Gyros
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
Yee-roh or ji-roh? No matter how you say it, it’s hard to beat the taste of a Greek gyro — and they’re easier to make than you’d think!
Chances are, you’ve savored a delicious gyro, but have you been pronouncing it correctly? It’s actually ‘yee-roh.’ (Do yourself a favor and watch this hilarious Jimmy Fallon/Luke Bryan clip about the pronunciation — it will give you a laugh). This flavorful dish gets its name from the Greek ‘gyros,’ meaning ‘turn’ — a direct reference to how the succulent slices of meat are prepared, gently rotating on a vertical spit, their flavor deepening with each turn.
In Greek restaurants in the States, you’ll find two types of gyros: Greek-American gyros, made with ground meats and spices formed into a cone and cooked on a rotisserie, and authentic Greek gyros, made with marinated, whole cuts of meat tightly stacked into a tower and slowly roasted on a spit. Both versions are incredibly delicious!
This recipe focuses on the Greek-American gyro since it’s much easier to replicate at home. To make it, simply blend ground beef and lamb with bread crumbs, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and ground cumin. Next, shape this mixture into two loaves and bake them. After baking, thinly slice the loaves and quickly sear the slices in a skillet, which gives you beautifully crispy slices.
How To Serve Gyros
You can enjoy the gyro meat a few ways. Serve it atop a vibrant Greek salad for a light meal or wrap the slices in a warm pita bread with tzatziki sauce, juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and crumbled feta. What’s great about this recipe is that it yields a generous two loaves, allowing you to freeze one loaf for those harried nights when you don’t have time to cook.
Note: The meat will taste a bit salty on its own but needs the extra salt for flavor when added to sandwiches and salads.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE gyros
In developing this recipe, I experimented with both fresh and dried onion and garlic. Surprisingly, the dried versions delivered the best flavor. This helps to reduce the prep time, which is always a bonus!
You might be tempted to use just one type of meat, and while it will certainly taste delicious, it may not entirely emulate that authentic gyro flavor we’re aiming for.
There are two types of pita bread — with and without pockets. If you plan to eat these as wraps, you’ll want to buy pocketless pitas. If your store has a few options, pick the softest, fluffiest ones; they will be the easiest to roll up.
Sometimes at restaurants, you’ll get a few french fries tucked into your pita alongside meat and other fixings. I haven’t included them here, but if you’ve got some frozen fries on hand, feel free to add a few in!
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1: Make the Gyro Meat
Preheat the oven to 300°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
Place the beef, lamb, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.
Process until the mixture is well combined and paste-like, scraping down the bowl as necessary, about 1 minute.
Using moist hands, form the mixture into two free-form loaves about 1 inch high, 8 inches long, and 4 inches wide directly on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until meat is firm in the center and reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. Let sit for about 10 minutes, or chill until ready to slice, up to 4 days.
Transfer the loaves to a cutting board and slice between ⅛ and ¼ inch thick.
The gyro loaves (or unbrowned slices) can be prepared up to 4 days ahead of time and refrigerated, or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before browning and serving.
To serve, working in batches, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the gyro slices in a single layer until lightly browned, 30 to 60 seconds per side.
Step 2: Assemble the Gyros
Serve the gyros with pita bread, tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onion, lettuce, and feta.
To wrap your gyro, get a parchment or foil piece twice the size of your pita. Place the pita slightly off the top edge, spread tzatziki, add meat and toppings in a line in the middle. Fold the gyro and parchment/foil in half over the toppings. Wrap the parchment/foil edges over the pita and tuck the outer edge under a fold to secure it.
You may also like
- Greek-Style Lamb Burgers
- Middle Eastern Lamb Kofta
- Falafel
- Grilled Moroccan Meatballs with Yogurt Sauce
- Avgolemono Soup
Gyros
Yee-roh or ji-roh? No matter how you say it, it’s hard to beat the taste of a Greek gyro — and they’re easier to make than you’d think!
Ingredients
For the Gyro Meat
- 1 pound 80% lean ground beef
- 1 pound ground lamb
- ½ cup plain bread crumbs
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
For Serving
- Olive oil
- Pita bread
- Tzatziki sauce
- Thinly sliced tomatoes and red onion
- Lettuce
- Feta cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
- Place the beef, lamb, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until the mixture is well combined and paste-like, scraping down the bowl as necessary, about 1 minute.
- Using moist hands, form the mixture into two free-form loaves about 1 inch high, 8 inches long, and 4 inches wide directly on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until meat is firm in the center and reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. Let sit for about 10 minutes, or chill until ready to slice, up to 4 days. Transfer the loaves to a cutting board and slice between ⅛ and ¼ inch thick.
- To serve, working in batches, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the gyro slices in a single layer until lightly browned, 30 to 60 seconds per side. Serve with pita bread, tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onion, lettuce, and feta.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: The gyro loaves (or unbrowned slices) can be prepared up to 4 days ahead of time and refrigerated, or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before browning and serving.
- Note: Nutritional information is for gyro meat only.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
Powered by 
- Per serving (6 servings)
- Calories: 446
- Fat: 33 g
- Saturated fat: 14 g
- Carbohydrates: 8 g
- Sugar: 1 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 27 g
- Sodium: 377 mg
- Cholesterol: 109 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I’d go yee-roh! This is such a fantastic recipe thank you so much for sharing! I made it with your tzatziki sauce and naan and it was devoured! This is a perfect meal prep recipe.
HI Jenn
I love your recipes. I’m planning on having a Greek Mediterranean night tomorrow for a dinner party. I will make your Souvlaki, hummus, tzatziki, Greek salad, and buy pita, olives feta. Can this gyro be made into meatballs ahead of time? Or do you think that the lamb kofta will still fit in with the theme so I can do everything ahead and just bake it the oven.
Nidhi
I’m flattered that you’ll be using so many of my recipes! Yes, I think you could make the gyro meat into meatballs. Hope everyone enjoys!
Hello Jenn,
Thank you for sharing this recipe. This is the first recipe of Gyro Meat the I found exceptable and very close to what “Cone Gyro Meat” taste like. I love it! I doubled everything in the recipe Except the Lamp & Beef. I find it taste even closer to the “Cone Gyro Meat” in doing so.
Thank you again for sharing your expertise as chef with us….. we are Greatly Blessed because of it. You are one of my favorite Chef.
PeteW.
I just cooked the meat in prevision of having the gyros for tomorrow’s dinner. I the proceeded to taste it, and had to refrain myself from eating it all.
This recipe is really very, very near the real thing, can’t wait for my next dinner !
Side note : my processor is quite small, but I roughly mixed all ingredients first, and processed it by smaller batches. I then weighed the meat to have two loaves of the same size.
I made the gyro’s last week, served it with your hummus board and it was absolutely delicious.
I cooked the gyro meat on a smoker at 250deg, and that added some nice flavor. This will be in regular rotation!
Have you considered including metric measurements in your recipes? I’ve found it so much easier to pull out the scale and work off weight measurements versus volume.
Allen
Glad you enjoyed this! And the great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps!
Ahhhh, I missed that. Thank you!
Allen – thanks for this review as I was considering a smoker. How long did you smoke this for at 250°?
Thanks so much for all of your incredible recipes. Our entire extended family enjoys them! I’m looking forward to making your Gyros but I don’t have a food processor. I’m trying to decide whether to use my Vitamix, stand mixer or hand mixer? What do you think would be best? Thanks!
Hi Erin, I’m honestly not sure if the Vitamix can handle ground meat, and I’m finding mixed info online. I might try it before the stand mixer though, as I think it’d be best if it works!
The gyros are very authentic, I highly recommend this recipe. Thank you, Jenn!
OH MY GOSH!! I never thought I would be able to duplicate a gyro sandwich at home. I was so very wrong. I agree with others’ comments, the volume was a bit much for my food processor to handle, but it did work out. The cook time was spot on for both the loaves in the oven and the browning of the slices on the stove. I served it with red onion, tomato and Jenn’s Tzatziki Sauce. Total hit with the husband. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
Great recipe and so easy!! I never knew gyro meat was so easy to make, and it was a big hit with the family.
Made the meat exactly as shown and it was delicious! Putting the meat mixture in the food processor gave it the perfect texture. Such a simple recipe! I did use tzaziki from Trader Joes…..