Greek
Greek Gyro Meat (made in a loaf pan)
![Greek gyro in hand](https://www.foodbymaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Greek-Gyro-4.jpg)
Prep
20 minutes
Cook
1 hour 30 minutes
Yield
8
This easy recipe to make traditional Greek Gyro in a loaf pan is the perfect recipe to meal prep with plus it's incredibly versatile.
If you love Greek Gyro as much as me then you’re going to love this easy recipe to make juicy, flavorful gyro meat, right in a loaf pan. If you’ve been following my recipes, you may have made this popular Gyro Meat recipe where you create a spit to cook the meat in a more traditional way in your oven. However, this iteration of the recipe makes it more user-friendly by just pressing the meat right in a loaf pan.
![Greek gyro in hand](https://www.foodbymaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Greek-Gyro-4.jpg)
❤️ Why You’ll Love Greek Gyro
- Easy: This recipe is easy-to-make. It’ll take about 20 minutes to prep and the rest of the time is spent in the oven
- Versatile: You can use this Greek Gyro Meat on just about anything. Wrap it into a traditional Greek wrap or throw it into a bowl or salad
🍲 Ingredients
Ground Beef – Use lean beef for this Greek Gyro. This ensures the best consistency and eliminates all the grease that comes with a higher fat ground beef
Pita Pockets – You can totally buy store bought pita pockets or make your own. I have an easy 2-ingredient pita pocket recipe here
![Hand holding Greek Gyro](https://www.foodbymaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Greek-Gyro-2.jpg)
👩🍳 How to Make Greek Gyro
Make the gyro meat
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Add all gyro meat ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix the meat mixture together on medium speed for about 5-7 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and tacky / pasty.
- Place the meat into the loaf pan and use a spatula or flipper to gently press down on the meat, trying to get the air pockets out. Place the loaf pan onto a packing sheet to prevent from any splatter in the oven.
- Bake for 60 minutes, until gyro meat is no longer pink in the center. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Rinse any excess grease into your compost lined with paper towel.
- Thinly slice the meat and serve immediately or if desired, saute in a hot pan with a bit of oil until golden brown and crispy.
Make gyros
- Cook the fries according to package directions. When the fries are done cooking, toss with a drizzle of olive oil and big pinches of garlic powder, salt, pepper and dried oregano. Set aside.
- Assemble the gyros – **if using a small pita snip the top and stuff / if using a larger pita cut in half and stuff**
- Fill the pita pockets with tzatziki, fries, gyro meat, onions, tomatoes and feta cheese.
![Close up of Greek Gyro](https://www.foodbymaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Greek-Gyro-6.jpg)
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Use this beef gyro meat to top our Gyro Fries
- If you love our gyro recipe, try our Greek Chicken Gyros (Authentic Cooking Method) or our Grilled Chicken Gyros
- Make our Gyro Bread for Pita Gyro to go with this recipe
- Prep this Greek Gyro meat to have in the fridge for easy wraps or salads all-week-long
🗒 Substitutions
- Ground Beef: You can swap the ground beef for other ground meat, however, I find beef to taste the most authentic. You could also add a combination of ground beef and lamb for added flavor
- Tzatziki: Try this recipe with hummus instead if you don’t have tzatziki on hand
🗒 Best served with
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store leftovers for these pitas deconstructed so they don’t get soggy and assemble when ready-to-eat. The meat will last for about 4 days in the fridge.
🤔 Common Questions
Fries are a popular topping for a delicious gyro pita that you’ll traditionally find in Greece. The reasoning for the fries IN the pita? We’re not sure but probably because it makes it handy to carry and eat wherever you are, and it tastes so darn good.
Souvlaki is marinated meat on a skewer where gyros are made with stacked meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie.
![](https://www.foodbymaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Greek-Gyro-3-225x225.jpg)
Greek Gyro Meat (made in a loaf pan)
Your Greek mommy that is. 😍 Step into my kitchen to learn how to make yummy Greek food. 🍽️💃
Ingredients
- 2 lbs lean ground beef
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp cumin
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Gyros toppings
- 2-4 pita pockets
- Sliced gyro meat
- ¼ red onion chopped
- 1x tomato chopped
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
- tzatziki (make our tzatziki)
- 1-2 cups 1-2 cups cooked french fries, optional
Instructions
Make the gyro meat
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Add all gyro meat ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix the meat mixture together on medium speed for about 5-7 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and tacky / pasty.
- Place the meat into the loaf pan and use a spatula or flipper to gently press down on the meat, trying to get the air pockets out. Place the loaf pan onto a baking sheet to prevent from any splatter in the oven.
- Bake for 60 minutes, until gyro meat is no longer pink in the center. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Remove any excess grease into your compost lined with paper towel.
- Thinly slice the meat and serve immediately or if desired, saute in a hot pan with a bit of oil until golden brown and crispy.
Make gyros
- If using, cook the fries according to package directions. When the fries are done cooking, toss with a drizzle of olive oil and big pinches of garlic powder, salt, pepper and dried oregano. Set aside.
- Assemble the gyros – **if using a small pita snip the top and stuff / if using a larger pita cut in half and stuff**
- Fill the pita pockets with tzatziki, fries, gyro meat, onions, tomatoes and feta cheese.
Video
Notes
- Use this beef gyro meat to top our Gyro Fries
- If you love our gyro recipe, try our Greek Chicken Gyros (Authentic Cooking Method) or our Grilled Chicken Gyros
- Make our Gyro Bread for Pita Gyro to go with this recipe!
Made this in the morning to prep for dinner and it is was so easy to put together. I never imagined making beef gyro at home. Maria’s recipe is simple to follow and smelled amazing cooking away in the oven. We had it for dinner with pita, greek salad and Maria’s tzatziki and it was incredible! Very excited to throw this into the rotation and to try it with lamb or chicken next week.
Please let me know how it goes! Have you tried our Chicken Gyro?