Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Indian Gyros



Sounds kinda weird.  Indian because I made naan for the pita bread and seasoned the chicken with curry and cumin. Greek because of the tziki sauce and the fact that we were eating a gyro.  I don't care if it sounds weird or not because they tasted amazing.

What you'll need:

For the chicken
1 pound chicken tenders
2 tablespoons curry (I used a combination of red and yellow)
Juice from 2 lemons or about 4 tablespoons
3-4 cloves garlic minced
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Add chicken and all spiced to a zip lock bag and mix around until chicken is well coated.  Marinate for at least 2 hours.  Weave onto skewers and grill about 5-6 minutes on each side or until chicken is done.

For Tzatziki:
2 cups plain greek yogurt
1 cup cucumber finely diced
1 tablespoon dill
2 cloves garlic minced
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Remove cucumber seeds, and you can remove skins if you'd like (I don't). Mix everything together and place in fridge to chill.  This stuff is best if you can make if the day before and let it sit over night.  Not required though!

For the Naan:
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 warm cup water
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 egg

Mix yeast, sugar and warm water in a small bowl until fairly dissolved.  Let sit for 10 minutes until very bubbly and frothy on top.  Add egg, oil and yogurt and whisk until combined.  In a large bowl sift together 1 cup flour and salt with a fork.  Add in liquid and mix until a sticky paste forms.  Add another 1/2 cup of flour at a time until 1/2 cup remains.  Drop dough onto a floured surface with some of the remaining flour.  Kneed for 5-7 minutes adding a little flour at a time until dough is no longer sticky.  Wash the large bowl and spray it with cooking spray.  Place dough back into bowl and loosely cover with cling wrap.  Let rise for 1-2 hours or until doubles in size.

Punch center of dough to release air.  Split into 8 even sections and create small dough balls, pulling dough and pinching into the bottom of itself to form a smooth ball.  Allow balls to sit another 20 minutes.  At this point, I wrapped 4 of the dough balls in cling wrap and put them into a ziplock bag and into the freezer.  Stretch the dough into 6-8 inch disks being carful not to stretch too thin so it won't tear.  Heat bbq or a skillet over medium high.  If using bbq, lightly brush naan with olive oil or spray skillet with a little cooking spray.  Cook on each side until top is puffy and bubbly and bottom golden brown.  About 3-4 minutes. The flip and brown other side.

Place a few pieces of chicken, a few tablespoons tzatziki, and some halved cherry tomatoes or a little lettuce into a naan bread and try not to enjoy yourself.




















Lucky me, lunch was leftovers!  I'm still trying to decide what to do with the 4 naan balls I froze.  More Gyros, mini pizzas or make some Tikka Masala...oh the decisions.  Poor me.  Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. I love to cook and bake; however, I tend to overlook Indian food (and I love it!). This looks like one Indian recipe I can handle. Doing it!

    -Camberley

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks so amazingly delicious!!

    ReplyDelete

Labels