How to Make Homemade Gyros with a Napoleon Infrared Rotisserie

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A gyro is a Greek dish made from meat cooked on a rotisserie. Today, we're going to show you how to make this delicious meal on a Napoleon grill.

Check out the full recipe below or save time by watching our helpful recipe video. Give our gyros a try and let us know what you think!

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs Ground Lamb
  • 175g Onion (1 medium)
  • 20g Garlic
  • 4g Oregano
  • 2g Rosemary
  • 2g Coriander
  • 1g Cumin
  • 1g Clove
  • 5g Lemon Zest
  • 5g Black Pepper
  • 10g Salt

Time

26 hours, mostly inactive

Yield

Recipe yields about 2 lbs gyro meat, enough for roughly 16 gyros.

Equipment

Rotisserie Kit


A few notes about the recipe:

Is it pronounced 'yerr-o' or 'jai-row'?

Just to clear it up, it's pronounced with a Y sound, like yerr-o. The more you know! 😉

What Type of Meat is Best for Gyros?

Honestly, lamb, pork, chicken, beef, veal or any combination thereof will work wonderfully for gyros. I opted for lamb in this recipe because it feels traditional, but  you can easily switch it out for something else and keep the recipe the same.

Some Thoughts on Gyro Meat:

Think of gyro meat like the Greek version of our meatloaf - with a key exception, there's no binders or fillers.

Typically, American meatloaf will feature eggs to bind the meat and breadcrumbs (oats, crackers, etc) to act as a filler for a dense texture. 

Because we're removing most of the moisture from the onion and processing the ground meat in a food processor into more of a paste-y texture, the resultant texture is dense enough to avoid binders and fillers.


1. Pulse the Onion

  • 175g Onion

Having a food processor for this recipe is key to getting the texture we're looking for in the gyro meat.

Here, we're pulsing the onion in the processor to get it finely minced, but not quite pureed.

2. Remove the Moisture from the Onion

Place your onion into a tea towel over a bowl and wring out the moisture until it's as dry as you can get it without passing out from flexing.

3. Place all of Ingredients in the Food Processor

  • Onion
  • 20g Garlic
  • 4g Oregano
  • 2g Rosemary
  • 2g Coriander
  • 1g Cumin
  • 1g Clove
  • 5g Lemon Zest
  • 5g Black Pepper
  • 10g Salt
  • 2 lbs Ground Lamb

Combine everything into the food processor, including the ground lamb, and pulse/puree until it forms a relatively smooth paste.

4. Wrap in Plastic Wrap

Place a layer of plastic wrap down on your work surface - if it's not wide enough to comfortably hold your meat mixture, you can use multiple sheets of plastic wrap to provide the necessary space.

It's going to be easier for you to roll tightly if you have plenty of extra wrap to grab a hold of, so use plenty of plastic.

The key is also to try to remove as much air as you roll it up the first time, and then as you grab hold of the ends of the plastic wrap, repeatedly roll the loaf until it is very tight and dense.

At this point, refrigerate for at least 1 hour - but over night is best to let it firm and "marinate."

5. Skewer on Your Rotisserie Spit Rod

Position your refrigerated meat so the spit rod skewers it through the center. And be sure to lock the rotisserie forks so it holds the meat tightly - if they puncture the meat, that's fine.

6. Roast Using the Infrared Back Burner

Set your infrared back burner to high and mount your rotisserie kit and let it spin.

7. Trim Your Gyro Meat

There's two ways to finish your gyro meat:

1) You can cook it all the way through without touching it - it should take about 45 to 60 minutes (until the internal temperature reaches 160F)

2) You can let it cook for about 10-15 minutes until the outer layers are cooked, and slice of the cooked pieces in batches, continuing to do so every few minutes until it's all trimmed.

I love doing the second method because I'm usually hanging out on my patio drinking with friends and slicing it off and eating more informally. This is also similar to how you'd get it at a gyro stand (though their rotisseries are vertical).

8. Serve the Gyros

The standard way to serve a gyro: pita bread, tomato, cucumber and of course tzatziki sauce. You can add fresh chopped lettuce or red onion if you wish, and I love serving mine with feta cheese.

Optional: Tzatziki Recipe

  • 16 oz Greek Yogurt
  • 6 oz Cucumber, deseeded
  • 4g Dill
  • 10g Lemon Juice
  • 20g Garlic, minced
  • Kosher Salt

Begin by processing the cucumber in a food processor the same way we did with the onion, and again place in a towel and squeeze to remove moisture. Then combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine - it's best if you can let it sit overnight to combine.

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