Greek Chicken Salad

Easy, but still delicious, dinners are the best. Last night was one of those nights where I was hungry coming home from work, but not in the mood to make a huge meal. Additionally, I had a rotisserie chicken left over from the day before that I wanted to use up. Solution? Clean all the meat off the chicken, and create something tasty with ingredients already in my pantry! If you ask any of my friends, they will tell you Mediterranean is by far my favorite genre of food. This means I always have staple ingredients such as Greek yogurt, feta, or olives in the house (this recipe could’ve used some kalamata olives but I was out!). Therefore, my rotisserie chicken was transformed into my version of Greek chicken salad!

Greek Chicken Salad:

3 tablespoons EVOO

Juice of half a lemon

Kosher salt and pepper

Leftover chicken meat from rotisserie chicken (I had everything left but the breasts and drumsticks), in chunks or shredded

2 mini cucumbers, very thinly sliced into half-moons

1/2 a small Vidalia onion

2 tablespoons of dill

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (you may need more)

Block of feta cut into chunks

Pita pockets

Arugula for garnish

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Fold in the chicken, cucumbers, onion, dill, and yogurt. Taste and adjust seasonings and add yogurt if it is too dry. Cut pita pockets in half, stuff with shards of feta, then chicken salad. Top with arugula and enjoy!

Greek Quinoa Salad

I meant to post this recipe a while ago (2 months ago, in fact), but clearly life got in the way. Between work and friends and everything else, I have been so busy and have sadly neglected the blog a bit. However, I am back and have cooked a lot in the lapsed time! This means many posts to come. This recipe for Greek Quinoa Salad is the one I made when my girlfriends came over a few months ago for wine night. It is fresh and very herbsious, which I love. It has very fresh notes when you bite into a cucumber or tomato, and a nice tang from the calamatta olives. I highly recommend making a large batch of this: it is great to much on as a snack or bring for lunch throughout the week (and nothing is better than having lunch prepared a week in advanced when you work!).

Greek Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

2 Cucumbers, diced

1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved

Scallions, diced

1 can chick peas

½ cup chopped calamatta olives or black olives

Handful of chopped fresh parsley

Handful of chopped fresh basil

Crumbled feta cheese

2 cup Quinoa

4 cups chicken broth

½ cup Olive oil

½ cup Red wine vinegar

Juice of one lemon

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp turmeric

1/8 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

Mix all vegetables and herbs in a large bowl, set aside.

In a saucepan heat over medium/high a tablespoon of olive oil add the quinoa and a little bit of each of the spices (last 6 ingredients), sautee for about a minute and add the chicken broth and fresh lemon juice. Heat on high, when it comes to a boil, crack the heat down to a simmer and cover the pot (from this point, cook according to your quinoa box’s directions).

While it’s simmering whisk together 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of vinegar with salt and pepper (to taste). Pour the dressing over all of the vegetables and mix them together.

When the quinoa is done fluff it with a fork and let cool.

Mix the quinoa in with the vegetables.

To serve: top with the feta cheese

CityCooker

A blog about a 20-something trying to cook big in a small city kitchen

Tag Archives: Feta

Greek Chicken Salad