Slow cookers are great for anyone who works full time because dinner is on the table pretty much when you get home. But they are also great in the summer because you don’t need to heat up an oven or turn on the stove. We have come to love slow cookers when we’re hunting and many of our meals are slow cooker meals – that’s when I made this recipe the first time and it’s since become one of my favorites.
The main difference in these slow cooker chicken gyros (which I adapted from this recipe I found over at Six Sisters) and my chicken gyros is the way the meat is cooked. I still make the same tzatziki sauce – head over to my chicken gyro post for the recipe (I also recommend making it the day before), but I cook the meat in the slow cooker. Chicken cooks with onion, garlic, lemon, Penzey’s Greek seasoning, and red wine vinegar. All you need to do when it’s done is shred it and you’re ready to eat.
The main reason I even chose to use the Greek seasoning (besides the fact that I got a sample of it in my last order from Penzey’s) is it seemed a heck of a lot easier to bring one bottle to North Dakota than several bottles of spices just for one recipe. Turns out it was pretty darn tasty and provided great flavor to the chicken!
Here’s what you need:
Mix together three cloves of minced garlic, the juice of a lemon, 1 medium diced onion, some water, olive oil, red wine vinegar and Penzey’s Greek seasoning in a bowl.
Add 20 ounces of boneless skinless chicken breasts to the slow cooker.
Pour the garlic, onion mixture over the chicken.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Cooked slow cooker meals are never pretty while they are still in the slow cooker…
Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred.
Remove all but ¾ of a cup of the cooking liquid from the slow cooker. Reserve the rest for now so you can add back more to taste.
Add the shredded chicken back to the slow cooker.
Mix together with the cooking liquid. Add more until it’s as juicy as you like.
Serve on warm pita bread with tzatziki sauce, tomato, sliced red onion, and romaine.
The leftovers go great in a gyro salad, or on a gyro pizza (use the tzatziki as the sauce and then drizzle more tzatziki on after it comes out of the oven).
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lemon, juice of (approx.. ¼ c)
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- ¼ c water
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 T red wine vinegar
- 1 T Penzey’s Greek seasoning
- 20 oz pkg boneless skinless chicken breast
- To serve:
- Warm pita bread
- Prepared tzatziki
- Sliced red onion
- Sliced tomato
- Romaine
- Mix together garlic, lemon juice, onion, water, olive oil, red wine vinegar and Greek seasoning in a small bowl.
- Add chicken to slow cooker. Pour garlic and onion mixture over the chicken.
- Cook on low 6-8 hours.
- Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred. Remove cooking liquid, reserve.
- Add chicken back to slow cooker along with ¾ of cooking liquid. Stir together and add more as needed.
- Serve on warm pita topped with tzatziki, red onion, tomato and romaine.
[…] really have a story behind this recipe but I love Greek flavors – I’ve posted chicken gyros and slow cooker chicken gyros before. And I wanted to conquer that vinaigrette. Since I’ve had a couple really good Greek […]