Greek Chicken Skewers and Greek Salad

Our Greek-inspired dinner on Monday turned out really well with marinated chicken skewers, a Greek salad and garlic bread (since I have to have some carbs at each meal). We served it with a glass of Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck Cabernet (we live pretty close to Napa and all we've had since we've been here is Two Buck Chuck. You just can't beat the price!). It was a good Greek dinner and a perfect summer meal.

I had made the Greek salad two days in advance and I love that the longer it sits, the better it tastes. The marinated Greek chicken was good - it actually reminded me a lot of spiedies! This excitement will make a lot of sense for anyone on my side of the family reading this but not many others. Spiedie sauce is a special marinade which originated in Binghamton, NY. Chicken cubes are marinated in the sauce and then usually served on a sub roll or soft Italian bread. While we did not serve it with rolls, I did include green pepper and onion on the skewers as well. We don't own an outdoor grill but our Cuisinart grill worked just fine. The chicken stays nice and moist, thanks to the lemon juice/olive oil mixture that you brush on while it grills. For those of you interested to try spiedie-like chicken without Lupo's actual spiedie marinade, here it is:

Greek Marinated Chicken Skewers
Taken from http://ahintofhoney.blogspot.com

• 1 - 1.5 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 in. cubes
• 1/2 onion, cut into 1 in. pieces (you could also use red onion)
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 2 Tb. olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper

• 2 Tb. olive oil
• 2 Tb. lemon juice

-Prep by cutting chicken breasts, onion, green bell pepper and red bell pepper in 1 in. pieces.
-In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 Tb. olive oil, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Add chicken cubes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
**A hint I found helpful is that if you're using wood skewers, soak them in water for 20 minutes to prevent burning.
-In a small bowl, whisk 2 Tb. olive oil and lemon juice together and set aside.
-Heat grill (indoor or outdoor) on medium high heat.
-Thread bell peppers, onion and chicken onto skewers, alternating. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
-If using indoor grill, spray with cooking spray. Add skewers, basting with olive oil/lemon juice mixture occasionally while it cooks (this helps keep it nice and moist). Rotate skewers occasionally until chicken is cooked through (It took my skewers about 7 minutes on a closed-top indoor grill).
____

The Greek salad recipe is courtesy of All Recipes, which my friend Libby introduced me to a few years ago. The site is wonderful! Some of my favorite things about it are getting the nutritional information for the recipes and reading the reviews of the recipe. I read enough reviews to see if there is an overall consensus on an improvement and oftentimes, adjust the recipe before I even try it. Here is the Greek salad recipe: . The main things I change from the original recipe are that I cut the amount of feta in half (I like feta cheese but it seemed too dominating to me), I use green olives instead of black and I ALWAYS forget the oregano.

Greek Salad
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Good-for-You-Greek-Salad/Detail.aspx

• 3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cucumbers, chopped
• 1/2 - 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/8 - 1/4 c. sliced green olives (this is estimated as I usually just toss some in)

-In a medium bowl, toss all ingredients but the feta together. Let the salad sit in the fridge for a few hours to have the flavors meld together. Just before serving, toss the feta in the salad.