American Greek Gyro

The Best Greek Gyro is Here!

A Greek Gyro is great way to celebrate a food.  Not only are they great tacos, they’re 3 times the size of a street taco and, considered by some, much more like a sandwich.  The basic shell is a flat bread called, Pita and the meat and filling can vary but traditionally the vegetables are consistently the same; lettuce, tomato and red onion.  The one thing that is absolutely irreplaceable, however, is the Tzatziki Sauce and it is the secret sauce added to every gyro.

Greek Gyro Meat

Believe it or not, an authentic Greek Gyro isn’t made with Beef and Lamb or even Veil, for that matter.  Recipes that have those mixed meats originated outside of Greece.  The Greeks use a an intensified marinated pork that cooks rotisserie style.  This enables the cook to trim a just little bit off the outside at a time for each Taco as the rest of the meat continues to cook towards the middle.  The meat is sliced thin to begin with, so the trimmings from the outside tend to be very tender. And, thanks to the Marinade, very tasty.

In this recipe, I use a 1/2 pound steak cut from a Beef Chuck and 2 quarter pound Lamb Chops cut from a shoulder and I run the cuts through a meat grinder, using a large die.  This gives me 1 lbs of ground meat to marinate.

Greek Gyro Marinade

Though the mixture of Ground Beef and Lamb can be very tasty, it isn’t enough flavor to stand alone in a Greek Gyro.  A marinade must be added.  The marinade I used in my Pork Gyro recipe works great in this one is well.  The only real difference is that I cut the ingredients down because there’s less meat to season.  Also, marinating the meat itself for a time isn’t necessary.  You can cook it as soon as everything is mixed in and incorporated.

Greek Gyro Ingredients:

1/2 lbs Beef Chuck Steak, ground
1/2 lbs Lamb Chops, ground

Marinade
1/4 Red Onion, grated
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp cup Olive Oil
2 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1 tbsp Rosemary
1 tbsp Oregano
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
Kosher Salt and Pepper to taste

Toppings
Tzatziki Sauce, Click Here for Recipe
Baby Spinach or Lettuce
Tomato, diced
Red Onion, diced

Depending on your filling, you Should be able to get 6-8 Gyros from this recipe.