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.

Crispy Fish Tacos

The Best Crispy Fish Tacos

There isn’t just one way to make Crispy Fish Tacos and you can choose from a variety of fish.  You don’t need to get all gourmet about it, though, and choose expensive fish.  Half the point is to save money and go with some delicious and cheap.  Unfortunately, Cod has been fairly expensive lately and many recipes use it in their tacos because it tastes great.  But, who can afford $7 to $10 dollars per pound?  Might as well buy Shrimp at those prices.  Tilapia, Pollack and Swai are good alternatives, if you’re cooking from scratch but I’m going to shock you and ask you to consider frozen fish Fillets.

Frozen Crispy Fish Tacos

That’s right, I said it, Frozen Crispy Fish Tacos are amazing and incredibly inexpensive.  I bought this bag of Gorton’s Crunchy Breaded Fish Fillets for only $3 bucks.  I’m not affiliated with them in any way so, for all I care, buy Van De Kamp’s or some other brand on sale.  The point is, these are ready to go and you can make some great fish tacos with these fillets.  Not only does it save time, the clean up is just one oven pan.  So consider these the next time you want to crank out some crispy fish tacos.

If you want to do it from scratch, however, be my guess.  I’ve got a fantastic Beer Batter recipe and/or a Southern Fish Fry recipe you can use, if you prefer.  the Beer Batter is also great for making Onion Rings and the Southern Fish Fry can be used for Shrimp as well.  Either way, you’re also going to need my Pico De Gallo recipe to make these Tacos as well.  So study up and let me know if you have any questions.

Crispy Fish Tacos Ingredients:

10 Fish Fillet’s, 3-4 oz portions
1 pkg Corn Tortillas
1 head Cabbage, chopped
2 Limes, cut into wedges
1 cup Pico De Gallo, CLICK HERE
1/2 cup Crema or Sour Cream

Be sure to watch the short video tutorial to make these Crispy Fish Tacos.

Pork Chorizo – How to make Chorizo from Scratch

The Best Pork Chorizo

This Pork Chorizo recipe is excellent and on point.  It’s got everything you want in a great Chorizo and it’s fun and easy to make.  In this post and video tutorial, I show you how to make sausage stuffed in hog casings and I give you the option of making sausage links that you can grill or make a real pasty Chorizo that you can combine with Eggs for breakfast, homemade Chili or some amazing burritos like this Chimichanga recipe.

Making Pork Chorizo From Scratch

You’re going to need a good Pork Roast and either Pork Belly Fat or Fat Back.  I use 3 parts, a 2 to 1 ratio; 2 parts Pork to 1 part fat.  I cut everything down into portions that will fit through my meat grinder and then mix in all of my other ingredients.  From there it’s like clock work, stuffing the hog casings and twisting links.  Now there are some alternatives to this recipe that I’d like to mention.  If you don’t want to make sausage links you can twist the sausage up in saran wrap and I show you how to do that in my Italian Sausage video found HERE.

If you want a pasty Pork Chorizo, you’re going to want to make my homemade Enchilada Sauce and add it to this recipe.  There’s nothing else like it.  My recipe is thick and pure, so you’ll want to check it out before you decide to add your own or resort to a canned product.

If you’re interested in more recipes that use a kitchen aide to stuff hog casings, you should take a look at my Cajun Boudin recipe.

Pork Chorizo Ingredients:

2 lbs Pork Shoulder/Butt, ground
1 lbs Pork Belly Fat or Fat Back, ground

3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
2 tbsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Smoked Paprika
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Corn Syrup or Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Chili flakes
1 1/2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 Lard or Shortening

1 cup Enchilada Sauce, optional (CLICK HERE)

Follow the directions in my Pork Chorizo video tutorial and I’ll show you how easy this recipe is to make.