These Spicy Chicken Pitas are made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and you can prep all the components ahead of time and assemble them quickly for a healthy lunch or dinner.
Hi friends!
I’m finally back with a new recipe! Added bonus? It’s perfect for food prep. You can cook the chicken, chop the veggies and make the sauce ahead of time so all you have to do is assemble when it’s time to eat dinner or pack a lunch!
Usually, when I post chicken recipes, they call for chicken breasts. This recipe uses chicken thighs. I rarely buy them because hubby isn’t crazy about them and I pretty much only use them in this recipe for Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs. But last weekend we tried out a grocery delivery service and instead of bringing us the chicken breasts we ordered, they sent us chicken thighs.
Spicy Chicken Pitas
So, although we did go to the store the next day and pick up our regular chicken, I challenged myself this week to come up with a recipe using the thighs that hubby would like.
This recipe is super simple. You just marinate the chicken thighs in some spices, bake them and then slice them up thin to be used in the pitas. And don’t worry about the marinating time. It takes 5 min to chop the chicken, mix the spices and throw it in a bag. Do it in the morning when you first wake up and it’ll have time to sit before you get your act together and start your food prep. You could also use chicken breasts if you wanted.
And don’t forget – you can use the chicken in other ways, not just in pitas! I ate some of the leftovers with rice and green beans. It’d be great in tacos, etc. So…you get the point. The chicken is versatile. But I happen to really like it in these pitas.
I also stuffed them with some of my fav veggies like tomatoes and red onions and even made a super simple homemade tzatziki sauce. But if you’re not into tzatziki sauce you could just add some of your favorite salad dressing! Cheese and avocado would also be good additions.
Here’s how you make them:
PrintSpicy Chicken Pitas
These Spicy Chicken Pitas are made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and you can prep all the components ahead of time and assemble them quickly for a healthy lunch or dinner.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1–2 tsp cayenne pepper, depending on spice level desired
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- chopped lettuce
- diced tomato
- diced red onion
- diced cucumber
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 2 Tbsp finely diced cucumber
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- whole wheat pitas, halved
Instructions
Cut each chicken thigh into quarters and place in a large ziploc bag.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tsp garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper and olive oil and mix until combined.
Add spice mixture to ziploc bag and mix until all pieces are coated.
Let marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Spread chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
Once cooled, thinly slice all pieces.
Combine diced tomato, onion and cucumber and store until ready to assemble.
In a small bowl, combine yogurt, 2 Tbsp finely diced cucumber, garlic powder and lemon juice to make tzatziki sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Store until ready to serve.
When ready to eat, stuff pita halves with lettuce, chicken, tomato mixture and tzatziki sauce (or other dressing of choice).
Notes
So simple! I left out the quantities for the lettuce and other veggies because you can really use as much or as little as you want. Don’t have pitas? You could easily use a tortilla…or just skip the bread and make a salad.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Prep the components of these Spicy Chicken Pitas ahead of time and assemble for a quick meal!” quote=”Prep the components of these Spicy Chicken Pitas ahead of time and assemble for a quick meal!”]
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
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Those look so good! We cook a lot with chicken thighs, they always seem to turn out more tender & juicy than chicken breasts, and they’re more affordably priced.
I’m all about creamy crunchy sandwiches, pita pockets etc this week! I’m gonna need to give this a try ASAP!
I love using chicken thighs. So flavorful! This looks like a delicious and healthy meal. Adding it to the list for this week!
Spicy food with a cooling sauce is my fav combo!
These looks like a great weeknight dinner!
How do you find nutritional values for your recipes?
Thank you
you can plug them into my fitness pal.