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.

Teriyaki Chicken

Restaurant Style Teriyaki chicken

If you love Teriyaki Chicken, this is the recipe for you. It’s as good as any restaurant recipe I have ever had. In fact, I think it’s even better than the recipe at my favorite Sushi House in town. My kids won’t usually eat anything but a California roll, so I usually order them a Bento Box that comes with a combination of things. One of which is Teriyaki Chicken. And their recipe is really good but this recipe is definitely better. The beautiful thing is that you get the wonderful flame flavor from the grill and then a nice thick syrupy sauce on the stove that can be spiced up if you’d like.

Teriyaki Chicken with Stir Fry

I like to have my Teriyaki Chicken with Stir Fry or even by itself served with white or brown steamed rice. After the chicken is cooked on the grill and cut into bite size pieces, I like to add the chicken to a hot pan on the stove with more Teriyaki Sauce. This is the best time to add vegetables if you plan to make a Stir Fry. It only takes a few minutes to cook as you thicken and caramelize the sauce. My original Teriyaki Sauce post can be found HERE so you can watch the video but I’ll add the ingredients down below.

Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients:

4-8 Boneless Chicken Thighs
1/2 cup Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki Sauce
1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Sake
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder

Combine all of the Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and reduce for approximately 20 minutes until you’ve reached desired thickness. Then follow the directions in the video to make the Teriyaki Chicken.

Teriyaki Sauce – Asian Restaurant Cooking Secrets

The Best Teriyaki Sauce

This is a fantastic Teriyaki Sauce recipe. I’ve taken my knowledge and experience from my professional Asian American training and brought you something that you’re really going to love. Usually I show you recipes that you can dumb down a bit to keep it simple, and you can do that with this if you prefer, but I highly recommend you add every ingredient I’ve listed down below so you can share in the excitement I have when ever I make an Asian dish using Teriyaki. It’s bold and full of flavor yet not overpowering and with this perfect balance you can make it thin or reduce it down to make a thicker sauce.

I use Teriyaki Sauce in the following recipes: Teriyaki Beef Jerky, Teriyaki and Mesquite Shish Kabobs and my Beef and Broccoli with Teriyaki recipe. I’ve also got a Teriyaki Chicken recipe on the way. So if you’re interested in any of these recipes, just click each one and it will take you straight the original posts.

Restaurant vs Store bought Teriyaki Sauce

In case you don’t know, my Mongolian Beef recipe is #1 on YouTube and it’s very similar to this Teriyaki Sauce recipe. In fact, I often get comments on m video from people that claim it’s just Teriyaki Beef but that’s not true. True Teriyaki has Mirin and Sake in it and those two ingredients aren’t in my Mongolian Beef recipe. That’s like saying Ketchup is just Cocktail Sauce even though it needs horseradish to make it so. The truth is there are a hundred different Asian recipes that have a combination of many of these same ingredients but they all vary, quite a bit, from one another in flavor. It just depends on the amounts you add of each ingredient and different tweaks here and there. Restaurant Sauces, however, always go big and bold and they don’t have to worry about preservatives. Bottled sauces do and it changes the dynamics tremendously. That’s why it’s hard to find a real good Teriyaki Sauce in a bottle. I would recommend that you go for the thicker sauces if you’re going to buy one, however. They’re usually the best all around.

Be sure to check out some of my other Asian Sauce recipes like Potsticker Dipping Sauce, Chinese Barbecue Sauce and my Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Sake
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder

Combine all of the Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and reduce for approximately 20 minutes until you’ve reached desired thickness.