How to Make Chicken Gyros

One of our favourite cuisines is Greek – I love the fresh flavours that capture a little mediterranean sunshine. Which is precisely what we need at the moment! Gyros are a delicious Greek food that we love to eat, but I’d never tried recreating them at home before – until recently. I’m pleased to say that they were a huge success, plus very simple to make! For anyone that doesn’t know, gyros are soft pitta bread wraps normally filled with tzatziki, sliced meat or halloumi, onions, tomatoes and fries. All delicious ingredients guaranteed to result in a great meal! So, here is my recipe for making homemade chicken gyros.

I decided to go the whole hog with this recipe and make everything from scratch – including the flatbreads! We decided to have chicken gyros, so this recipe is tailored for that – but you could swap the chicken out for pork or halloumi. For the flatbreads, I adapted Jamie Oliver’s easy flatbread recipe which worked a treat.

Ingredients:

To make plenty for 2 people, you will need:

CHICKEN

• 250g – 300g chicken (we used mini fillets)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 4 crushed garlic cloves (or 2 tsp garlic granules)
• 2 tsp dried basil
• Salt & pepper

FLATBREADS

• 350g self-raising flour (or 350g plain flour plus 2 heaped tsp baking powder)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 350g natural yoghurt

TZATZIKI

• 200g Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 a cucumber, grated
• Handful of mint leaves, finely chopped
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

TO SERVE

• Oven fries (or you can make your own, if you like!)
• Feta (or grilled halloumi)
• Red onion, very finely sliced
• Cherry tomatoes (or any tomato, sliced)
• Greek salad, if you fancy it

All of the ingredients can, of course, be adjusted to suit whatever you have in your fridge and cupboards. This is a flexible recipe, which is precisely what we need at the moment!

Make Your Gyros:

1. Prepare the marinade for your chicken by combining the spices, oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Add your chicken and cover. If you’re prepared, you can leave your chicken to marinade for 3 hours or overnight – I left mine for around 1 hour.
2. Make the dough for your flatbreads. Add your flour, baking powder and natural yoghurt to a bowl and combine with a spoon. Use your hands to bring the dough together, and then tip the dough onto a floured surface.
3. Knead the dough for a minute or so, then transfer to a flour-dusted bowl, cover and leave to one side.
4. Next, cook your chips – I just used standard oven fries that I dusted with garlic granules, salt, pepper and oregano. Cook according to packet instructions.
5. I like to prep all of my accompaniments first, so next make your tzatziki. Grate your cucumber and squeeze out the excess water thoroughly using a tea towel or kitchen roll. You don’t want your tzatziki to be watery! Add the cucumber to a bowl along with your greek yoghurt, chopped mint and garlic. Add your lemon juice and mix it all together.
6. If you fancy a Greek salad with your gyros, make this now. I make mine with halved tomatoes, sliced red onion, cubed feta, chopped cucumber and some kalamata olives. Sprinkle over some dried oregano and a drizzle of olive oil, and give it a good mix.
7. Now cook your chicken. I cooked ours on our George Foreman, but you could either skewer your chicken and cook under the grill or simply pan fry it. Cook until white through the middle and the juices run clear. To serve, slice your chicken however you like (or leave your mini fillets whole like we did).
8. While your chicken is cooking, cut your flatbread dough into 6 equal pieces. On a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll each piece of your dough out to around 3mm thick. Add your rolled dough to a hot, dry frying pan and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until the dough puffs up. Repeat this for each piece of dough.

Time to assemble your chicken gyros! Grab a flatbread, add a good dollop of tzatziki, top with chicken, fries, feta, red onion and tomatoes. Wrap it up and enjoy!

It’s worth noting that this is a very generous portion for two people – we just about managed to eat two chicken gyros and then had leftovers for the next day!

I hope you enjoy this recipe for homemade chicken gyros, and I’d love to know if you give it a try! If you do give it a go, make sure to tag me in any photos so that I can see your recreations.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Greek feast and I’ll definitely be making these again soon. Gyros are now a firm favourite recipe in our household!

You might also like this post, How to Make Asian Crispy Beef

PS. if you’re struggling to get your hands on ingredients, check out Nosh Box to see if they deliver to you!

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