Souvlaki Dinner

For the tzatziki:

Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise. With a spoon, dragging it down the center of the cucumber remove the seeds. Grate the cucumber and place into a bowl with the salt. Let it sit for 20 minutes while you get the rest of the ingredients ready. This will help to extract the water from the cucumber.

In a medium sized bowl, mix yogurt with dill, garlic, lemon juice and white pepper. Drain the cucumber in a sieve and with the back of a spoon gently squeeze the cucumber to get as much moisture out of it as you can. Mix the cucumber into the yogurt mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refigerate for 2 hours so that the flavour can meld.

For the Souvlaki:

Put the lemon juice into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk olive oil into the lemon juice slowly. Then stir in the garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and umami.

Place chicken in a Ziplock bag and pour marinade over it. Seal the bag and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Slide meat onto skewers with desired veggies and grill on a medium heat BBQ grill until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Since the chicken is cut into smaller pieces, it will probably take less than 5 minutes per side but just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t burn. You can omit the veggies and just do meat kabobs but we like our veggies in this house. The more the merrier!!

For the rice:

Cook rice according to package directions with the lemon juice, stock and butter (use these for the liquids that the package mentions). When done, remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

Serve rice with the pine nuts and parsley. Top that with a skewer of souvlaki and a drizzle of tzatziki. Serve with a simple Greek salad and pita bread for dipping the tzatziki in.