Happy Insides

One day at work Cassie noticed a stack of discarded Food Network Magazines and decided to grab them to see if there were any hidden jewels. Among them we found a recipe for these Chicken Salad pitas that sounded like a great, fresh, summer dinner. We decided to go ahead and make them this week. After the grocery shopping had been done, we realized that we'd forgotten to get pitas from the store. An oversight for sure, but not one that we let get in the way of our meal. We are both pretty adept at making bread like recipes for things like tortillas, nan and pizza dough. We have most bread recipe staples in our pantry so we hit the internet and found a great recipe for Whole Wheat pitas to go with it.

The pita recipe is an Emeril Lagasse recipe that we found on the Planet Green Website. Give yourself about 2.5-3 hours before you want to eat to make the pitas as they need time to rise. Other than the rising time they are very simple and delicious.

Whole Wheat Pitas
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 package (2 1/4 t.) active dry yeast
1 1/2 T. extra virgin olive oil + 1t.
1/2 t. honey
3 c. whole wheat flour +more for dusting
2 t. salt (I probably only used 1 t.)

1) Pour water into a bowl. Add yeast olive oil and honey. Allow yeast to bloom until it begins to foam, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and salt. Knead dough for about 5 minutes until round smooth and elastic. I used our Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook, but by hand would work fine as well. Grease the bottom of a clean bowl with olive oil and press the dough into the bottom greasing the entire ball of dough. Cover the dough and sit aside in a relatively warm place. Allow dough to rise for 2 hours till it has doubled in size.

2) Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and knead it by hand until it is round and smooth. Divide the dough into 16 2 ounce balls. Cover and allow to rise for another 20 minutes.

3) Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees and place an overturned baking sheet or a baking stone on the middle rack.

4) When the dough is done rising roll out the dough on a clean work surface that is dusted with more flour. Each pita should be about 6 inches in diameter. Place as many pitas onto the baking pan in the oven and allow to bake for about 2 minutes until it starts to bubble. Remove with a metal spatula and repeat with the remaining dough.

5) Serve warm or room temperature.

Chicken Salad Pita with Baba Ghanoush
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 sprig rosemary leaves
3-4 leaves of fresh basil chopped
3/4 t. red pepper flakes
2 T. canola oil
2 cloves garlic minced.
Kosher salt or sea salt
1 T. olive oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 c. grape tomatoes halved
1 cucumber chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
4 pocketless pitas
1/2 c. baba ghanoush
2 c. coarsely chopped romaine lettuce or spinach

1) Whisk the vinegar, rosemary, basil, oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt to taste a shallow dish. Add the chicken and let marinate for at least 30 minutes
2) Mix the tomatoes, cucumbers salt and pepper in a bowl. Drizzle with 1 T. of olive oil
3) Grill Chicken until cooked through 2-3 minutes per side. Cut into 1/2 inch thick strips. Toss with the vegetables.
4) Place a pita on each plate. Brush with baba ghanoush. Top with lettuce and the chicken salad.

This really was a very enjoyable meal and we will definitely be making this again. Hope you enjoy it.