To make Gyros I pair thin slices of this meat with pita bread, lettuce, tomato, onions, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce. It tastes great on its own or part of a salad, which is good since I usually run out of pita bread before running out of meat. This recipe can also easily be cut in half although the meat freezes well. Note that a half recipe takes much less time in the oven (about 20 minutes), so keep that in mind.

Timing

Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 5 minutes
Bake / Wait: 1 hour
Total: 1 hour 10 minutes

Equipment Notes

• This recipe uses a food processor.

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, (I use half a white onion)
• 2lb ground lamb
• 3 cloves (about 1T) garlic, minced
• 1T ground marjoram
• 1T ground rosemary
• 2t kosher salt
• 1/2t ground pepper

Steps

1. Use the shredder (grating) attachment on the food processor and grate the onion.
2. Switch to the chopping attachment on the food processor and run for about 5 seconds.
3. Transfer the onion to a thin towel using a spatula and squeeze out the liquid into the sink.
4. Return the onion to the bowl of the food processor, (still equipped with the chopping blade), and add the rest of the ingredients, (lamb, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper).
5. Run the food processor for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then run again for 30 seconds. Repeat (maybe one more time) until you have a paste-like mixture.
6. Place this mixture into a 9x5in loaf pan, (or smaller as the meat mixture is not that large, but I only have 9x5in loaf pans at the time of writing), and press it down until it is evenly distributed.
7. Place the loaf pan into a larger oven-ready item like a casserole dish filled with some water. Basically you want a little water in the oven when baking to create steam.
8. Bake in a 325°F / 163°C (310°F / 154°C convection) oven until the internal temperature reaches 165°F / 74°C (about 1 hour).
9. Put the meat on a cooling rack and place a heavy object on top of it for 20 minutes. I usually cover the meat with aluminum foil and then place a cast iron griddle on top of it perhaps with a sack of flour on top of that.

References

• https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/gyro-meat-with-tzatziki-sauce-recipe-2047710