Tzatziki Recipes

This yogurt dip is incredibly versatile--serve it with toasted pita wedges as an appetizer, or pair it with grilled lamb, chicken, fish or vegetables.

These zucchini-loaded veggie burgers are too tender for the grill grate, so they're cooked on a griddle, but they get a great kick from smoked paprika.

In his superdelicious mash-up of cuisines, Chicago chef Mike Sheerin packs a flavorful Greek gyro-inspired lamb filling into dumplings, steams them and serves them with tzatziki.

This is Greek salad perfection: Michael Psilakis tops warm bread with garlicky red-pepper tzatziki (cucumber-yogurt spread) and a piquant combo of cucumbers, olives, peperoncini, tomatoes, radishes, greens and feta. It's stellar with homemade ladopsomo bread and yogurt, but equally good with store-bought.

For his take on chicken souvlaki (Greek skewers of grilled meat), Jimmy Bannos Jr. sears marinated chicken thighs on a cast-iron griddle, which gives them "the crispiest, best skin ever," he says. To serve alongside the skewers, he fries smashed baby potatoes until they're tender and golden.

This recipe is super delicious, and deceptively simple. 

Greeks make souvlaki by marinating chunks of meat (usually pork or lamb) in oil, lemon juice and oregano, then skewering and grilling them. Grace Parisi opts for pork shoulder because it's so tender and succulent. Instead of threading the meat onto skewers, she simply cooks it (with onions) in a grill pan until it's nicely charred, then serves it with store-bought pita and a garlicky cucumber-yogurt sauce called tzatziki.

Tzatziki is a traditional Greek appetizer (or meze) made with yogurt and cucumbers. Here, Grace Parisi uses it in addition to mayonnaise as the base for her incredibly tasty potato salad tossed with dill, mint and serrano chile.

Grilled chicken on pita with tomatoes, onions and tzatziki, a yogurt and cucumber sauce, makes a cool yet satisfying warm-weather supper. Souvlaki is often rolled to eat in your hand as a snack, but this more substantial version is served on a plate with a knife and fork. If you like, accompany the souvlaki with lemon wedges. When using wooden skewers, soak them first in water for at least ten minutes, or they'll smoke during cooking.