Chocolate Chips by the Handful: Chicken Gyros with Soft Pitas

I made Gyros tonight for dinner. They were good, but I still have a craving for the gyros you get at Mikey's in Moscow, ID, because when you bite into them there is a delicious bite of warm cream cheese with chicken and seasonings! These were totally different than that, but still good. Grating a cucumber for the sauce was .... weird, never had to grate a cucumber before. Also, I used Greek yogurt instead of trying to get yogurt to strain, which is just too weird and time consuming for me.
As for the Pita bread...... I fought with these things to the death! The first batch just was not looking right, it was really dry and crumbly. BUT I kept going because the comments on the recipe's site said that it will look like you made a mistake but just keep going. Well I got to rolling them out (boy did you have to put some muscle in it to roll those dang things out) and I officially decided that something HAD to be wrong, so I made a second batch (the good batch). I still cooked up the bad batch, but they cooked weird and were very dense. The good batch on the other had was WONDERFUL. The problem, I think, had to do with the fact that I was using active dry yeast, which the recipe said was ok. The thing was that if you were going to use instant yeast like it wanted, you put in 1 1/2 cups boiling water in the flour at the beginning. If you used the active dry yeast, you dissolved the yeast in 1/4 cup water and put in only 1 cup of boiling water in the flour at the beginning. So somehow a 1/4 cup of water was lost in translation between instant and dry yeast. This was what I fixed on the second batch and it worked! I fixed the recipe below so you don't have to worry about any of that.

Chicken Gyros
**Keep in mind this recipe requires straining yogurt which may take overnight and marinating chicken which will take 1-2 hours so plan ahead!**

Makes enough chicken and tzatziki for approximately 4-6 gyros.

For the tzatziki sauce:
16 oz. plain yogurt (not fat free unless it is Oikos or Fage or another Greek-type yogurt)
1/2 hothouse cucumber or 1 regular cucumber, peeled and seeded (I used 1/2 of an English cucumber)
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press (or finely minced)
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil

To make the tzatziki sauce, strain the yogurt using cheesecloth over a bowl. Let strain for several hours or overnight, if possible, to remove as much moisture as possible. (You won’t believe how much liquid drains from the yogurt – it makes the yogurt much thicker and creamier. If you want to splurge on Greek yogurt, like Oikos or Fage, you won’t need to strain it like this.)
Shred the cucumber. Wrap in a towel a squeeze to remove as much water as possible. Mix together the strained yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and lemon juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld

For the chicken:
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

To prepare the chicken, combine the garlic, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, yogurt, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Whisk together until mixed well. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
Cook the chicken as desired, either in the skillet or with the broiler. (I sauteed them in a hot skillet.) Once the chicken is completely cooked through, transfer to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes.

To assemble:
Soft wrap bread (or pita bread)
Fresh tomatoes, seeded and diced
Red onion, sliced thin
Heat pitas. Top with chicken, tzatziki sauce, diced tomatoes and sliced onions. Serve immediately.

Cutting the chicken

The chicken marinade

Chicken marinating.

Making the sauce with the grated cucumber.

Chicken cooking.

Soft Wrap Pitas

*Makes about 8-9 breads (I did smaller balls and got about 11)
3 to 3 1/4 cups (12 3/4 to 13 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour- Can use wheat flour
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) boiling water
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) potato flour OR 1/2 cup (5/8 ounces) potato buds or flakes (I used potato flakes)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon instant yeast*

*This recipe works best with instant yeast because it dissolves during the kneading process, so you don’t have to knead liquid into the dough. If you really prefer to use active dry yeast, use only 1 1/4 cup boiling water for the initial dough, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, and add this mixture to the dough along with the potato flour mixture. It’ll be somewhat “slippery” at first, but will knead in and eventually become smooth.

Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a bread machine. Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir until smooth. Lightly cover the bowl or bucket and set the mixture aside for 30 minutes.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes or buds) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast. Add this to the slightly cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes (by hand, mixer or bread machine) to form a soft dough. It may look like the flour/salt/oil/yeast mixture will never absorb into the boiling water/flour mixture. It will, I promise, but you may need to take it out of your electric mixer, if using one, and knead the flour in by hand or add it very gradually into your electric mixer.

Note: You can allow the dough to go through the entire kneading cycle(s) in the bread machine, but it’s not necessary; about a 5-minute knead in the machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky (the dough is fairly stiff, so don’t be worried – just be careful not to overflour the dough). Add additional flour only if necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour (I let mine rise up to 2 hours).

Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball, around 3 ounces), cover, and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. Roll each piece into a 7- to 8-inch circle, and dry-fry them (fry without oil) on a griddle or frying pan over medium heat for about 1 minute per side (I cooked mine about 2-3 minutes per side and they didn’t dry out), until they’re puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking either too quickly, or too slowly; cooking too quickly means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out. Transfer the cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before storing in a plastic bag.

What the first batch looked like.... all tough and lumpy...