Fake Greek

For several months, earlier this year and last fall, our little town had a pretty tasty Greekish restaurant. It was fast food . . . and I'm sure real Greeks would be mortified to be associated with this food, but we liked it. Sadly, we were the only ones who liked it. They closed down, packed up, and left town.

So, tonight I tried a quickie sort of Greekish Salad. It wasn't half bad.

Now, remember that I don't really ever measure, so my proportions may be some what off . . . feel free to tweak as you need to.

Greekish Dressing

Finely grated 4 cloves of garlic into a 16 oz jar.
Add in 1/4 tsp black pepper . . . possibly more . . . I have a grinder and never measure.
1/2 tsp salt (I always use kosher)
1/2 - 1 tsp dried oregano, crushed between your fingers as you add it
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 - 1 cup olive oil

Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously.


Pour off about 1/3 - 1/2 the dressing, reserving the rest in the frig.

Trim up a package of chicken tenderloins, salt and pepper them, and then brush both sides generously with the portion of dressing you poured off. (throw out any unused dressing from this part) Allow to sit at room temp for 15 minutes while you chop up any variety of the following veggies:

yellow or red bell pepper
spring onions or a purple onion
seedless cucumber
radishes
Cherry tomatoes
parsley
lightly steamed asparagus
Black Kalamata olives
Feta Cheese
Rinsed and well drained chick peas

Toss the veggies with several spoonfuls of the reserved dressing. Chop and rinse romaine lettuce and arrange in a large bowl or platter.

Heat up a grill pan until it's fairly hot and heat up your oven to 300 degrees. Grill the chicken a few strips at a time until well marked on both sides . . . and mostly cooked. Transfer to a oven proof plate and stick in the oven to finish cooking while you finish grilling the chicken. Leave tenderloins in the oven for about 10 minutes and then pull them out and cut one open to make sure all the pink is cooked away.

Either leave whole on each salad or chop up and create a "salad bar" with olives, veggies, feta and chicken.

When I pulled the chicken out of the oven and turned it off, I tossed several half sized pitas in to warm in the residual heat.

In all, it was a fast dinner and used whatever ingredients I had available. I also have left overs (I tossed the remaining veggies with the rest of the dressing, and packaged all the parts separately) for lunch tomorrow. The Greekish Dressing as a marinade for the chicken was really good.