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.
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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!
My husband and I just tried a new Greek restaurant in our area the other night. We both ordered gyros and were a little disappointed that the meat was packaged and just heated up on the flat top, and there were no onions in the gyro. Now I can make them at home…can’t wait to try your recipe this weekend! I think I’m going to stick with the family recipe for tzatziki sauce (grated and drained cucumbers, plain yogurt, minced garlic, white pepper, olive oil and a splash of vinegar).
This meal was incredible!! The recipe is easy to follow and the end product was delicious!!
Thanks for this gyro recipe! I just moved and realized that there are no Greek restaurants anywhere near my new apartment. I tried your recipe when I craving a good gyro and was pretty impressed. I did terrible cutting the meat, but it still tasted good. Thanks for sharing this!
How do you get the slices like like? Mine always fall apart. ?
I just use a super sharp knife and go slowly!
This recipe is amazing! I made this for my husbands birthday all i heard was this is so good, between bites of course. Now that i know how easy the sauce and meat are to make on my own i dont need to go out for my favorite food. Thank you for the recipe.
Amazing! I simplified it by using 1 tbsp of dryer oregano instead of 2 tbsp of fresh which I had in the house already. And skip the “Puree” step. I am not a fan of mushy meat. Added a little garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika.
Great recipe! My husband loves lamb, it was delicious. I will definitely make this again!
SO Excited to make these for a Greek-inspired menu in a few weeks. I’ll be serving a crowd, and wondered if I could prep this a day ahead by doing the first bake and slicing the meat, then broiling when I’m ready to serve? What do you think?
Hi Wendy, I would probably prepare the meat the whole way then just reheat for serving.
This is the best! Everyone in my family loves lamb gyros and now I can make it at home thanks to you. Thanks a bunch for sharing your recipe.
Thanks for posting the recipe! Thought it sounded good but adjusted the Greek seasoning to one I found on Food.com, mixed it all together and let the meat with the seasoning sit for 3 hours. Followed the rest of the recipe as followed and could not have been happier!! Great with lamb and the addition of bacon takes it to another level!! Thanks again!!!
This was delicious. It was better than anything I’ve gotten out. Thanks for the recipe. Definitely a keeper. I have already recommended it to several people. I will make this again.
Made them and it was a big hit!
Would baking in the oven or pan frying after cutting the loaf into very thin slices, achieve the same effect as broiling, as my oven has no broiler?
thank you, for making what seem like culinary impossibilities into
reality.
Hi Monica, I think baking at the highest temperature your oven has would be the closest to broiling. Enjoy!
These were amazing! I followed all directions to a tee and they were delicious! I made some fresh pita’s to go with them (from http://feelingfoodish.com/greek-flatbread-or-pocketless-pitas/). Gyros will be a staple “fast food fix” in our house from now on. Oh, and they freeze beautifully. I placed them flat in a ziploc and they unthaw great! Thanks so much for this recipe!
I just got a gyro and chicken over rice instead of the pita bread off a food truck in DC and thought to myself ” I wonder if I can make this at home” ? I am excited to try this out! Thanks!
Tried making this but ran into a bit of a nightmare with the food processor – even though I sliced the bacon as directed, fatty parts ended up twisting around the motors in not one, but TWO food processors. Burned through both motors, and in desperation I tried using a blender as a last resort (can’t tell you how much of the lamb was wasted transferring from multiple devices). Never got a good puree. I used cuisinart food processors, but maybe something more industrial is required? Really disappointed (especially given that with the herbs, lamb, etc., the meal wasn’t exactly cheap). My semi-pureed loaf is in the oven now, but I know that the texture will be off. For those without high-end food processors, you may want to avoid this dish or else leave out the bacon and/or chop the bacon much smaller than directed.
I recently tried making this. It came out a bit crumbly and meatloaf-like, too. I think I have a few reasons why that might be. The ground lamb I got at the local Albertsons seemed very fatty. When I took it out to test the temperature, there was a lot of liquid around the loaf and coming out of the spot where the thermometer had pierced. I noticed when I was cutting it that the meat wasn’t as dense as you would expect gyro meat to be. I think next time I try to make this, I’ll first go with another store’s ground lamb (luckily the local Fry’s (aka Kroger) stores here carry it as well). Second, I’ll try to make to in a shallow cake/brownie pan and try to press the meat as much as possible to try to get a less airy consistency.
Kenji Lopez-Alt addressed this issue when he published the recipe in 2010. He does a scientific breakdown of how he developed the recipe and what faults can happen.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/greek-american-lamb-gyros-homemade-from-scratch-the-food-lab.html
I made this last night and it was WONDERFUL! I have been trying to find a good gyro meat recipe. My husband and kids loved them (5 & 2). I also found a recipe and made my own pocketless pitas. Delicious :) I might have to make these for a football game.
I made these this week and they turned out great! Big fan. Besides, what’s not to love about bacon!!! I made exactly as recipe said.
Good girl! I’m so excited to see that you have an authentic Greek recipe for your tzaziki. Most people just use sour cream and don’t even bother with straining the yogurt. Silly.
I just made this and it was delicious!
I made this yesterday for my family and my husband was so impressed (and so was I!!). I also made the Tzaziki which was pretty good. I’ve now made 3 Brown Eyed Baker recipes in a week! (Made the Sausage and Spinach Breakfast Casserole for Easter lunch!!) Yummy!
I love gyros and would like to try to make this at home. I have access to ground lamb so that’s no problem. I am curious as to what the bacon adds to the recipe, even though getting my hands on various kinds of bacon isn’t a problem. Is it fat? I could use ground pork instead.
The bacon adds some fat, yes (although lamb is plenty fatty already), but also a nice smokey undertone to the gyro meat.
These look so good. I’ve been craving them for days. Tonight for dinner they shall be mine! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I’d love to try to make this for Easter. Is there a way to make it ahead of time and then just reheat on the day of? Like could I bake the meat and then keep it in the fridge over night and then the next day just broil it before serving?
Hi Tricia, I think you could completely cook the meat and then just reheat in the microwave the next day. We kept the cooked meat for a few days and reheated as we needed, and it was great.
This recipe rocks! It’s the only one I use for gyros. I don’t add as much bacon because it can be over powering, other than that I don’t change anything in the ingredients. It’s perfect. Today I mixed ground elk and lamb and it turned out delicious. Thank you so much for sharing this. It’s so easy and cheaper to make it at home.
I am in love with your blog! Pinned a whole lot of recipes that I cannot wait to try, including this one. My husband and I love lamb gyros so I’m definitely going to be making this for dinner sometime soon!
Anyway to make this without bacon or pork? Love lamb myself. I avoided it for years and first experience was a lamb stew the cook was not very good either. A man from Chile taught me how to oven cook leg of lamb fresh from pasture…Mmmm nummers!~!! Definitely worth trying though finding lamb around here is next to impossible :o(
Hi Angel, I think you could just omit the bacon; the flavor will be a little bit different, but I think it will still taste great!
Been craving a gyro since I move from NYC to Florida. These look great, and I’m planning on trying this recipe tomorrow. Do you think it would be easier to cut thin if you put it into the fridge for a couple hours after it has rested? As far as the Tzatziki Sauce, I prefer a creamy sauce. I find Greek yogurt to be thick and pasty. Do you think regular plain yogurt would soften it?
Hi Mike, I didn’t have an issue with slicing the meat, just make sure you have a nice sharp slicing knife and you should be just fine. Refrigerating it before baking it again might compromise the texture.
for those wondering about the bacon, if you use a high fat ground beef it should work as well, it will just have a different flavor. the reason you’d use bacon is because of its fat content and when you process it with the lamb it makes an emulsion. that and bacon is delicious. for those whose meat is falling apart, there are a couple of things that may be going wrong. either the meat is too warm when blending it all together or there isn’t enough fat in the mixture.