Gyros
The Greek equivalent of a döner kebab, but made with pork, and much nicer. Also known as Gyro, γύρος.
Greek Main. Published by Jon Scaife. Updated .
1.4kcal/g
28g / serving
5.2g / serving
10g / serving
3.1g / serving
5.3g / serving
Suitable for:PartyPregnancy
Gyros (pronounced gear-ross) is a Greek fast food made with pork, chips, tomato, onion and tzatziki, all wrapped in a Greek-style soft pita-bread, similar to eastern flatbread. The meat is cooked on an upright rotisserie (the word gyros means 'turn' just like the Turkish word döner). Most of us don't have a rotisserie at home, so this recipe attempts to emulate the effect by having some of the meat dry fried (like the top of the rotisserie) and some meat cooked with a lot of juices (like the bottom of the rotisserie). It's quite a long job to get it right, but it's great for parties. Note that gyros should not be confused with souvlaki, where the meat is cooked like a shish kebab - in edible size pieces on individual skewers. Gyros can be served unwrapped on a plate, but is usually served as a wrap.
Preparation
Pita bread
- Mix the flour and salt together and sift onto a clean work surface
- Make sure the water is lukewarm and stir in the sugar
- Stir the yeast into the water and leave to stand for a couple of minutes
- Form a 'well' in the flour and pour the water-sugar-yeast mix into it
- Use a fork to push approx ¼ of the flour into the liquid, making sure to leave an intact 'wall' around the edge, and then stir it in gently
- Once the flour has mixed in, push a bit more in and repeat the stirring
- Repeat 2-3 more times until all the flour and water are mixed together. Don't rush this as the liquid will escape if you aren't careful.
- Oil your hands and knead the dough ball until it forms a clammy spongy ball which doesn't leave too much mix on your fingers. Ideally the dough should be stretched and kneaded for around 10 minutes, although 4-5 minutes is usually enough.
- Oil a large bowl and place the dough ball into it. Cover with a cloth or towel for at least an hour. The dough should double in size
- The dough can be kept in the fridge ready to use for several days
Pork
- Slice the meat into thin slices, then tenderise with a meat tenderiser
- Combine the marinade ingredients
- Coat the meat slices thoroughly and leave to marinade in a fridge for at least 1-2 hours, and ideally overnight.
- Slice a potato and create a base for some wooden skewers
- Stack the slices on top of each on the skewers to re-form a joint, ensuring they are still coated in marinade.
- Wrap in foil, leaving a little bit of space all around the top and sides. Pour any left-over marinade over the top
- Roast in the oven at
170°C for around 3-4 hours - Leave to cool. The meat can now be used immediately, یا can be kept for 2-3 days before use.
The complete gyros
- Cut the meat into small pieces (½ X 1 X 3 cm or so)
- Put the remaining juices into a pan on a low-medium heat to reduce for around 1 hour
- Once the juice has reduced add in approx half of the meat and cook on a low heat until most of the liquid has disappeared, which will take around 30-45 minutes.
- Cook some chips (to get greek-style chips, leave the raw chips to soak in cold water for at least an hour before cooking)
- Thinly slice some fresh tomato and fresh onion. Soak the sliced onion in cold water for an hour to reduce the sharpness.
- Split the dough ball into 6 smaller balls
- Oil a rolling pin and roll each dough ball out until it is approx 3mm thick and 25cm in diameter
- Use a brush to oil the both sides with olive oil (the rolling pin should have already done most of this for you on the first side)
- Dry fry in a hot frying pan. 30 seconds for the first side, and approx 90 seconds for the second side
- Dry-fry the other half of the meat until crispy golden-brown bits start to appear, around 10 mins
- Mix the 2 lots of meat together
- Layer greaseproof paper on top of kitchen roll and put a pita on top, holding in one hand with each side slightly curled in
- Layer on 3-4 tbsp of meat, a handful of chips, 5-6 slices of tomato, a handful of sliced onion and finish with 1tbsp tzatziki.
- Sprinkle on approx ⅓ tsp adobo seasoning
- Wrap the pita around the filling in a cone shape and serve
Notes
- You can just buy the tzatziki and/or the adobo seasoned salt premade from the supermarket but I prefer to make my own
Ingredients
- Pita bread
- 500g flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 7g dried yeast
- 2tsp caster sugar
- 275ml water
- 60ml olive oil
- Pork
- 1kg pork joint
- 2 tsp adobo seasoning
- 2tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried rigani
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp water
- 1 lemon
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp mustard
- 2tsp cumin
- 2tbsp honey
- The complete gyros
- 1kg potatoes (500g of chips)
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 2tsp adobo seasoning
- 6tbsp tzatziki
Equipment
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Garlic crusher (optional)
- Roasting pan
- Kitchen foil
- Bowl
- Rolling pin
Nutritional Facts
- Serving size: 652.7g
- (37% / 46%) Calories: 918kcal
- (51%)Total fat: 28g
- (26%) Saturated fat: 5.2g
- (54%) Unsaturated fat: 18.9g
- Mono: 16g
- Poly: 2.9g
- (38%) Cholesterol: 114mg
- Trans Fat: 0g
- (37%)Total carbohydrates: 111g
- Starch: 0g
- (33%) Sugars: 10g
- Sucrose: 2.6g
- Glucose: 1.3g
- Maltose: 0g
- Lactose: 0g
- Fructose: 1.3g
- Galactose: 0g
- (21%) Fibre: 5.3g
- (114%)Protein: 57g
- Salts
- (62%) Sodium: 1.2g
- (58%) Potassium: 2g
- Minerals
- Calcium: 11%
- Iron: 48%
- Zinc: 58%
- Magnesium: 41%
- Phosphorus: 106%
- Copper: 78%
- Manganese: 10%
- Selenium: 850%
- Fluoride: 0%
- Cryptoxanthin: 41mg
- Lycopene: 22%
- Lutein: 0.2g
- Vitamins
- Vitamin A: 42µg
- Thiamin (B1): 158%
- Riboflavin (B2): 58%
- Niacin (B3): 113%
- Vitamin B5: 0%
- Vitamin B6: 123%
- Folate (B9): 9%
- Vitamin B12: 42%
- Choline: 30%
- Vitamin C: 100%
- Vitamin D: 6%
- Vitamin E: 31%
- Vitamin K: 22%
- Arginine: 94mg
- Aspartic Acid: 81mg
- Glutamate: 0.1g
- Glycine: 28mg
- Proline: 77mg
- Serine: 21mg
- Tyrosine: 21mg
- Alanine: 26mg
- Cystine: 9mg
- Amino Acids
- Histidine: 10mg
- Isoleucine: 21mg
- Leucine: 40mg
- Methionine: 7mg
- Phenylalanine: 27mg
- Threonine: 19mg
- Tryptophan: 6mg
- Valine: 32mg
- Lysine: 32mg
- Betaine: 0mg
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