Great day in Hilton Head

We had a great day at the beach today. The weather was beautiful! Hopefully the entire week will be as great as today. Chris tees off early tomorrow, so we decided to stay in and cook. All of the recipes are below!

This is one of our favorite meals. It takes a little while to prepare...there is a lot of chopping...but it is worth it in the end! I like to make the Tzatziki Sauce in advance because it gets more flavorful when it sits a while. I've tried making the Tzatziki in the food processor and by just chopping and mixing by hand. Chopping and mixing by hand is a lot thicker, which we think is better. If you want a thinner sauce, maybe similar to a salad dressing, try it in the food processor.

Tzatziki Sauce
1 cucumber
1 c plain Greek yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dill
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp Emeril Essense

Peel, seed, and finely chop the cucumber.
Mince garlic clove.
Put cucumber, garlic, and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and stir together. Refrigerate.

Recipe Source: Kicked Up Tzatziki Sauce by Emeril

Next, prepare the marinade for the chicken, which will also be the dressing for the salad. Just to warn you, this is a very lemon-y dressing. It tastes very good on the chicken, but use sparingly on your salad.

Lemon Marinade/Dressing
1 lemon, zested and juiced
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh oregano, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced

Zest and juice lemon. Add minced garlic and oregano. Add red wine vinegar. Whisk in olive oil.
*This does separate quickly, so you pretty much have to whisk it right before you use it.*

Recipe Source: Rachel Ray

Next, you will marinate the chicken. You will need about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast tenders. Salt and pepper the chicken, and then pour half of the marinade on top. Turn the chicken to make sure it is covered, and then refrigerate while you prepare the salad.

Salad
Romaine Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Kalamata Olives
Red Onion
Feta Cheese

I'm not putting how much you need of each ingredient for the salad because I know that some people may like a lot of one thing and a little of another. These are the basic ingredients, and you can add or take any of them away. Chop everything into bite size pieces, and toss together. I don't like to add the dressing to the big bowl of salad...just let everyone serve themselves. Like I said, the dressing can be pretty strong.

Heat a grill pan (or a frying pan) to about medium heat. The chicken marinade has olive oil in it, but I add just a little to the pan to help prevent sticking. The chicken breast tenders don't take very long to cook, so after the first batch is done, it goes by pretty quickly. When the chicken is almost done, throw some pita or Naan in the oven (about 400 degrees for 10 minutes). We've tried both pita and Naan (a type of flatbread), and we prefer the Naan. Most grocery stores have it in the bakery section.

Like I said, it is a pretty time consuming meal. It really is worth it, so try it out!

Recipe Source: Rachel Ray