Greek Chicken Salad with Greek Vinaigrette Dressing

I love this salad.  It's so easy and flavorful.  Plus, if you pick up a rotisserie chicken from your local grocery store, it makes this meal even more simple.  I nearly always cook my chicken in a dutch oven at home but it's great to have the rotisserie chicken as an option when you are short on time!

There is a Greek cafe-type restaurant that we enjoy going to and their Gyro salad was my inspiration for this meal.  There are many ingredients listed here but keep in mind, these are for an easy vinaigrette dressing and a quick dill yogurt sauce for dipping naan bread (I like to add small dollops to my salad as well:).  Most of the spices are actually divided up between the dressing and the dill sauce, so be careful when you are measuring things out.

The Ingredients:

Serves 4-5

3 Cups Rotisserie Chicken, shredded

2 Heads Romaine Lettuce, chopped

1 1/2 Cup Sugar Plum Tomatoes, sliced lengthwise

1 1/2 Cup Cucumbers, sliced

2/3 Cup Black Olives, sliced lengthwise

2/3 Cup Kalamata Olives, sliced lengthwise

3/4 Cup Feta Cheese + more for garnish

Dill Yogurt Sauce 

1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt

2 Tablespoons Whole Milk

1/4 Cup Feta Cheese

1/2 Teaspoon Dried Oregano 

1/2 Teaspoon Dried Dill 

1/4 Teaspoon Garlic Powder 

1/4 Teaspoon Onion Powder 

1/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt  

Fresh Ground Pepper to taste-I like about 10 turns on the pepper grinder

Greek Vinaigrette

1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano 

1/2 Teaspoon Dried Dill 

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder 

1/2 Teaspoon Onion Powder 

1/4 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper 

1/2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt  

1/2 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard

1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1/2 Tablespoon Honey 

OPTIONAL: 4 slices of Naan Bread (pita bread works fine too but from my experience, I find it can be quite dry often, where as naan bread tends to be more soft.  

The Steps:

1) Shred the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken OR follow these next steps for your own chicken at home: Brown 2 lbs chicken thighs in a dutch oven, then add 1 1/2 Cup Chicken Stock, 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt, 1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano, 1 Teaspoon Dried Dill, 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder, 1/2 Teaspoon Onion Powder and simmer for 45-60 minutes (with the lid on) or until the chicken is tender and shreds easily.  

2) Prepare the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.  Set aside. 

3) Add all of the Dill Yogurt Sauce ingredients to a small mixing bowl. Stir well to incorporate all ingredients.  Set aside.  If you have time, I recommend chilling this in the fridge at least one hour before serving to allow the flavors to develop together.        

 4) Now, on to the vinaigrette...in a medium mixing bowl, add oregano, dill, garlic, salt, fresh ground pepper, Dijon mustard (I used spicy brown mustard as I was out of Dijon and it was just as tasty).  Add red wine vinegar and mix ingredients together.  Now, slowly add in the olive oil in a steady stream and whisk to emulsify the vinaigrette.  Set aside. Do not put this dressing in the fridge though as the olive oil will harden due to the cold.  

5) Time to assemble the salad...lettuce, veggies and olives, chicken, drizzle the vinaigrette and garnish with a sprinkling of the feta cheese.  I do a few small dollops of the yogurt sauce on my salad as well.  

6) OPTIONAL: warm up the naan bread in a toaster oven or a conventional oven for a few minutes, then slice into quarters.  It goes deliciously with the dill yogurt sauce!