Gyros are a Mediterranean dish where meat is cooked on a vertical rotisserie (similar to Doner kebab), sliced and served in pitas, along with other ingredients such as tomato, onion, fried potatoes, and tzatziki. Local restaurants generally have a few different rotisseries, often including: chicken, lamb, pork, etc. with the lamb one either being whole pieces of lamb or ground lamb. This is a super easy (lazy) homemade ground lamb version where the lamb is mixed with spices and baked, meatloaf style, before being sliced thinly. Normally meatloaf is pretty crumbly and what makes this version capable of being thinly sliced is processing it in a food processor first. When ordering gyros, they generally thinly slice the moist and tender meat off of the rotisserie and fry it unit it gets crispy on the edge before throwing it into the pita. Speaking of the gyros, I like to fill them with cool and creamy tzatziki, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, fets, olives, and onions. If I’m in the mood I also like to throw in some fires or even better, lemon roasted potatoes.
Lamb Gyros
Gyros filled with moist, tender, and crispy lamb that are so easy to make at home!
ingredients
- 2 pounds ground lamb (or beef)
- 1 onion, cut into 8 pieces
- 4 cloves garlic, grated/minced
- 2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)*
- 2 teaspoons pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- 8 pitas (gluten-free for gluten-free)
- 2 cups lettuce, sliced
- 1 cup tomatoes, sliced
- 1 cup cucumber, sliced
- 1/2 cup tzatziki
- 1/4 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup feta, crumbled
For the lamb:
For the gyros:
directions
- Place everything into a food processor and process until mixed, the meat will be sticky.
- Place the meat into a loaf pan (or form a loaf shape on a baking sheet) and bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until it reaches 160F, about 50-60 minutes, before letting the loaf rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Slice the meat thinly, optionally frying the slices until crispy, before enjoying in gyros!
- Assemble the gyros and enjoy!
For the lamb:
For the gyros:
Option: Add 1/2 cup pork rinds.
Option: Assemble and roast in a vertical spit and roast in the oven.
Option: Form the meat into small, hot dog sized logs, skewer and grill.
Note: I like to save any fat left in the loaf pan after baking to use to fry the slices in!
Option: Use your favourite gyro fillings!
Note: * This recipe calls for a decent amount of salt, and the salt helps with the texture of the meat and with rendering the fat as it cooks. You can use less salt if you prefer!
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Looks amazing! I’m very low carb though, are the 33 grams of carbs from the pita? I truly hope so, because I can’t wait to make this. Any suggestions on where to buy it the best?
Thanks so much! Cristina
Sounds really good. I presume that the instruction “letting the loaf rest for 10-154 minutes.” should read “10 – 15 minutes”.
Yes! That should be 15 minutes not 154!
thanks for sharing this recipe…I can’t tell ya how many years I looked in grocery stores for “gyro” meat before I realized it was that way because it came off a rotisserie haha.
thank you, wouldn’t have known how to even start making this dish at home, even though it’s a favorite, I’m don’t know where to begin since I’m intimidated by the huge gyro spit I see in restaurants, so good to see this alternative method, thank you!
Which attachment to you use for this recipe to process using your food processor? The dicing disc, dough blade?
Can you provide details on using food processor as far as which attachment to use for processing?
Use the regular food processor blade. You can see the final consistency in the photo of the raw meat in the pan.
This was an awesome recipe. I had no idea I could make gyros this way. We made it from beef, since lamb mince is not available.
5 stars! It’s easy and delicious. Instead of sandwiches, I made a salad using lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, and red onion and topped it with tzatziki and thin slices of the gyro meat. Pita chips on the side. Thanks for another great recipe.
Delicious! Great flavor, used all lamb because I love lamb. We made pitas with ALL the toppings. And leftovers for another day.
I was very hopeful because it looked like a delicious recipe but unfortunately came out very bland despite even putting some extra seasonings in it. The meat also did not slice well and felt more like meatloaf. I was excited but looks like we will need to find another gyro recipe to try.
I make it the lazy way, especially in the summer when I don’t want to use my oven. I take lean ground beef 1.5lbs and 1/2lb mild breakfast sausage – Jimmy Dean works. PRE MIX these together in a large bowl vert well. It’s important to get consistent texture and flavor of your product. Add in the seasonings and mix it well, cook in a pan on the stove and stir well, making a large crumble. Serve with your premade sauce on a bed of lettuce, especially a nice leaf lettuce or place in pita or a nice soft fajita shell.
This is very good and easy, we have made it several times and the whole family relaly likes it!
OMG heavenly. I didn’t broil the meatloaf slices, just put in a low carb tortilla, and garnished with some premade Sprouts Tzatziki, onion, tomato… fit my low carb eating plan and was ridiculously delish. I made half recipe with 1# of meat and 42ish minutes in the oven… the food processor part of the recipe makes the meatloaf very fine, perfect for slicing… just YES!!
This was pretty good, but I can’t imagine using 4 tsp of salt! I only used ONE teaspoon of table salt and it’s still too salty.
Coming back to say this is EXCELLENT the next day!! I put thin slices under the broiler for a few minutes per side and the taste is exactly like spit-roasted gyro meat. Yesterday when it was freshly cooked it did taste good, but it was more like meatloaf and the flavour hadn’t properly melded yet. Just be mindful of the amount of salt, for anyone making this.
Thank you, Kevin!
Hi! Made this last night and we loved it! Can’t wait to have leftovers today! Thanks for a great recipe ❤