How to Make your Own Chicken Gyros

Lettuce, tomato, onion—staples of any fridge—can entertain you far beyond a sandwich, my friend.

With so many vegetables and so little time before they all went bad, I wanted to create something delicious enough to trump the sandwich, impressive enough to earn some street cred, and simple enough so that I could eat rather soon as I was starving. I decided to construct my own gyros, which would require nothing more than whipping up a quick tzatziki dressing before essentially throwing all the contents of my fridge into a pita.

The Tzatziki:

First, pour 1 cup of your favorite plain Greek yogurt into a mixing bowl.

Then, cut a large cucumber into two halves. You can wrap up one of the halves and put it back in your fridge. Take the second half and cut it in half length-wise, exposing all the seeds.

If you are crafty with a knife, carefully carve out the seeds. If not, you can use a spoon to hollow out the cucumber.

Next, dice the cucumber. You can do this by turning the cucumber so that the hollowed-out side is facing down. Cut thin strips length-wise, and then take your knife and cut perpendicular across the strips.

Toss the cucumber into the yogurt along with about 1 teaspoon of finely chopped dill, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, ¼ cup feta cheese, and mix.

Voila. Tzatziki without a blender.

The Chicken:

Slice a chicken breast into thin strips. If you are using frozen chicken, it may be easier to slice the meat while it is still a little frozen.

Once the chicken has been defrosted and sliced, season the strips with salt, pepper, and a little bit of tarragon (just enough to give the chicken a light yellow color).

Sautee the strips on a medium heat setting, making sure that every strip has access to the bottom of the pan without being overcrowded, or else you will not get nice browned edges.

The Gyro:

Before plating, I placed my whole wheat pita on the same pan that I used for the chicken just long enough to get a nice browning.

Sliding the pita right from pan to plate, I spread a layer of hummus onto the pita before laying down a bed of lettuce, diced onion, tomato, chicken, tzatziki, and more feta cheese.

You can fork-and-knife this bad boy, but I’ve found it most efficient to fold up the edges and just dive in mouth first.