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Bring the Greek restaurant to your own kitchen with my homemade Gyros Recipe! Ground lamb and beef combined with onions, garlic, spices, and feta cheese are wrapped in a warmed pita with my homemade Tzatziki sauce! Enjoy with a Greek Salad for a perfect summer meal.
What are Gyros Anyway?
Gyros are a Greek food made with lamb, a combination of lamb and beef, or sometimes chicken combined with onions, garlic, spices and wrapped in a warm pita. The meat is roasted and either thinly sliced or ground up. Gyros are topped with a Greek sauce called Tzatziki. This awesome condiment is a creamy sauce made with Greek yogurt, cucumber, garlic, mint and spices.
How do you Pronounce Gyro?
Oh the great debate!! While many people think this is pronounced “JAI-ROH”, that would be incorrect. If you want to really impress your friends and family, make sure you’re pronouncing this word as the Greeks do – “YEE-ROH”. And if you want to be really lavish (and you were born with this gene), go ahead and roll that R a bit. So fancy.
How to Make Gyros at Home
We’ve all seen Greek restaurants cooking gyros on a vertical rotisserie then slicing the meat off to make these delicious gyro sandwiches. I don’t know how many of you have a vertical rotisserie spit, but I sure don’t. Lucky for us, I’ve figured out how to hack this using an oven and a flat top grill to make the meat taste and feel almost the same! No fancy equipment needed. The three main hacks that make this recipe work are:
- Texture: using a food processor to create the perfect meat texture
- Cooking Method: using a water bath for an even, slow heat
- Finishing Touch: searing meat at the end to achieve a rotisserie style crust
This Gyro recipe will make 8 gyros. Feel free to double the recipe for feeding a larger group. For full recipe details including ingredients needed and measurements, see the printable recipe card down below. Here is step by step what you can expect when making these gyros:
First, Make the Tzatziki Sauce
Peel cucumber and slice in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scrape to remove seeds. Finely dice and place into a tea towel and squeeze to remove any excess liquid.
Add yogurt, cucumber, freshly grated garlic, salt and mint to a bowl and stir to combine.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Pro Tip: When I first started making this recipe about 20 years ago, greek yogurt didn’t exist in my regular grocery stores. All we had was traditional plain yogurt that was quite watery. To make the yogurt thick enough, I would put it in a strainer with cheesecloth overnight in the fridge to get all of the extra water out. So, if regular yogurt is all you have, you can totally use that in this recipe. Just make sure you add this step to your chores a few hours before (or night before) you need it.
Next, Make the Gyros
Preheat oven to 325° F. Set out a 13×9 baking dish for later.
Puree Onion in Food Processor
Place onion into a food processor and pulse a few times, then process until pureed, scraping down sides as needed.
Add Garlic, Meats + Spices
Add grated garlic, ground meat (both lamb and beef), and spices. Process until meat becomes a paste, about 1 minute. I know this goes against everything you’ve been told about not over-mixing your meat, but trust me on this step. It’s absolutely needed to achieve the density we are looking for in this particular recipe.
Add meat mixture to a 9×13 baking dish, spreading and pressing down until even.
Create a Water Bath + Bake in the Oven
Place baking dish into a larger dish (I used a roasting pan). Fill bottom of roasting pan with boiling water and carefully put in middle of preheated oven.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until internal meat temperature reaches 160° F. Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes.
Pro Tip: Think ahead and have your tea kettle boiling and ready to go so you’re not waiting for a pot of water to boil.
Slice Meat into Thin Slices
Transfer meat to a cutting board and slice into very thin slices, about 4 inches long. This is easier if you cut the gyro loaf in half first.
Sear Meat (optional, but so flavorful!)
At this point, you can serve but I prefer to sear the meat on a flat top grill or cast iron skillet to brown the meat a bit. This gives it more flavor. Just be careful not to cook too long or it will dry out.
Assemble Gyros + Serve Warm
Brush a little olive oil on your pitas and warm them in the same pan you seared your meat in, until warmed through.
Assemble gyros by placing Tzatziki sauce, sliced meat and optional toppings into center of your warm pita bread and serve.
Optional Gyro Toppings
Make these gyros your own by adding toppings! Here are a few ideas.
- shredded lettuce
- shredded red cabbage
- diced tomatoes
- diced onions
- sliced red onion
- feta cheese
- cucumbers
- fresh mint
- fresh dill
- squirt of fresh lemon juice
What to Serve With Gyros
- Air Fryer French Fries
- Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
- Fried Zucchini
- Potato Pancakes
- Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Kale Salad
- Kettle Chips (or just store-bought Potato Chips!)
Storing Leftover Gyros
Store leftover Pita bread, gyro fixings and any leftover gyro meat separately, each in its own airtight container or zip top bag, and in the fridge. The meat is good for 2-3 days. The tzatziki sauce will be good for 3-4 days before you start to notice a texture change.
To Freeze Gyro Meat: Allow gyro meat to cool completely to room temperature. Place in an airtight, freezer safe container or sealable bag. Gyro meat will stay fresh in the freezer for 2-3 months. To thaw, let meat sit in the fridge overnight.
More Greek Recipes to Try!
I hope you love these as much as I do! If you make this Gyro Recipe. The printable recipe card is below. Have a great day, friends! 🙂
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Gyro Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 med onion chopped into 4 pieces
- 2 cloves garlic fresh, grated
- 1 tbsp ground marjoram
- 1 tbsp ground rosemary
- 2 tsp salt course
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper freshly ground
- 4 cups boiling water for water bath (I used my tea kettle to boil and pour in easily)
Tzatziki Sauce
for pita bread and optional toppings
- 8 pitas
- 2 tsp olive oil
- onion diced (optional)
- lettuce shredded (optional)
- tomato petite diced (optional)
- feta cheese crumbled (optional)
Equipment
- 1 flour sack towel (tea towel)
Instructions
for tzatziki sauce
- Peel cucumber and slice in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scrape to remove seeds. Finely dice and place into a tea towel and squeeze to remove any excess liquid.
- Add yogurt, cucumber, freshly grated garlic, salt and mint to a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
for gyros
- Preheat oven to 325° F.
- Place onion into a food processor and pulse a few times, then process until pureed, scraping down sides as needed.
- Add grated garlic, ground lamb, ground beef, and spices. Process until meat becomes a paste, about 1 minute.
- Add meat mixture to a 9×13 baking dish, spreading and pressing down until even.
- Place baking dish into a larger dish (I used a roasting pan). Fill bottom of roasting pan with boiling water and carefully put in middle of oven.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until internal meat temperature reaches 160° F.
- Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes.
- Transfer meat to a cutting board and slice into very thin slices, about 4 inches long. This is easier if you cut the loaf in half first.
- At this point, you can serve but I prefer to sear the meat on a flat top grill or cast iron pan to brown the meat a bit. This gives it more flavor. Just be careful not to cook too long or it will dry out.
- Brush a little olive oil on your pitas and warm them in the same pan you seared your meat in, until warmed through.
- Assemble gyros by placing Tzatziki sauce, sliced meat and optional toppings into center of pita bread and serve warm.
Tried all different recipes and this was the best! Since I never been to Greece or Turkey but have been to several NY City restaurants, this was just as good as the restaurant gyros.
First I got exited cause I thought that this time this will be an original gyro recipe but one more time this is not. Greek gyros is not made with lamb and beef or chicken or any kind ground meat, that’s the Americanized Greek gyros. Original gyros is made with pork or chicken meat. So it’s good before we say something to check our facts. Thank you.
Looks awesome will absolutely try!!
Thank you Jacquie! Let me know how it turns out! 🙂