Greek Lamb Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce
Yesterday, I told you all about the amazing gyros that my husband and I used to get when he was living outside of D.C. Since he moved back two years ago, we have been in a serious gyro drought. Thank the gyro gods that the house we bought is located only about five minutes from a fabulous gyro joint here in Pittsburgh.
In the meantime, however, I’ve been dreaming about making gyros at home. Gyros are one of those things that just seem… impossible to make at home, right? Sort of like pop-tarts. As I’ve come to learn, however, nothing is impossible in the kitchen.
These gyros are proof in the pudding… they were not very difficult to make, and are every bit as good (better, even) than our favorites from Greek and Middle Eastern take out joints.
While traditional gyro meat is cooked on a vertical spit and then shaved off, that’s not exactly practical in a home kitchen. In order to get those thin strips of meat cooked to the correct consistency, it’s actually baked twice.
A combination of ground lamb, seasonings, onion, garlic and slab bacon are processed together to form a cohesive mass. The mixture is shaped into a meatloaf, for lack of a better word, and baked at a low temperature. Once given time to sit, very thin strips of meat are sliced off, then laid in a pan and broiled for a couple of minutes.
Save This Recipe
Enter your email address, and we'll send it straight to your inbox!
I was seriously stunned at how similar this meat tasted to the gyro meat that I have been accustomed to. It has so much flavor and the texture is just perfect.
When serving gyros, you want to look for pocketless pita bread, which can also be referred to as “hand-pulled”. Naan or flatbread can also work in a pinch. Then, pile on the meat, tzatziki sauce, chopped tomatoes and thinly sliced onion. Wrap it all up and then dig in. Don’t forget some extra tzatziki sauce on the side; you can never have enough of that awesomeness.
I love being proven wrong when I think a certain type of food is beyond being made at home. Who am I kidding? Everything can be made at home, and it’s usually better than you can get elsewhere. These gyros are no exception.
Watch the Greek Gyro Recipe Video:
Two years ago: Salted Caramel Cashew Bark
Five years ago: Chicken Pot Pie
Six years ago: Chili-Rice Dinner
Lamb Gyros Recipe
Ingredients
For the Gyro Meat:
- 1 pound (453.59 g) ground lamb
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
- ½ (0.5) yellow onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 clove garlic, sliced
- 3 ounces (85.05 g) slab bacon, or 5 slices sliced bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces
To Serve:
- Pocketless pita bread
- Tzatziki Sauce
- Tomato, coarsely chopped
- Yellow onion, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Make the Gyro Meat: In a medium bowl, combine the ground lamb, salt, pepper and oregano leaves with your hands, mixing until all of the seasonings have been evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place the lamb mixture in the bowl of a food processor and add the onion, garlic and bacon. Process until a smooth puree is formed, 30 seconds to 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. With moistened hands, shape the lamb mixture into a rectangle about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide. Bake until the center of the loaf reaches 155 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Adjust the oven rack to the highest position (1½ to 2 inches below broiler element) and preheat broiler. Slice the loaf of lamb meat crosswise into very thin pieces (they should be about ⅛-inch thick; no more than ¼-inch thick). Lay the strips on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and broil until edges are browned and crispy, 2 to 4 minutes. (I did this in two batches, as I couldn’t fit all of the sliced meat on one baking sheet.) Be sure to keep an eye on it, as the broiler works quickly!
- Serve the Gyros: Warm up the bread either in the microwave (30 seconds), on the stovetop or in the oven. Top each with ¼ cup of tzatziki sauce, chopped tomatoes, sliced onions and gyro meat. Wrap with foil and serve.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I made these for lunch today and they are phenomenal! I made mine half beef/half lamb and it worked just fine. This one will go into my regular rotation. :)
Making these tonight and I have a question I don’t have fresh oregano I have ground oregano how much should I use? Is it still 2 tbsp? Thanks :)
Hi Zuly, I would only use a 2 teaspoons of the dried. Enjoy!
Made these tonight and YUMM! The little bit of extra effort for dinner was worth it. Second helpings all around!
I just tried this recipe today and i had to comment right away. It was awesome! tastes just like the gyro. I made it with goat meat but kept everything else the same. Came out delicious, although a touch salty. And i used kosher salt as listed, not table salt. All in all, awesome recipe.
Outstanding. Made a version of these (cut the salt a little, added marjoram). Sliced, placed on an olive oiled parchment paper, and crisped in a 450 degree oven. No need to go out for gyros any longer!
Hi, just made these today using the Ninja Professional 1000 to process the lamb after it sat for 2 hours, with the onion, bacon and garlic. What a mess! LOL!! But it did puree it :-) I have never done that before! I made double the recipe so baked 2 loaves. They were great! I also made your T sauce too. It came out really thick (I squeezed the heck out of those cucumbers!) I think next time I won’t do it soo much. Regardless, everything was very good! I served it with homemade french fries flicked with lemon juice (had some left over when I made the T sauce), and sprinkled with oregano and kosher salt. Everything was fantastic! I took photos too! :-) Thanks!
I made this last night along with homemade flatbread pitas. HOLY CRAP! Thank you so much! Absolutely amazing. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Lucky for us in Nova Scotia, Canada, we have “donairs”. They are basically the same thing made with lamb. We buy them at our local pizza joints. The only difference is the sauce. Whereas Gyros use Tzatski, donairs have donair sauce. Donair sauce is a mayonnaise based sweet sauce. While in Florida in September I tried a Gyro and now am in love with them also. I bought stuff yesterday to make some at home and looked on line to see if I was missing anything. Lucky for us we can buy the lamb meat already made for us at the local grocery store (called donair meat). Our local pizza shops make the meat as you describe, cooking a large spit and then sliced off and grilled for a short time. I’m sure I could also buy it there if I wanted to. Can’t to wait to try my own homemade. Maybe it will becomes a hit in Nova Scotia at some time in the future. Meantime I will make Gyros at home and get Donairs at my local pizza shop. Thanx.
Oh my gosh I was WONDERING how they got that texture in gyro!! I was just working on a post about some slow-cooker pulled lamb gyros, and I decided to make my next attempt the authentic way. I am SO bookmarking this to try soon soon soon!!!
Your gyro looks awesome, but I have to tell that in Greece gyro isn’t made with any ground meat. Usually is made with pork meat slices (marinated and seasoned) that they have to be shaved off in tiny stripes when grilled as you said. Then you can add whatever you want in your pita – tomato, potatoes,tzatziki or yogurt or the sauce you like, onions, and parsley on top of all these :) Pita with ground meat has other names. Lamb is more used in countries where people avoid pork for religion reasons. I never saw beef with pita here, but I suppose that in each place of earth people use what they have in hand. Anyway, souvlaki and gyro-pita is a delicious food. Love from Ikaria,Greece
I knew someone once who made their own. They made theirs into a flat loaf and froze it. then while frozen they took a sharp knife and cut the thin strips and cooked them in a fry pan.
I have got to say … these were fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. The only thing that I will change is to use a little less salt. AWESOME flavors. I’m going to attempt to make a couple and freeze them for quick dinners.
Gave this a shot today, consistency of the “loaf” wasn’t anything like what was pictured or described. It fell apart immediately upon attempting to slice it, the entire thing is crumbly and looks nothing like the picture. I’m not sure if it is related to the quality of the lamb that I used, or if it’s because of this recipe. Other recipes with similar instructions have commenters describing this happen.
I’m attempting to salvage it by forming thin strip-like loaves and broiling (or maybe pan-frying) those.
Cooked your gyro meat recipe for dinner at my fire station; it was a huge hit.
I’m making these for lunch today for my husband and all of his friends. One quick question…..do you cook the bacon before you mix it in or do you add it raw? I’m sure it doesn’t make that much of a difference but I just wanted to double check!
Hi Mandy, You add it raw. Enjoy!
Just made this tonight. Fabulous, wonderful we loved it! I can’t tell the difference between this and store bought the SAME. Excelent recipe thankyou thankyou for sharing!
♥
Made this this past weekend was awesome!
Ran out of flat bread so used soft taco wraps. Worked just as well.
The sauces is just as awesome.
I did one thing different, instead of broiling I fried the sliced meat in a single layer just until it had golden marks. Will make again! Thanks for sharing.
Hmm…this made it on the menu for this weekend and I am excited! Question though – my food processor bit the dust months ago and I’ve not replaced it…..do you think a quick pulse in my Ninja blender will be fine? Or skip that piece?
Thanks!
Hi Kelly, I’m not familiar with how the Ninja blender works, but some pulsing would probably work. Enjoy!
I am so glad I forgot that my incredibly picky boyfriend did not like lamb, and blissfully ignored the skeptical faces he made when I told him I was making these. To say he liked them would be an understatement! He has never gushed so much about something I have made, and even suggested (gasp!) we replace taco night with these. We loved everything about them. The meat had just the right amount of spice to it and the tzatziki was so fresh and tasty. I am very excited to have these back in my life (it’s been so long since I’ve had one) and can’t believe how easy it is to make them at home. This is my first time perusing your site, but it will definitely not be the last! Thanks for making this novice cook look like a rock star.
Hello! I wanted to let you know that I loved this post so much, that I included it in my own food blog’s Weekend Wrap-Up of my favorite blog posts, recipes and pins from the past week. I never would’ve thought to partially cook the meat, then slice it down to finish cooking! Thanks for such a helpful post, and I hope you enjoy your weekend!
If you’re interested, here is a link to the wrap-up:
http://www.floptimism.com/2013/09/weekend-wrap-up-quality.html
These look awesome, can’t wait to try. If anyone is looking for a fab. very easy recipe for flat bread, look on the King Arthur website, and search flat bread. The recipe would be found under Caesar grilled chicken sandwich on soft wrap bread. Great recipe!
I just made these for dinner tonight using ground beef instead of lamb as well as your tzatzicki sauce. It was an absolute hit with my kids and they are super picky! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. I can’t wait to make it again when my husband comes home!
I have made homemade chicken gyros before but I really want to try lamb!
I love love LOVE gyros. Believe it or not, we have an amazing authentic Greek gyro place at the mall, of all places. On the rare occasions I make it out to the mall, that place and Great American Cookie Company are on the must-visit list!
By the way, if you have a recipe for shawarma lurking somewhere, bring it out ASAP! That’s something that I feel pretty hopeless about being able to make at home and absolutely adore.
Traditionally, Greek gyros (and not “doner”) has pork. Still, a great recipe. :)
Looks so Good love it !
This looks awesome!!! Reminds me so much of what we know up here in Eastern Canada as a Donair. Sub the gr lamb for ground beef, sub the tzatziki for donair sauce and you’ll have a donair!! Soo good!!!
I tried these using a combination of ground beef and ground turkey (I don’t eat lamb). The flavor was good but the consistency was still like meatloaf, even after broiling. Do you think I should process the meat longer?
Hi Heather, That could work, but also be sure that you’re slicing the meat EXTREMELY thin. It shouldn’t have enough substance to still taste like meatloaf.
I’ve never had a gyro but now I want to try one! Totally agree with you that homemade is always the best!
So that’s how the lamb is made! I always thought it looked a little funny when I order it, but boy is it yummy! I concur – just about anything can be made at home! Thanks for this, I’m definitely trying it!