Lamb Gyros

A hand holding up a greek lamb gyro in a flat bread.

These juicy and flavor loaded lamb gyros are the best you'll ever have! You will seriously never have to eat at a gyro restaurant ever again, because these are BETTER!

Course Main Course

Cuisine greek, Mediterranean

Prep Time 35

Cook Time 35

Chill Time 4

Total Time 5 10

Servings well filled gyros

Calories 256kcal

Author Whitney Wright

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.

Notes

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.

Nutritional information does not include "for serving" suggestions.

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats.

Nutrition