill, place the chicken on skewers. Fire up the grill and cook all the way through.
- If you are serving grilled zucchini like I did with this meal, simply clean them and cut them into strips, coat with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill separately, using a different set of thongs than you will when you turn your chicken or any other protein you use with this marinade.
- Serve kabobs on the skewer, or take all chicken off the skewers so everyone can take the amount they wish. Enjoy! Save any extras for Greek Chicken Salad as leftovers.
On this dinner plate, I served the Greek Chicken onto a little Jasmine Rice, and set it alongside grilled naan bread, and my Tzatziki sauce, and grilled zucchini.
To make the grilled zucchini, simply clean, cut lengthwise into strips, drizzle and coat with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and cook on a separate part of the grill, using a separate pair of thongs to turn. These grill fairly quickly and are only placed 4 times, so that they get the char and grill marks, and cook evenly without being soggy. They also taste amazing with the Tzatziki sauce.
Dinner was really good and the family was super happy. They thought it was a special occasion or something! My family went back for seconds on some things, and I still managed to have enough food put away as leftovers to make a full lunch of Greek Chicken Salad to serve for lunch today.
It was true leftovers as I only used what I had on-hand at home. It would have been great with red onion, Pepperoncini peppers, pickled beets and Feta cheese, but I didn’t have those things. I did have the chicken from last night, cut into smaller pieces, Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, and sprinkled it all with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and a little dried, crushed oregano.
There was a good amount of Tzatziki sauce left. We ate all the naan bread we had last night, but I did pick up a flatbread earlier so I had it on hand to serve on the side today. It was so good. I can’t get enough of it, and if you saw my video you know that this is the only yogurt-based food that I will eat because for some reason, I can’t stand yogurt. I’m so weird.
So, I had dinner locked in last night. Tonight, to be honest, I have no idea what I’m making! This is the time of day (mid-afternoon) when I get to figuring it all out. I’m a little tired after working this morning, and honestly less inspired to cook than I was last night. Everyone at home worked hard today, and like most of you, my day will end when my head hits the pillow. My expectations are mediocre, but as always, we try. We make it happen. It’s all good. Like my mom says, “Tomorrow is another day.” or “Domani e un altro giorno.”
Take care and I hope to see you soon!
