Lamb Gyros
These homemade lamb gyros will put restaurant or whole-in-the-wall Greek place gyros to shame! A soft pita bread is filled with my delicious homemade tzatziki sauce, fresh tomatoes, onion and broiled sliced lamb meat that is packed with flavor.
Making a wide variety of foods from different cuisines is important to me (1. because I love all kinds of foods and 2. because I think it’s good for my kids to experience new flavors and foods!). So, Greek food is a frequent flyer for dinnertime, especially because the recipes are so easy and quick to make. Try out my Greek pasta salad, Greek quesadillas, and chickpea gyros and see for yourself! Prefer chicken over lamb? Try my Greek Chicken Gyros!
Why This Recipe Works
- Making gyros meat isn’t hard with this recipe. While you’re probably used to seeing a rotating spit of meat that people will carve off and add to your gyros, this recipe makes making gyros meat at home super easy. We bake the meat mixture in a nice block and then slice and broil it to give it that same rotating spit texture, flavor and bake.
Ingredients
- Ground Lamb: I use about 1 lb of ground lamb. We’ll add some flavor to it with bacon and spices. Gyros are traditionally made from lamb, but you could use ground beef or another form of ground meat if you’d rather. (I haven’t tried this recipe with another form of ground meat, so if you try it, let me know how it turns out in the comments below.)
- Yellow Onion: Some onion is chopped and mixed inside the ground lamb, but leave some onion to freshly slice as a garnish for inside the gyros for added crunch and flavor.
- Bacon: We add the raw bacon into the food processor with the meat. It gives a nice fatty, bacon flavor to the lamb gyros meat.
- Tzatziki Sauce: This homemade tzatziki sauce is SO good. You will be so glad you made it! It’s light, refreshing, and is a must for any gyros.
- Pita Bread: The bread for gyros is pita bread, but not the pocket pita kind.
- Tomato: Sliced fresh to use as a garnish for the gyros. This adds a nice wetness to the gyros.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Combine the ground lamb, salt, pepper, and oregano in a bowl. Using your hands, mix until its incorporated well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to over night.
- Preheat your oven to 300°F. Adjust your oven rack so it’s in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Place the raw ground lamb onion, garlic, and raw bacon in a food processor. Pulse smooth (about 1 minute).
- Wet your hands and then form the meat into an 8”x5” rectangle on the lined baking sheet. It will be about 1 ½ inches in height.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the loaf reads 155°F. Allow the loaf to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes prior to cutting it.
- Adjust your oven broiler rack to the highest position about 2 inches from broiler element and preheat the broiler. Slice the meat crosswise into 1/8” to ¼”inch strips. The strips should be about 5 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide.
- Lay the strips on the baking sheet lined with foil and broil until the edges are crisp and golden (about 2 minutes). Remove from oven and assemble the gyros.
- To assemble, warm the pita bread either in the microwave or by broiling on a baking sheet until soft about 45 seconds per side.
- Place a few slices of meat on the warm pita, top with tzatziki sauce, sliced tomatoes, and onions. Wrap with foil and serve.
Recipe Tips
Additions: Feel free to add more inside your lamb gyros such as shredded iceberg lettuce, kalamata olives, feta cheese, chopped cucumber, etc.
Using the fresh oregano leaves will give you a stronger flavor throughout the meat. However, you can use dried oregano. I would probably just add a touch more of the dried to try and bring more of that flavor out.
Lamb gyros meat: Be sure to chill the lamb meat with the spices. This helps the spices incorporate into the meat, giving us a better flavor. By baking first and then slicing and broiling, we’re getting more of the classic gyros meat cook and the traditional shaved meat look too. Plus, cooking and then slicing and broiling makes the cook time much faster.
Serving suggestions: Serve with roasted cauliflower, sweet boiled corn, or a corn avocado feta salad.
FAQs
The official name is doner kebab, which is either ground lamb, beef or chicken rotating on a stick that people shave pieces off and add to pita bread or salads.
Gyros is the dish in its entirety — so the pita bread, sauce, toppings and meat. Gyros meat is typically lamb, but it can also be ground beef or chicken.
Lamb is low in calories and high in protein, making it a good protein source. The sauce is a yogurt base and the fresh veggies in the gyros are also good for you!
More Wrap Recipes
- Healthy Chicken Wraps with Cilantro Lime Sauce
- Avocado Chicken Wraps
- Ground Beef Taquitos
- Baked Chicken Taquitos
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Lamb Gyros
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
- 1/2 yellow onion - cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 garlic clove
- 5 slices bacon - cut into 1 inch pieces
For serving
- tzatziki sauce
- pita bread - not pocket pita
- fresh tomato - sliced
- finely sliced onion - for serving
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine the ground lamb, salt, pepper, and oregano in a bowl. Using your hands mix until its incorporated well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to over night.
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Adjust oven rack to middle position and line a baking sheet with foil.
- Place the ground lamb in the bowl of a food processor. Add the onion, garlic, and bacon. Process until smooth puree is formed, about 1 minute.
- Moisten hands and form the meat into an 8”x5” rectangle on the lined baking sheet. Will be about 1 ½ inches in height. Bake for 30 minutes or until the center of the loaf reads 155°F. Allow the loaf to rest at room temperature for 15 minutes prior to cutting it.
- Adjust oven broiler rack to highest position about 2 inches from broiler element and preheat the broiler. Slice the meat crosswise into 1/8” to ¼”inch strips. The strips should be about 5 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide. Lay the strips on the baking sheet lined with foil and broil until the edges are crisp and golden, 2 minutes. Remove from oven and assemble the gyros.
- To assemble, warm the pita bread either in the microwave or by broiling on a baking sheet until soft about 45 seconds per side.
- Place a few slices of meat on the warm pita, top with tzatziki sauce, sliced tomatoes, onions. Wrap with foil and serve.
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2 Comments on “Lamb Gyros”
Hi, if I did not want to use bacon, do I need to substitute the recipe with anything? Or can I just skip it and follow the rest of it as is? Thanks.
I suggest you use the bacon. It brings in SO much flavor, you really don’t want to skip it! I haven’t tried making it without the bacon so I can’t say if it’ll work/taste good if you eliminate it.