Greek Chicken Gyros with Tzaziki Sauce and Pita Flatbread – Recipe from Yummiest Food Cookbook (2024)

FAQs

What goes with Greek gyros? ›

Chicken gyros typically contain marinated and seasoned grilled chicken strips wrapped in a warm pita bread. It is often garnished with various toppings such as tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and sometimes feta cheese.

The pita is more prevalent, and gyros have been around for a short time. The pita is a soft and leavened flatbread, generally round or oval. It is often used in pockets because that helps hold the fillings and can also be cut and used as a tortilla. On the other hand, Gyros is the meat filling inside the pita.

Greek pita bread is one of those lesser-known flatbreads that is often referred to as “Mediterranean Pita” or as “pocket-less pita”. Whereas the more common pita bread (sometimes called “Arabic pita”) has a hollow “pocket” that is usually stuffed, Greek pita bread is soft, slightly thicker and has no pocket.

It's incredible popular in Greece where it's slathered on top of just about everything. You can serve it up with crudités or pita as an appetizer / snack or serve it alongside some skewered chicken, veggies, fish or meat as a dip for a main course. It's bright and tangy and perfect for summer.

Gyro Means “To Turn”

The literal meaning of the term Gyro is “to turn” or “revolution”, with origin in the Greek word “gheereezo”. It refers to how the meat is cooked.

Generally, chicken is a lean meat that is a good source of protein, low in fat (especially if you choose skinless, white meat), and it provides essential nutrients. Gyro meat, traditionally made with a mixture of ground meat (often lamb or beef), fat, and seasonings, tends to be higher in saturated fat.

Traditional gyro meat combines beef and lamb, which can be higher in fat, particularly saturated fat. For a leaner option, chicken or turkey gyro can be chosen. These poultry choices offer a lower fat content, making them a healthier alternative without compromising taste.

Are Greek chicken gyros healthy? ›

The Mediterranean diet — which includes many Greek dishes — is known as the healthiest way of eating. These simple-to-make pork and chicken gyros fit into the Mediterranean diet, delivering both heart and brain health benefits. Many people following a heart healthy diet avoid pork because they think all pork is fatty.

The inspiration for this recipe

Sliced chicken gyro is not really offered at every Greek restaurant; typically you'll see shaved gyro meat (lamb and beef), or chicken souvlaki, which are the marinated chunks of chicken which are grilled. They're all delicious, but my true love is sliced chicken gyro meat.

Pork – Rolled boneless shoulder of pork (skin on) is a great cut of meat for homemade gyros. There's usually some marbling of fat in this cut – that will add flavour and tenderness to the meat, and that fatty skin will protect the meat from drying out during slow-cooking.

Here's how to tell the difference: Souvlaki is marinated pork, chicken, beef, or lamb grilled on a skewer. It's typically served on a skewer, but you can also eat it in a warm pita or over salad. Gyros are made with stacked meat (usually pork, but other meats are common) that has been cooked on a vertical rotisserie.

Here's how to tell the difference: Souvlaki is marinated pork, chicken, beef, or lamb grilled on a skewer. It's typically served on a skewer, but you can also eat it in a warm pita or over salad. Gyros are made with stacked meat (usually pork, but other meats are common) that has been cooked on a vertical rotisserie.

So how does Middle-Eastern pita differ from Greek? What is this? Greek pita bread is typically thicker than Middle Eastern pita and can be split easily to create a pocket for all sorts of fillings like gyro meat or falafels. It can be wrapped to make souvlaki wraps or cut into triangles and toasted for dipping.

Naan bread is more moist and tender than pita bread. This is due to the added ghee (butter oil) and soybean or canola oil, which increases the total fat to 10 g versus the 5 g in the pita, which contains only a small amount of oil. The naan bread also has double the amount of sodium that is in the pita.

Khubz, alternatively transliterated as khoubz, khobez, khubez, or khubooz, is the usual word for "bread" in Standard Arabic and in many of the vernaculars. Among the breads popular in Middle Eastern countries are "pocket" pita bread in the Levant and Egypt, and the flat tannur bread in Iraq.