Chicken Gyro Salad with Tzatziki Sauce — Chicken gyros transformed into a HEALTHY salad with an EASY homemade tzatziki sauce that’s loaded with tangy dill FLAVOR!! Ready in 20 minutes!!
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Greek Chicken Gyro Salad
Rather than making traditional chicken gyros, I deconstructed things by adding veggies and turned gyros into a salad. Healthy, easy, ready in 20 minutes, and packed with so much flavor!
Chunks of boneless skinless chicken breasts are quickly sautéed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and oregano. The chicken is moist, juicy, and has the classic gyro flavor you’re looking for.
It’s added over a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, pita chips, feta, and topped with tangy, dill-infused tzatziki sauce that coats everything with its lovely cooling creaminess.
Chicken Gyro Salad Ingredients
This Greek gyro salad has three main components: the gyro-style chicken, the salad itself, and the homemade tzatziki sauce.
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:
For the Greek chicken:
- Olive oil
- Chicken breasts
- Dried oregano
- Salt and pepper
- Red wine vinegar
- Lemon juice
For the salad:
- Lettuce
- Tomato
- Cucumber
- Pita chips
- Feta cheese
- Red onions
For the tzatziki dressing:
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Garlic
- White wine vinegar
- Dried dill
- Cucumber
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make a Chicken Gyro Salad
This Greek tzatziki chicken salad couldn’t be simpler to prepare! Here are the basic steps:
- Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and oregano and cook in a skillet until no longer pink inside.
- Near the end of the cook time, add the vinegar and lemon juice to the skillet and let simmer to thicken up.
- Then, whisk together the homemade tzatziki sauce (you’ll likely wind up with leftovers, but it keeps for a few days).
- After that, it’s just a matter of assembling your Greek gyro salad and digging in.
Make-Ahead Instructions
This gyro chicken salad is great for meal prepping. I recommend preparing all the individual components ahead of time and storing them separately so the salad stays fresh.
Cook the chicken ahead of time and dice it into bite-sized pieces. You’d do the same with the raw veggies. You can also make the tzatziki sauce ahead of time.
Store everything in separate containers, then assemble gyro salads throughout the week as needed.
Tips for Making Chicken Gryo Salad
If you want a thicker tzatziki sauce, you may want to wring out the grated cucumber in a clean kitchen towel. This will remove the excess moisture and makes for a thicker sauce.
Note that leftover gyro tzatziki sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. It becomes more watery over time, so just give it a good stir before eating the leftovers.
Be sure to dice the veggies quite small so they’re easy to grab with your fork and eat in one bite.
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Chicken Gyro Salad with Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 to 1.25 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 to 3 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salad
- 6 cups lettuce, Romaine or Iceberg recommended
- 1 cup tomatoes, diced or halved if using cherry/grape tomatoes
- 1 cup English cucumber, diced small
- 1 cup crushed pita chips
- 1 cup diced or crumbled feta cheese
- ½ cup red onions, diced small
Tzatziki Sauce
- 8 ounces plain Greek yogurt, must be Greek yogurt, I used 0% fat
- about 1/2 English cucumber, finely grated (about 2/3 to 3/4 cup grated cucumber; use coarsest blade of a box grater)
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
- ¾ teaspoon Kosher salt, or to taste
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- pinch sugar, optional and to taste
Instructions
For the Chicken:
- To a large skillet, add the oil, chicken, evenly sprinkle with oregano, salt, pepper, and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, flipping intermittently so all sides cook evenly.
- When chicken is about 90% cooked through, reduce the heat to medium-low, add the red wine vinegar, lemon juice (use caution because it will bubble up), and allow chicken to simmer another 1 to 2 minutes, or until done.
- Cooking time will vary based on thickness of chicken breasts and sizes of pieces; set pan aside off the heat while you assemble the salad.
For the Salad:
- To a large bowl, add the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pita chips, onions, chicken and any cooking juices (loaded with flavor) from the pan; set aside.
For the Tzatziki Sauce:
- To a medium bowl, add all ingredients, whisk to combine, taste, and check for flavor balance. Add additional salt, pepper, lemon juice, pinch sugar, etc. if necessary, to taste.
- Evenly drizzle sauce over the salad, to taste. Salad is best fresh.
Notes
- If you want a thicker tzatziki sauce, you may want to wring out the grated cucumber in a clean kitchen towel.
- Extra sauce will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days, noting it may thin out as time passes and the cucumbers release their juices.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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We love Greek. This is a very good (and easy) recipe to put together. I agree with another post about adding Kalamata olives, it makes it even better!
Glad it’s a winner for you and yes olives are a natural great addition to work into the mix!
great
Loved it! Very flavorful and delicious. Added Kalamata olives and it gave just a little extra salty goodness.
Loved it! Very flavorful and delicious. Added Kalamata olives and it gave just a little extra salty goodness.
Thanks for the 5 star review and good call on the Kalamata olives! Bet that was a nice touch!
WOW your salads are amazing. I try to prepare different salads at least six days a week. This recipe is a keeper.
Thanks for the great compliment about my salads and glad this one is a keeper for you!
With salads 6x a week I can see where you need lots of salad recipes! Maybe check these out https://www.averiecooks.com/30-best-easy-healthy-salads/
The sauce was a little bit bitter. Made as instructed and added sugar. Thoughts? Chicken was perfection
If it was a little bitter, I would just add sugar to taste next time. Maybe more than I called for as all ingredients vary.
Had this for dinner last night. I made my own pita chips to go with it, rather than buying them. (Brush olive oil on pitas, dust with salt/seasoning if preferred, slice, bake in 400-degree oven for 10 minutes.) My husband told me about halfway through the meal he’d had doubts about this salad, but that he loved it and I could make it again anytime. :) Score! It was delicious!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and impressed your husband, too! Great that you made your own pita chips!
Had to come back and comment since I made this over the weekend. I have made SO MANY versions of chicken shwarma and tzatziki and most are very good. But, I really needed a “go-to_ tzatziki sauce and have finally found it! Some recipes have too much lemon, added olive oil and not enough dill and garlic but yours is just how I like it…and my whole family loved it. Like Sarah above, I always wring out my cucumber as we like a thick dressing and it was perfect! Also, I wanted to make everything ahead so i combined the chicken cubes with all of the ingredients, like a marinade, then tossed the whole thing in a hot pan to saute when we were ready for dinner. Thank you Averie!
I’m glad to hear my tzatziki sauce is the winner for you and your family and it’s your new go-to! Wringing out for a thicker dressing is a good idea and glad you could make-ahead!
I just made this and it turned out delicious! The one change I made is I wrung out the shredded cucumber by wrapping it in a clean dish cloth and squeezing over the sink. That way, the sauce won’t get too runny as leftovers. It did make the sauce un-drizzleable, though. Still delicious! A slam dunk recipe!
Good thought to wring the cucumbers so that the extra sauce wasn’t runny although in the beginning it was a little thick it sounds like but glad you loved the recipe and that it was a slam dunk for you!
hey girl- this looks amazing!
Thanks! Have a great week!
This looks like such a refreshing salad!
It was and the tzatziki sauce was perfect on everything!
I remember you saying you had another greek recipe coming and I love your salads so I have to make this!! Jon will love it too–I can’t keep feta very long once he sees it.
Oh good to know you guys are feta fans! And yes this is the other Greek recipe I had in mind. I went on a Greek kick in real life but spaced them out a little bit on the blog :)
This is another fantastic salad Averie!! I haven’t made tzatziki sauce in a long time so I made a big batch to use as a veggie dip this week (it’s sooo good)!I’ve made your other Greek salad a couple of times and this one will be repeated as well. Hope you’re having a nice Mother’s Day!
You’ve been right along on my Greek kick with me it sounds like based on this one and the other Greek salad! Glad you loved this one and that you now have a big batch of tzatziki for the week for veggie dipping. Yum!
I made something similar but added spiced chickpeas and used mayo in the dressing for dairy free. It was so perfect.
Nice! I bet chickpeas were great in it!
I could eat tzatziki sauce of everything! This salad needs to happen in my kitchen!
I could eat it on everything too!
This salad looks incredible (the chicken looks perfect)!! I love meals like this!! Pinned!
That look so incredible Averie! Love this flavor combo!
Thanks so much!