Food cravings can be a funny thing. I'm pretty sure I'd never had souvlaki before last night (since gyros are typically on the menu at places that make good souvlaki, and I always go the gyro route...), but as I was planning meals last week I had a deep, inexplicable craving for chicken souvlaki. I knew immediately which cookbook to turn to, and the finished product was just as advertised in Michael Psilakis's recipe: "Messy and great."
In the end this didn't turn out to be a huge adventure, since it is pretty much identical to the totally awesome gyros from this same book, but I was feeling pretty exhausted so that was perfectly fine with me... One notable thing that was quite familiar: to make this one recipe, I had to make 6 different recipes from How to Roast a Lamb. Oh, Michael Psilakis... You're lucky your food totally warrants all of the prep and page-flipping...
The first step was to cut the chicken into large chunks and brine it in a mixture or water, kosher salt, sugar, and white vinegar for 12 hours. (I did this during halftime of the Bucs game, so no pictures...) After 12 hours (which was at 7am while getting ready for work, so no pictures here, either...) the meat is rinsed, patted dry, and added to a marinade of olive oil, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, and shallots. (Yum!) This marinates for another 12 hours, and you're ready to go.
The meat goes onto skewers and is allowed to sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes while the grill heats up.
The other main components are the same Greek salad and tzatziki that went with the gyros. This is still the most impressive Greek salad I've ever had... I make a full batch (rather than the mini-batch the recipe calls for) because it's easier to buy the right amount of veggies for a full batch and it means I can have a nice big Greek salad on the side with my delicious pita wrap.
I started the pita dough (the recipe is in this post) as soon as I got home from work, and by the time the meat was ready for the grill the dough was all puffed and happy...
I cooked up a couple pitas in my handy dandy toaster oven, then prepped the Ladolemono, which is used to dress the chicken after grilling. (It's in the little jar there next to the pitas. The two containers behind the pitas contain the Greek salad's Red Wine and Feta Vinaigrette and the tzatziki.)
Speaking of which, it was time to grill the chicken until perfectly cooked and exhibiting some good char marks...
After I pulled the chicken off the grill and dressed it with the Ladolemono, I threw the pitas on the grill to get nice and toasty.
That's it. Assembly time! Top a grilled pita with a schmear of tzatziki...
Add a skewer of chicken...
Top with a handful of Greek salad, and you're ready to wrap up in parchment and enjoy. (The wrapped version is pictured at the top of this post...)
Messy and great, indeed. (The parchment definitely helps with the messy part, though...) My only complaint about this dish is that it reminded me of how amazing those gyros were and made me wish I had them in front of me again... (Lamb will always win out over even the most perfect chicken in my world...) These really were fantastic, though. The chicken was tender and extremely flavorful. The tangy tzatziki, fresh salad, and toasty pita all came together beautifully in support of the souvlaki and it was another dish that was far superior to the sum of its parts. I'm starting to suspect that Michael Psilakis knows what he's talking about...
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