Homemade Gyros Recipe – How To Make Greek Gyro Meat At Home
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If you like gyros in Greek restaurants but never thought that you can make it at home, I have great news for you – you can make very tasty Greek gyros at home by using this recipe!
Before you make gyros, first you need to understand what is gyro meat and how is gyros made. Gyro meat is not some magical cut of meat :) When I first saw those huge gyro meats in the restaurant, I thought it was a big piece of lamb! In fact, gyro is a giant meatloaf that’s made out of very finely ground and condensed meat. The meatloaf-like gyros is cooked and then sliced into extremely thin slices that you come to know as Greek gyros. The restaurants cook the huge gyro blobs on the rotisserie and then shave off the ultra-thin gyros slices.
You can make gyros at home by processing ground meat in a food processor to make it even more finely ground (more like a paste), then press it into a meatloaf shape and bake. The baked homemade gyros is then sliced super thin and those slices are baked again under the broiler. This will give you homemade gyro meat that’s as close to the restaurant as you can get!
Gyro meat is made with a mixture of beef and lamb. How much of each type of meat to use is up to you – you can make gyros all beef, all lamb, 50% each or 90% beef and 10% lamb – whatever you prefer.
Enjoy this delicious homemade gyros! It’s great on pita with tomatoes and onion slices, and goes so well with taztziki sauce – check out my tzatziki sauce recipe :)
Homemade Gyros
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp dried basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300F.
- Mix all ingredients.
- Put the meat mixture in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process for 2 minutes until it turns into a paste (if it doesn't fit in the food processor at once, do it in two batches).
- Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Put the meat paste on a baking sheet and shape into a long rectangle meatloaf (about 12 inches long and 5 inches wide).
- Put in the oven and bake for 1 hour (or until the instant-read thermometer registers 160F).
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Change the oven to Broil.
- Slice the gyro meat into extremely thin slices (no thicker than 1/8 inch). Slicing is very easy if you use a serrated knife.
- Lay the thin slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Make sure the slices are in a single layer and are not touching each other. You will need to do it in several batches as they won't all fit at once (I just use several baking sheets).
- Broil the gyros slices for 2 to 4 minutes, until browned (be careful not to burn them).
Love this! Now i can do gyros at home. How do u make the sauce tho?
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
The tzatziki sauce recipe for gyros is here: https://www.melaniecooks.com/homemade-tzatziki-cucumber-yogurt-sauce-recipe/2731/
Best regards,
Melanie
Homemade gyros are so much better than takeout. Thanks for the great recipe.
The blend of beef and lamb makes these gyros incredibly flavorful…