What is a gyros in greece. Gyros Recipe - Greek Shawarma

Gyros is a pita stuffed with meat cooked on a vertical spit. Both beef and chicken can be used to create this dish. Although in our time you can also see vegetarian gyros, its recipe will be discussed in our article. But let's start with the meat version.

meat recipe

For cooking you will need:

Two st. tablespoons of olive oil;

. ¼ cup lemon juice;

Three medium cloves of garlic;

a tablespoon of red wine vinegar;

Three chicken breasts (about 650 grams);

Ch. a spoonful of sugar;

Pepper (ground);

2 tablespoons of regular yogurt;

0.5 cups of feta cheese;

Red onion (half);

Tomato and red bell pepper;

Half of one cucumber;

5 pcs.

Half a cucumber;

200 ml Greek yogurt;

garlic clove;

Half a teaspoon of salt;

Half a tablespoon of fresh dill and white wine vinegar;

0.25 tsp freshly ground pepper;

A tablespoon of lemon (freshly squeezed) juice.

Gyros: cooking recipe

1. In a bowl, whisk together oil, salt, lemon juice, pepper, vinegar, garlic (crushed) and sugar. In a separate container, pour three tbsp. spoons of the resulting marinade. In the remaining add yogurt, 1 tsp. salt. Put the chicken in the marinade, cover with cling film. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

2. Preheat the grill.

3. Make the sauce. Grate the cucumber, put in a bowl, add salt. Set aside for 15 minutes, strain, remove liquid.

4. Then mix cucumber with yogurt, lemon juice, vinegar, dill, black pepper, garlic (crushed).

5. Finely chop the bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, cucumber. Crumble the cheese.

6. In a bowl, add 2 tbsp. l. reserved marinade and chopped onion. Then add vegetables, cheese.

7. Remove the chicken from the marinade, grill, brown for five minutes. Turn the meat over, fry on the other side for 4 minutes.

8. Place chicken legs on a plate.

9. Grill the pita for about twenty seconds on each side.

10. Wrap the finished pita in foil.

11. Cut the chicken into strips, mix with the marinade (one tablespoon). Arrange the chicken with vegetables on a platter. Then serve with pita.

Gyros recipe at home

This dish is quite easy to prepare. This dish will delight lovers

To prepare gyros, the recipe of which we are now describing, you will need:

Two pitas;

Three pinches of black pepper;

One tomato;

120 grams of beef;

Two pinches of lemon pepper;

3 drops Worcestershire sauce;

A pinch of paprika;

Ch. spoon of garlic powder;

Olive oil (0.5 tablespoons);

180 grams of olives.

For the sauce you will need:

One cucumber;

Two drops of white wine vinegar;

One container (240 grams);

Half a teaspoon of salt and dill;

Half a red onion.

Cooking

1. Let's start describing the recipe for Greek gyros from the filling. First, heat oil in a frying pan, add beef, paprika, lemon pepper, black pepper, garlic powder (0.5 tsp). Fry over low heat until done. After that, set aside the resulting Tzatziki sauce to cool.

2. Cut half a cucumber and ¼ onion into small cubes, then mix with yogurt. Then add salt, vinegar, dill. Stir.

3. Drizzle with oil on the tortillas. Heat them up in the oven until soft. Then fill the cakes with beef, pour over the sauce.

4. Serve the gyros with sliced ​​cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, olives and feta cheese.

Gyros: recipe with potatoes and feta cheese

This cooking option will appeal to those who do not eat meat. This gyros is vegetarian.

For cooking you will need:

One medium cucumber;

A glass of feta cheese;

A glass of cherry tomatoes;

Pita (4 pcs.);

Two glasses of romaine lettuce;

A cup of Greek yogurt (2%);

Nine cloves of garlic (one crushed, and eight whole);

2 tsp fresh lemon juice;

Black pepper;

330 grams of small potatoes (red);

. ¼ red onion;

Two st. l. + two tsp. olive oil.

The process of creating a dish

1. Preheat the oven.

2. Grate the cucumber, squeeze through cheesecloth.

3. Mix yogurt, garlic (chopped), salt, pepper, olive oil (2 tsp), lemon juice in a bowl with cucumber. Then set the container aside.

4. Put potatoes in a saucepan, fill with water. Cover with a lid, bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce the flame. Simmer over low heat until tender (about 20 minutes).

5. At this time, pour oil (2 tablespoons) into the pan and put garlic cloves (8 pcs.). Cook over medium heat until golden. The process will take approximately five minutes.

6. Then drain the potatoes. Pour ¼ cup of potato broth into a glass.

7. Return the potatoes to the pan.

8. Then add garlic with butter, onion (chopped), cheese.

9. Soften potatoes with a fork until mashed. Cover the resulting mass with a lid.

10. Wrap pita in foil. Warm up in the oven for ten minutes.

11. Put on each pita two tbsp. spoons of cucumber mass.

12. Then divide half of the lettuce and chopped tomatoes between four pitas. Top each with ¼ potato mixture. Then divide the rest of the cucumber mass, tomatoes and lettuce among all the pitas. Lay on top of each. Then serve to the table.

Conclusion

Now you know how gyros is prepared. The recipe with a photo presented in the article will help you understand the technology of creating a dish.

For a variety of home menus, you can cook a wonderful Greek dish gyro. Translated, it means “rotate” or “rotate”. Not everyone knows what a gyro is. We will talk about this in this article, we will also consider several cooking recipes.

What is a gyro

This dish has become popular in Russia, and you can buy it in a cafe or diner. Gyro belongs to Greek cuisine and is prepared in the same way as shawarma. Many people believe that these are two different dishes, but they are not. After all, they are prepared in almost the same way.

The only difference is that the gyro is served with a special Greek sauce called tzatziki. You already know what a gyro is, and now consider the recipe for its preparation.

Ingredients

To prepare a gyro for 2 servings, you need the following products:

chicken fillet - 1 kg;

small tomatoes - 2 pcs.;

onions - 2 pcs.;

yogurt - 5 tbsp. l.;

potatoes - 8 pcs.;

spices (ground pepper, oregano, salt, paprika) - to taste.

pita bread - 4 pcs.;

olive oil - to taste.

When all the ingredients are ready, you can start cooking.

tzatziki sauce recipe

First, pour 150 ml of yogurt into a large cup, chop 2 cloves of garlic here and grate a fresh cucumber into the same container. Mix thoroughly. Add one bunch of greens (parsley and dill) to the same container, which must be chopped in advance, pour a little olive oil and lemon juice. Instead of regular salt, put sea salt to taste.

Everything is mixed or crushed with a blender until smooth. Now the tzatziki sauce is ready, and you can start cooking the dish itself.

homemade shawarma recipe

First of all, french fries are prepared, as they will be needed for the filling. Then the chicken fillet is cut into small cubes or thin strips, and a marinade is prepared for it: you need to mix paprika, yogurt, oregano, salt, pepper, and also add olive oil here. The chicken is well lubricated with this marinade, and let it infuse for an hour.

In the meantime, cut the tomatoes into thin strips or slices, and the onion into half rings. Also make the tzatziki sauce.

When the meat is well marinated, it is fried in a pan without oil. After that, the fillet is laid out on a baking sheet and brought to readiness in the oven, which is preheated to 180 degrees. The meat is baked no more than 10 minutes. After that, you need to get it and cool it.

Put the pita bread on the table and grease the sheet with sauce so that its edges are dry and clean. Next, spread the tomatoes and onions from one side. French fries are laid out on top, and after it - fried chicken fillet.

Now the pita bread is wrapped in an envelope or a tube (as you prefer) and served at the table. We reviewed the recipe for homemade shawarma, which turns out to be very tasty and juicy.

Shawarma without meat

Consider another recipe. It is notable for the fact that it does not contain meat, but the dish turns out to be just as juicy and tasty. To prepare it, take the products for one serving:

Cheese - 100 g.

Greens (parsley, basil dill) - to taste.

Salt - to taste.

Small tomato - 1 pc.

Cucumber - 1 pc.

Garlic - 2 cloves.

Butter - 20 g.

Lavash - 1 pc.

First, grate the cheese. Finely chop the greens. Grate the garlic into the cheese and mix well. Then add greens here. Salt the products in one container, pepper to your liking and mix. Cut small cucumber and tomato into strips or small circles.

When all the products are prepared, spread the pita bread and brush it well with butter. After that, tomatoes with cucumbers are laid out, and on top - a mass of cheese, herbs and garlic.

Then the shawarma is wrapped in an envelope or a tube, as you like, and fried in a pan on both sides until a beautiful golden crust.

As a result, the cheese should melt slightly inside. The dish is best served hot. Now you have also learned a vegetarian recipe for homemade shawarma. If the ingredients are chosen correctly and the proportion is observed, you will get a very juicy, tasty and original dish that can be served with any sauce or just ketchup.

In order for fast food (you cooked it in Caucasian or Greek - it doesn’t matter) to become tastier, you need to follow some cooking recommendations:

For a tastier and juicier shawarma, it is best to use more than one type of meat, but several. It can be: chicken, pork, lamb, turkey or beef.

If the meat is too dry, soak it in orange juice for a few minutes. You can also add a little butter and olive oil during frying in a 1: 1 ratio.

You need to use a lot of spices, especially spicy ones, so that the shawarma really acquires a Caucasian hue.

You can make the simplest sauce: grind garlic, herbs, add olive oil and spices. This classic recipe goes great with any type of meat.

For piquancy and flavor of shawarma, after cooking, it must be greased with sauce or ketchup.

If the fast food has cooled down, it should not be reheated in the microwave, as the pita bread loses texture and juiciness disappears. It is better to fry the shawarma in a pan again.

The filling can be anything: chopped cabbage, Korean carrots with ketchup or mayonnaise, eggplant, and more. etc., depending on your tastes and preferences.

Finally

So, from the article you learned that gyro and shawarma are prepared in the same way, the difference is only in the sauces. To make it a natural Greek dish, tzatziki is prepared for it. If you take other variations, then you can cook garlic, tomato, sweet and sour sauce, etc. Depending on the tastes of consumers.

We have considered what a gyro is and offered two main recipes. However, there are many variations, so cook, experiment and delight your loved ones with a new, fragrant and savory dish.

Gyros (Greek shawarma with tzatziki sauce)

Greek gyros (shawarma). Photo: zygossouvlaki.gr

Gyros is a very tasty and juicy Greek shawarma seasoned with cucumber tzatziki yoghurt sauce and wrapped in an easy tortilla. In gyros, in addition to fried meat and fresh vegetables, there are fried potatoes. Easy to do, you'll love it!

Gyros Ingredients

for 2 shawarma

For filling

• Chicken fillet - 300 g;
• Potato - 2 tubers;
• Tomato - 2 pieces;
• Bulgarian red pepper - 1/2 piece;
• Blue onion (red or regular) - 1 head;
• Salt, pepper, oregano (or dried basil) to taste.
• Vegetable oil for frying.

For the tzatziki sauce

• Thick unsweetened yogurt - 150 g;
• Cucumber - 1 piece;
• Garlic - 2 cloves;
• Greens: mint, dill, basil - if available, you can do without;
• Salt - to taste;
• Olive oil (or sesame, walnut oil) - to taste (optional).

For flatbread

• Flour - 250 g (1 cup + 1 tablespoon);
• Water - 50 g;
• Kefir (or yogurt) - 40 g;
• Egg - 1 piece;
• Dough baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon;
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon;
• Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon;
• Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon.

Cooking method

1. Bake gyros cakes

• Knead the dough (add as much flour as needed for a dough that does not stick to your hands). Roll into a ball, sprinkle with flour. Cover with a towel and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 2 parts. Roll them into balls. Flatten the balls into cakes and, clapping, flatten the dough to the diameter of the pan (or roll it out with a rolling pin - sprinkling it and the table with flour).
• Heat up a frying pan, add a little oil. Bake the cakes until small light brown spots appear (as they appear, this side is ready, you need to turn it over to the second side).

2. Prepare the stuffing

While the dough is resting after kneading, you can start filling the gyros.

• Fry the meat: cut the chicken fillet lengthwise into oblong pieces, salt, pepper, sprinkle with oregano. And quickly fry on both sides in a small amount of oil until cooked (it will take 4-5 minutes). If you have meat that is more convenient to fry in larger pieces, you can fry and then cut into strips.
• fry potatoes: cut the peeled potatoes into large strips (as for deep-frying). Heat vegetable oil, put potatoes in it. Cover with a lid and fry until done. Salt.
• Prepare tzatziki sauce: finely chop or grate peeled cucumber and garlic. Mix with yogurt. Add salt and olive oil. If you add greens, then tear off a few leaves from the stems and finely chop, combine with the sauce.
• Cut fresh vegetables: tomato - slices, bell pepper - stripes, onions - half rings or quarters of rings (if the onion is very large).

3. Collect the ingredients in the gyros

• Put chicken fillet, potatoes, tomatoes, onions and sweet bell peppers on the finished cake.
• Roll up the cake. Pour the tzatziki sauce inside.

Bon appetit!

Delicious Greek gyros wrapped in paper to keep the sauce from getting dirty. Photo: tsantiri.gr

Cake dough
Tzatziki Sauce Ingredients (you can add herbs and lemon juice to food)
Fried chicken, yogurt, grated cucumbers

Fried breast cut into strips
Fried potatoes for gyros
Peppers, tomatoes and onions for gyros filling

The cake can be flattened with your hands or rolled out and cut evenly (as you like)
Bake a cake (it's fast)
The easiest version of Greek sauce with cucumbers

We spread the stuffing on the pita bread. We fill the Greek shawarma with sauce. Ready-made gyros with tzatziki

In fact, gyros is fried meat or shish kebab (souvlaki) and fried potatoes with salad, poured with tzatziki sauce. Which is served with bread (flatbread). That is, it is a whole portion of lunch or dinner, including bread.Gyros is often referred to as souvlaki (kebab) wrapped in pita (flatbread), after the name of the main ingredient.

Souvlaki can be wrapped in a flat cake (in a bag or simply bent in half), or eaten from a plate with bread. Gyros can be served on a tortilla without folding it (as on a plate).

Gyros rolled up in a bag and gyros on a flat cake - the creations of Greek chefs

Replacing Ingredients

Sauce

If you do not have yogurt, then you can replace it with thick sour cream. Not quite in Greek, but a way out of the situation. The taste will be practically the same, you just get a more winter, high-calorie option. Those who do not like tzatziki can fill the gyros with any sauce you like or eat without sauce, the filling is already quite juicy.

Meat

Chicken can be replaced with pork or turkey (any piece of meat that is quickly fried and easy to work with). Moreover, it is not necessary to use fried meat (or other meat available in the house - boiled, stewed), kebabs (minced meat sausages, small oblong cutlets that can be stuck on and quickly fried) are also suitable. In general, meat for gyros is fried like a kebab on skewers or on a grill on a grill or on an oven grill. But this is too complicated for a quick recipe, so we just fry the meat in a pan. If there is neither meat nor minced meat, you can take ham, it is also delicious.

Fast food is always a great temptation. Especially when you go home from work hungry, and it’s within easy reach. Greek gyros is doubly tempting! It's seasoned with tzatziki sauce. Let's learn how to cook gyros at home! As funny as it sounds, homemade fast food is healthier than street food.

You probably now smiled ironically: to make gyros yourself? Without a vertical skewer on which meat is fried? A cutlet can also be wrapped in pita bread, but it will not become a gyros.

Chef J. Kenji López-Alt assures that popular Greek is easy to cook without a spit! And the taste of the meat will be what you need. Cooking will take a couple of hours, but you will not regret it!

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 400 g pork neck (in the original recipe - lamb)
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
• half an onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 5 slices of bacon
• 4 pita sheets (or 4 pita)
• 2 large chopped tomatoes
• 1 sweet onion, cut into half rings

Cooking time: 2 hours

Ready!

First we make minced meat. Pass the pork through a meat grinder. Add salt, pepper, oregano leaves. And knead with your hands. Cover the meat with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

Preheat oven to 150°C. Take the mince out of the fridge and transfer it to a blender or food processor. Send the onion, garlic and bacon slices there. Blend everything to a puree consistency.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Put the meat mass in the center. Better with wet hands to avoid sticking. With your hands, form a rectangle of approximately 20 × 10 cm from the minced meat. Cook for 30–35 minutes. Then take out the casserole and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Cut the browned meatloaf into thin slices. Place them on a baking sheet lined with foil and place in the oven preheated to 180°C. Bake no more than 4 minutes. It is important that the edges are fried, crispy.

In our virtual tavern they love to cook. After reading the recipes from our piggy bank, you can find very interesting dishes. It is unlikely that I will be mistaken if I say that there are few people in Russia who have not tried or at least do not know what shawarma is, or, as it is called in St. Petersburg, shawarma. About,

We already somehow told, also published. It turned out that there are other dishes similar to Shawarma - in Turkey it is Doner Kebab (tour. Döner Kebab) and in Greece it is Gyros (Greek γύρος). They are somewhat different from shawarma. But, nevertheless, these are brothers and sisters!

In Turkey, in the city of Bursa (by the way, this is the fourth largest city in Turkey after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir), at the end of the 19th century, a certain cook, the venerable Iskander Efendi (İskender Efendi), came up with the idea of ​​frying kebabs (pieces of lamb on skewers) on a vertical spit. This patriarchal event is considered the birth of the Turkish equivalent of Doner Kebab shawarma. By the way, this city now has a Doner Kebab museum! Oh how! So, shawarma lovers, the altar of your muse is in Bursa. Be sure to go there for Hajj.

Well, now back to the Greek version of shawarma - gyros. As a result of the Turkish War of Independence (tur. Kurtuluş Savaşı or İstiklâl Harbi) at the beginning of the 20th century (May 19, 1919 - October 29, 1923) in Greece in 1922-1923, refugees from Smyrna (after 1930 - Izmir) and Constantinople (after 1930 - Istanbul) numerous tents were opened on almost every corner throughout Greece. In them, passers-by were offered to refresh themselves with fried pieces of meat wrapped in pita (most often pork or chicken), tomato rings, onions, a handful of french fries, flavored with Tzatziki sauce. This was the gyros. It is worth noting the type of meat popular in Greece for gyros - pork (!!!), which can be consumed by Christians, but not by Muslims. Meat for gyros is prepared in the same way as for shawarma and Doner Kebab - on a vertical skewer. Hence the name "gyros", literally "turn". Currently, in Greece, gyros is, so to speak, a landmark; tourists will definitely be offered to taste it. Large catering establishments in Greece, such as Goody's (Greek fast food restaurant chain) and McDonald's, offer gyros to their visitors. For € 2.50 you can treat yourself to a generous portion.

Well, we offer our readers gyros recipe which can be prepared at home.

We need (for 2 servings):

• - chicken fillet (preferably thighs) - 500 g,
• - tomato (medium) - 1 pc.,
• - onion (medium onion) - 1 pc.,
• - pita - 2 pcs.,
• - - 0.5 cups,
• - ready-made french fries - 200 g,
• - natural white yogurt (unflavored) - 2 tablespoons,
• - ground dried sweet paprika - 0.5 tbsp,
• - ground black pepper - 0.25 tsp,
• - dried oregano - 1 tsp,
• - olive oil - 1 tbsp,
• - salt - 1 tbsp.

Cut the chicken breast lengthwise into two layers (if you took the thigh fillet, you can skip this procedure). Lightly beat the fillet with a culinary hammer, then put it in a container of a suitable volume. Add salt, ground sweet paprika, ground black pepper, ground oregano and yogurt to the container, mix the contents of the container, cover it with cling film and marinate in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Cut marinated meat into thin strips.
Fry chicken strips in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly, until golden brown (about 5-8 minutes).
Transfer the strips of browned chicken to a baking sheet and put it in the oven, preheated to 180 ° C, bring the meat to readiness for 10 minutes.
While the meat reaches the desired condition, rinse the tomato, peel the onion. Cut the tomato into thin circles, and the onion into thin half rings.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, then heat the tortillas one at a time on both sides in a frying pan.
In the middle of each tortilla (you can also put a leaf of lettuce on the tortilla) put a few onion rings, a circle of tomato, a handful of meat, a handful of french fries and season over 1 tbsp. tzatziki sauce (or to taste) Roll into a cone and serve hot.

Or more serving options - cut the pita in half across, you get two pockets. Put onion, tomato, meat, french fries and sauce on top in each pocket. Or cut off the top of the pita, you get a roomy pocket - put the ingredients into it and put the sauce on top.

Or wrap all the ingredients in thin pita bread and roll up. In any case, it is still worth thinking about how to drink this magnificence.

Sincerely, S. Zverev.