Foodie Friday - Chicken Gyros

Pinterecipe of the week! Chicken gyros.

Linking it here: https://tasty.co/recipe/chicken-gyros

Step 1:

Ok, so this was daunting. Most of these spices I've never cooked with before. Actually, some of them I'm not sure I've ever eaten before! I mean, coriander?  But I decided to go all out and get all the spices the recipe called for on this one, instead of just using what we had.  Expand my horizons I guess.  I was nervous.  Especially when I saw the word "cinnamon".  Cinnamon on chicken?  Really?  Who am I to question?  I've never made a gyro before.  I've never eaten a gyro before.  Up until last year, I had never pronounced the word "gyro" before.  This was really adventurous for a woman like me with a phobia of unfamiliar foods.  I have allergies.  Lots of them. I tend to stick to what I know.  And it was an interesting adventure to say the least.


Step 2:

There we were.  All the spices, ready to be blended.  It already smelled so different from anything I'd ever made in my life.  This marinade caught me off guard.  The cinnamon.  I just couldn't stop thinking about the cinnamon.  Enough that I actually forgot to add the olive oil.  Oops!


Blendy blendy!
All done...

Step 3:

Chicken thighs.  Now this is familiar.  My daughter and I prefer thighs over breasts.  My fiance never really gave them a chance until I made them for him.  I must say, I cook a good chicken thigh!  Preparing these was right in my comfort zone.

It's also a great way to get the kiddos involved.  A little tenderizing helps let out a little frustration, and focus some of their extra energy.  Plus, it makes them feel special if they get to help.  Meaning, they're more likely to try something new if they helped prepare it!

Step 4:

Marinading the chicken for an hour.  We were a little worried.  I'd remembered the recipe wrong and thought the marinade was only supposed to be refrigerated for 30 minutes.  It was actually an hour.  So dinner was going to be later than expected.  Luckily my daughter was distracted with playtime with some friends, so we had a little extra time.  It also gave me some time to watch more Grey's Anatomy! I've never seen it, and I'm smack dab in the middle of Season 2.  Putting it on pause to cook was a little aggravating, I'm not gonna lie!  ;)


Step 5:

After watching the meet cute between Izzie and Denny, (Yay! It's John Winchester! a.k.a. Jeffrey Dean Morgan), it was time to stack the chicken on the stick.  Once again, something I've never done.  I'll confess, I put the stick in the onion the wrong way at first.  I won't say how, because it's a funny lesson for those who have never done it before.  I also decided to put olive oil on the onion once I realized I had forgotten it in the marinade.  


The skewer was much easier than I anticipated.  Stacking the chicken was weird.  Easy, but... weird. 



Step 6:

About 2 hours later, and it looked absolutely amazing!  Fiance was salivating!  My daughter, not so impressed.  I was still stuck on cinnamon.  Hoping and praying it didn't do what I thought it was going to do.

Again, one of the perks of marrying a butcher.  He knows how to carve! :D


And the results are in!


Ok, Pita bread?  So much more filling that I ever would have thought!  I couldn't even finish one.  My daughter was not impressed with the meat.  She said it was "too spicy" which for her, means too many flavors conflicting.  She's a simple girl, and I love her for it.  We made her a salad with the veggies we had for filling.  Now THAT she loved.  She did take a bite of mine, and commented that it was better with the bread than without.  My fiance was over the moon for it.  I don't even know how many he ate.  I lost count.  As for me, I'm on the fence.  The cinnamon did what I was worried it would do.  For me, it overpowered the other spices.  I actually used less of it than any of the others, but I guess when you focus on something, that's really all you taste.  So the meat turned out sweeter than I like.  My daughter was right about it being better with the bread than without.  I completely forgot to add the cucumbers I had sliced for it.  Those ended up in my kid's salad.  So it was a simple, chicken, lettuce, cheese, and ranch gyro.  The recipe had a sauce of its own.  But we decided to try that next time.  One new thing at a time!  


Final Thoughts:

Tasty. Not my favorite.  But tasty.  I think next time we'll try it without the cinnamon.  And I wouldn't recommend this for a family that isn't used to a lot of seasonings at once.  Ease into it.  But it was easy for me to control portion size because of the pita bread.  And you can load it with veggies too!  Definitely an adventure this week!


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