We went to Greece and ate all the things…
About 16 years ago my hubs and I went to Greece for a friend’s wedding and it was AWESOME. I love to travel but I also love to eat my way around the world and since this was before I was gluten free or before I knew I couldn’t eat ALL THE CHEESE… I ate all of it. We went to this tiny hole in the wall restaurant off the meat market and had this incredible chicken and side salad. It was fresh, delicious and full of goodness… then when we came home and ordered a greek salad with greek chicken ooof… all the disappointment. The chicken wasn’t awesome and the salad was mostly lettuce. Random opinion here, but did you know that in many European countries they are more likely to eat seasonally and have lots of veggies? Especially in the Mediterranean countries. In my opinion of course. All this is my long winded way of saying I had to recreate this food. And so I did.
Jump to RecipeWho likes this meal? Almost everyone likes this meal at my house. The only complainers have been the smaller members of my family and they don’t like… gasp… olives with pits. Or even more horror they said that tomatoes corrupted the salad… they lied. Tomatoes make it better also feta cheese worked as a bribe. Hubs brilliantly added feta cheese to 8yr old’s salad then the 8 yr old said it was brilliant… Actually he ate the salad and then saved the feta cheese for his treat. I didn’t argue because the ate all the food.
I’ve included this in my easy recipe list because chicken is pretty standard, boneless chicken breasts defrost fairly quickly, and you can grab good tasty fresh bread on the way home from work. I like to make my own bread but that isn’t everyone’s jam. It’d be even better if I could EAT the bread I make but that’s a story for another day.
As you’re planning out the week of food this is a great meal for leftovers. The salad keeps well as does the chicken. In fact all the salad is now in lunches for today and I have to either make more or go without salad for my lunch. The chicken can easily be used as is or moved into a chicken salad or quesadilla or as a topper for a green salad or… whatever you want.
As always I’d love for any feedback or pictures of you trying this recipe. Much love and enjoy eating ALL THE FOOD! also greek food is delicious.
Kim and Jer Inspired Greek Chicken and Salad
Equipment
- 1 frying pan heavy bottomed is best but can be done on something else
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 cutting board
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 large or 3 small Avocados
- 1/4 medium red onion
- 1 cup mixed olives I get these at the deli. Try to get the freshest you can find… they have more flavor that way.
- 1/2 cup whole fat feta cheese
- 1 cup tomatoes chopped up get the best you can find, I found great looking grape tomatoes for the pictures and it was perfect but I've used lots of different kinds. Flavor will matter more than type.
- 1 cucumber chopped into chunks
Chicken
- 4 chicken breasts Either cut these into pieces or bust out your mallet (heavy pan works too) and smash that chicken to even thickness.
- 1 tbsp italian seasoning it's ok to guess here!
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar or rice wine vinegar what is important here is the lighter flavor. You want the red wine vinegar flavor to be dominant but not overpowering.
- 2 tbsp olive oil you'll taste this so get the best you can
Instructions
Order of Operations
- You know you want to know what order to cook this in! It makes things faster and more efficient. Make the salad first, it’s best if it marinates in theflavors for a bit. It’s fine to marinateovernight or to marinate for 15-20 minutes. If you marinate it overnight the avocado will likely be slightly brownbut will taste just fine. Then prep thechicken. Finally cook the chicken. If you’re doing one batch of chicken (2-3chicken breasts) it’ll go pretty quick. If you’re like me where you cook 2-3lbs of meat at a time it’ll cook inabout 15-20min.
Making the Salad of Yum
- Gather your ingredients and a bowl. I like to use the serving bowl to make the salad because then it's one less thing to wash.
- Peel the cucumber and slice off the tips. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and then cut the strip in half again. You'll now have four long strips of cucumber. Line 'em up and whack at them with a knife… just kidding! chop them into similarly sized pieces thing 1/2 in thick. Dump them in the bowl.
- Cut your avocado in half and remove the pit. Lightly, so that you don't pierce the skin, cut through the avocado and make a grid. You're basically cutting the avocado into bite sized pieces the lazy man's way. Now get a largeish spoon and scoop out the avocado meat into the salad bowl.
- grab your tomatoes and chop em up into bite sized pieces. This is personal preferece really. In Greece they had large chunks I like to have smaller chunks so I can fit all the flavors in one bite.
- Peel and chop your red onion into small pieces. Think minced but don't stress about it if you have a few larger chunks. Sometimes I leave these in a small bowl because the smaller pickier eaters in my family don't care for onion. Or you could chop them really small and make everyone eat it 🙂
- Dump feta cheese into the bow. Measure with your soul.
- Dump in the olives
- Pour in the oil and vinegars and stir. If you want you can add in salt and pepper but I usually leave it out.
- Set the bowl aside until you're ready to eat. It can be overnight or on the table. Either is fine but if the avocados sit overnight they will look slightly brown. They will taste awesome but look different.
Make the Chicken…mmmm chicken
- Cut the chicken breasts into pieces of even thickness or smash them into even thickness. This prevents overcooking that super thin tip and undercooking the thick meaty part. Put them in a bowl.
- Pour olive oil and herbs onto the chicken and stir it up. Let it sit as long as you want. Ideally it should sit for 20 minutes realistically it depends on when the beasts get hungry and you get off work.
- Pre-heat a heavy bottomed pan. Once the pan is hot add in a glug of cooking oil (avocado preferred) and then add in the chicken. Cook until the chicken shows no pink. This can vary depending on the piece of chicken. It should be firm to the touch and if you cut it open no pink.
- Once the chicken is cooked set it on a plate and keep going until all your chicken is cooked.