Chicken Pita Sliders

I saw these in Food Network magazine and knew that I had to make them. I'm a big fan of any mediterranean type food and they're way too cute to pass up. But of course I started looking at the recipe and decided to do things a little differently, which ultimately ended up in me doing something almost entirely different. But they were awesome and I highly recommend that your try my recipe, or Food Networks, or you could put your own spin on it! I had previously seen the mini pitas at our grocery store and thought they were adorable, but wasn't sure what I could do with them. If you can't find the little pitas don't be discouraged, these would be equally delicious as full sized burgers stuffed inside half of a regular sized pita.

Chicken Pita Sliders

Ingredients:

For the chicken patties:

1 pkg. (about 1.5 lbs) ground chicken breast

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

3 cloves minced or pressed garlic

2 tbsps. olive oil

salt

pepper

16-20 mini pitas

For the Veggie Relish

1/2 of a large cucumber, diced and seeds removed

1 small tomato, diced and seeds removed

1/4 red onion, diced

1 tsp. vinegar (white or red)

1 tbsp. olive oil

Splash of white wine

1 tbsp. mint, julienned

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

For the Tzatziki:

6 oz. plain, fat free Greek yogurt

1/4 cup grated, peeled, seeded cucumber

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, pressed

splash of white wine

salt, to taste

fresh pepper, to taste

Method:

1. You'll want to make the tzatziki and the vegetable relish a little bit ahead of time because they both get much more flavorful after sitting in the fridge for at least an hour.

2. For the Tzatziki: after grating the cucumber put it in a towel and squeeze out any excess moisture. Whisk all ingredients together and taste to check flavor. Cover and refrigerate.

3. For the relish: Make sure to get a fine chop on the tomato, cucumber and onion. Mix together to incorporate. Whisk the salt, pepper, oil and vinegar together separately then pour over the relish. Sprinkle the julienned mint, stir again then cover and refrigerate.

4. Mix the ground chicken and all of the other ingredients together by hand until everything is incorporated. How large you make the patties depends somewhat on how large your pitas are. You may want to do a trial run and make sure that you've got a good size figured out. Cook the chicken patties in a moderately hot pan drizzled in olive oil. They'll cook pretty quickly, so keep an eye on them. My patties were probably about the size of half-dollars.

5. Stuff chicken patties into the pitas and serve with the relish and tzatziki on the side.

Note: I made these for a party and did a double recipe. I did end up having some of the chicken mixture left over, but I made two big chicken burgers with it and Leon and I enjoyed those a couple of days later for dinner.