Easy Homemade Gyro Meat Recipe (2024)

Ingredients

• 1 pound of fresh, good quality, 80/20 ground chuck beef (1160 calories)

  Note: You can also use 1/2 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound ground lamb!

• 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt (a little less if using regular table salt)

  Note: A few people have commented that the original amount of 1 Tbs of salt was a bit too salty. I do think that kosher vs table salt makes a difference. However, try it with 1/2 a tablespoon and if you need more you can always salt later.

• 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 sweet or yellow onion roughly chopped (20 calories)
• 2 cloves of peeled and roughly chopped garlic (5 calories)
• Optional: 3 oz. of pork belly or fresh pork fat only if using a leaner ground beef (441 calories)

  Note: You don’t have to do this, but it does add to the consistency one expects from Greek-American Gyros. Don’t use bacon, however, because that will just make everything smoky and distract from the gyro flavor. If you use pork fat/trimmings, make sure it is very fresh from the butcher or it won’t taste good.

• Optional: Onions, tomatoes, and pita bread to make sandwiches.
• Optional, but kind of not optional: Tzatziki or Cucumber Yogurt Sauce – Click for the Recipe!

Directions

1. Combine the ground beef (or mix of ground beef and lamb) with the tablespoon of kosher salt, 2/3 teaspoon of ground black pepper, and the 3/4 teaspoon of dried oregano flakes. Salting the meat now helps to trap the meat’s natural flavors and juices inside. You’ll see later how compared to making a meatloaf in a load pan, that you lost almost no moisture from the meat!
2. Using your hands (feel free to wear latex gloves) mix the meat and the spices together. Unlike when making meatballs or burgers, feel free to mash the meat to really mix everything together really well. Form it into a tight ball, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (very important to achieve the correct consistency!) or over night. Refrigerating the meat with the salt helps to tighten the proteins in the meat to lock in those flavors.
3. After at least an hour and you are ready to start making the gyro, pre-heat the oven to 300 – 325 degrees F.
4. Roughly chop half of an onion. Save the other half for topping the gyro later.
5. Peel and roughly chop two garlic cloves.
6. Combine the onions and garlic in the food processor and blend until the onions are thoroughly pureed.
7. Add in the cold ground beef (do not let it get to room temperature) and optional pork belly or pork fat if you’re using it to the food processor. Blend everything together very well. You will need to scrape down the sides of the food processor using a spoon as needed and blend the meat again. Admittedly, the result of this mixture will look pretty gross, so don’t get discouraged! You want the meat to end up looking like a thick paste without any visible unblended pieces. This is all part of getting that processed texture of Greek-American Gyros!
8. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and dump the meat out onto it. Form the gyro meat into a rectangular loaf that is about 1.5 to 2 inches thick (Maybe 10 x 5 x 1.5). Make sure it is uniformly flat all around with a very slight indentation in the middle of the loaf. This will help keep the loaf from bunching up towards the middle when it cooks.
9. Stick a meat thermometer into the loaf from the side so that it can get the temperature near the middle of the meat.
10. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the thermometer reads 155 – 160 degrees F internal temperature for the meat. While you wait, slice up some of the onion and tomato into thin slices so you can top the gyro meat later when you eat. You can also take this time to mix up your tzatziki cucumber yogurt sauce.
11. When the gyro is ready, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes at least before slicing. I think you’ll be impressed with how little liquid escapes from the meat.
12. Place the gyro on a cutting board and with a long sharp knife start to slice it into thin strips along the short side of the loaf.
13. You can eat the meat just like that, but there’s still something missing. One of the best parts about gyro sliced off a vertical rotisserie is that crispy bit on the outside that contrasts the tender inside. We can replicate this part by broiling or grilling the strips on one side. To broil them, just lay them out on the baking sheet and set the broiler on high.Place the meat on the middle rack in the oven and broil on high for 2 or 3 minutes until you get a deeper brown color on top. If you grill them, just put the strips on high heat for a couple of minutes on one side and remove when they get some nice crispy color. You can also pan fry them on one side, a few at a time, in a non-stick pan over the stove.
14. Now the meat is ready to eat! Make a sandwich using pita bread (you can use the traditional Greek pita, which is hand pulled and has no pocket, or a Middle Eastern style pita that you can then roll up the gryo with). Lay down 3 or 4 strips of gyro meat on the pita, top it with tomatoes, thin sliced sweet onions, and tzatziki sauce. Then fold and eat!