Turkey burger with pepper yoghurt and wedges
A tender turkey burger with roasted pepper sauce and oven wedges.
About 50 min · 595 kcal · 40 g protein per serving
Greek chicken meal prep boxes with orzo and tzatziki
Yoghurt-marinated chicken with lemon orzo, a tomato, cucumber and feta salad, and a pot of tzatziki, packed into four lunch boxes. The yoghurt marinade keeps the chicken tender through four days in the fridge.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 16 October 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm 3 cm pieces reach 74°C in 10 to 12 minutes in the air fryer
- Confirm the tzatziki holds its texture for 4 days
- Photograph a packed box
- Time
- About 1 hr 5 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 4
- see below
- Energy
- 515 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 47 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 4 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- orzo. Most dry pasta is just wheat and water, but some contains egg; check the packet.
- feta. Some feta is made with animal rennet; check the label if you are vegetarian.
- black olives. Olives are packed in brine and are salty; rinsing removes some of it.
Cooking steps
Mix 100 g of the Greek yoghurt with a third of the lemon juice, the oregano, half the crushed garlic and the olive oil. Turn the chicken through it, cover and leave in the fridge for at least 20 minutes and up to 12 hours.
Air-fry the chicken in a single layer at 200°C / 400°F for 10 to 12 minutes, shaking once, or roast it on a lined tray at 220°C / 425°F (200°C fan) for 15 to 18 minutes, until charred at the edges and 74°C in the thickest piece.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Boil the orzo in salted water for 8 to 9 minutes, drain, rinse under cold water and toss it with another third of the lemon juice.
For the tzatziki, coarsely grate 100 g of the cucumber, squeeze it hard in a clean tea towel, and stir it into the remaining yoghurt with the rest of the garlic, the chopped dill and the last of the lemon juice.
Dice the rest of the cucumber and the tomatoes, mix them with the sliced onion, and break the feta into small pieces over the top with the olives.
Pack four boxes with the orzo and chicken on one side and the salad on the other, and spoon the tzatziki into four small separate pots. Leave the chicken and orzo uncovered until the steam stops, no more than an hour, before closing the lids and refrigerating.
The useful detail
Squeeze the grated cucumber hard before it meets the yoghurt. Cucumber is about 95 per cent water, and left unsqueezed it turns the tzatziki into a thin sauce by the second day in the box.
Make it work for you
One serving is A box of chicken, 50 g (dry weight) of orzo, salad and a pot of tzatziki. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Quinoa instead of orzo
Nuttier and keeps its bite longer in the fridge.
Per serving: about 35 kcal less, about 1 g less protein, about 2 g more fat.
Allergens: Removes gluten.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Slightly leaner and firmer; cook to the same 74°C.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 1 g more protein, about 1 g less fat.
Skyr instead of Greek yoghurt
Thicker tzatziki and a firmer marinade coating.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A lunch box where the chicken and yoghurt between them carry over 40 g of protein, with the orzo kept to 50 g so the box does not fill up on pasta.
| Energy | 515 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 47 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 50 g |
| of which sugars | 8 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
| Sodium | 390 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 4. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chicken breast | 500 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 600 kcal | 112.5 g |
| Greek yoghurt | 300 g | FDC 170894Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 177 kcal | 30.6 g |
| lemon juice | 46 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 10 kcal | 0.2 g |
| dried oregano | 2 g | FDC 171328Spices, oregano, dried | 5 kcal | 0.2 g |
| garlic | 10 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 15 kcal | 0.6 g |
| olive oil | 14 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 121 kcal | 0.0 g |
| orzo | 200 g | FDC 169736Pasta, dry, enrichedFoodData Central records dry pasta as one entry rather than by shape. Orzo is the same durum wheat pasta, cut small. | 742 kcal | 26.1 g |
| cucumber | 250 g | FDC 168409Cucumber, with peel, raw | 38 kcal | 1.6 g |
| tomatoes | 300 g | FDC 170457Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average | 54 kcal | 2.6 g |
| onion | 80 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 32 kcal | 0.9 g |
| feta | 80 g | FDC 173420Cheese, feta | 212 kcal | 11.4 g |
| black olives | 40 g | FDC 169094Olives, ripe, canned (small-extra large) | 46 kcal | 0.3 g |
| fresh dill | 10 g | FDC 172233Dill weed, freshFresh dill is 43 kcal per 100 g on FoodData Central 172233, so the few grams a recipe uses add 2 or 3 kcal. That record has no sugars value, so the dill is listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 4 | 2052 kcal | 187.0 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 3 kcal to the whole recipe. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Keep the tzatziki in its own pot so the salad stays crisp.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality. Freeze the chicken and orzo on their own, and make the salad and tzatziki fresh on the day you thaw a box.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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