Greek-American Lamb Gyros

I don’t even know where to start with these. They were SO incredibly good! Bryan and I enjoyed every single bite of this popular Greek meal. I made gyros a few months ago, but the recipe I used just wasn’t that great or worth sharing. While making our dinner menu for the week, Bryan requested gyros again. I obviously wasn’t crazy about the first recipe so I went on the hunt for a new and improved one. I stumbled across this article. Here, some chef did a food lab experiment of different methods for making gyros at home. Perfect! I read through it and really liked what he described, so I went for it!

To add to my growing collection of kitchen electronics and gadgets, I bought the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Wowsa, that thing was awesome! Way better than my previous method using the food processor. We bought a boneless lamb leg roast (from Costco, ha!). I portioned out about a pound of meat and froze the rest. I trimmed some of the fat prior to grinding, however I made sure to leave enough as this is the main binding ingredient. I omitted the bacon and had no issues. Otherwise, I followed the recipe in its entirety.

The end result was delicious, perfectly juicy, well seasoned lamb slices. The only change I would make next time would be to flip the meat and broil on BOTH sides. I highly recommend reading the food lab article to see the entire process and importance of each step. We enjoyed our gyros on wheat pita flatbreads with Tzaztiki from the local Mediterranean restaurant as well as an amazing garbanzo bean salad and barley salad from the same restaurant. We completed the gyros with tomatoes, red onion and crumbled feta. I can’t WAIT to make these again!

Adapted from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on Serious Eats

Ingredients
1 lb ground lamb
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp picked fresh oregano leaves (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1/2 onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 clove garlic, sliced

Directions
1. Combine lamb, salt, pepper, and oregano in medium bowl. Mix with hands until homogeneous. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 300°F. Place cold mixture in bowl of food processor with onion and garlic. Process until smooth puree is formed, about 1 minute total, scraping down sides with rubber spatula as necessary.

3. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. With moist hands, form meat mixture into rectangle about 1 1/2 inches high, 8-inches long, and 5-inches wide. Bake until center of loaf reads 155°F on an instant read thermometer, about 30-40 minutes. Allow loaf to rest at room temperature for 10-15 (or refrigerate for up to a week).

4. Adjust broiler rack to highest position (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches from broiler element) and preheat broiler. Slice loaf crosswise into 1/8th to 1/4-inch strips (each strip should be about 5-inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide). Lay strips on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and broil until edges are brown and crispy, about 2-3 minutes.

5. Serve on warmed pita flatbread with Tzaztiki, red onions, tomatoes and feta.

The Facts
4 Servings (Meat Only)