Mediterranean Chicken Salad Pitas

In the mood for a more casual dinner? This is the recipe for you. My personal recommendation is to tag this recipe up with another chicken recipe the night before so you can cook the chicken ahead of time and give the flavors more time to marry. That was my plan, roasted chicken with butternut squash last night, chicken salad pitas tonight. The flavors in this dish are fantastic! A couple words to the wise, use good olives, not the kind from the jar, it makes a big difference in the flavor and feel free to be a little liberal with the cilantro, it adds such an intense freshness to the chicken salad, it's worth a little extra chopping.



1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (such as Fage Total Classic)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 large)
1/2 cup chopped pitted green olives (about 20 small)
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
6 (6-inch) whole wheat pitas, cut in half
12 Bibb lettuce leaves
6 (1/8-inch-thick) slices tomato, cut in half

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; set aside. Combine chicken and next 5 ingredients (through chickpeas) in a large bowl. Add yogurt mixture to chicken mixture; toss gently to coat. Line each pita half with 1 lettuce leaf and 1 tomato piece; add 1/2 cup chicken mixture to each pita half.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 stuffed pita halves)

CALORIES 404 (23% from fat); FAT 10.2g (sat 3.8g,mono 4g,poly 1.5g); IRON 3.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 66mg; CALCIUM 110mg; CARBOHYDRATE 46.4g; SODIUM 575mg; PROTEIN 33.6g; FIBER 6g