Transport yourself to the streets of Greece with this EASY authentic Greek Chicken Gyro recipe that you can make right in your own kitchen. The combination of this juicy, yogurt based marinade, fresh Greek salad & a warm pita bread will have you making this every week.
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Why You’ll Love This Chicken Gyro Recipe
This recipe combines all the best Mediterranean flavors into one dish. Gyros are synonymous with Greek culture & for good reason! They’re flavorful & easily customizable. Making them a perfect meal to make at home on a weekly basis.
Here are few reasons why this will become your new go to chicken gyro recipe:
Easy – The marinade, tzatziki and salad are super simple with everyday ingredients and seasonings.
Versatile – The chicken alone will have you serving this with any kind of carb (rice, pasta or even fries) or turning this into a healthy delicious alternative to serve with salad.
Healthy – The Mediterranean diet is globally known around the world for its health benefits due to its use of ingredients such as olive oil, yogurt & vegetables low in fat & full of nutrients.
Meal Prep – The chicken could be marinated ahead of time or pre-cook and stored in the fridge or freezer. The tzatziki sauce & salad are recipes you can make once and have for the whole week.
Chicken Marinade
- Boneless, skinless chicken thighs – see my reasons for using exclusively chicken thighs for this recipe in the section below.
- Greek Yogurt – you can use any kind of plain Greek yogurt — low fat or whole milk. Yogurt contains calcium & lactic acid, which breaks down proteins, creating a more tender meat.
- Mediterranean Spices – these common spices include coriander, cumin, oregano, mint, parsley & most importantly garlic.
- Olive Oil – an essential in most Mediterranean dishes for a reason. Adds depth and flavor to any marinade while also serving as a dressing to salads & veggies.
What Kind of Chicken Should You Use?
You are more than welcome to use any kind of chicken you like, making this an easy, budget friendly meal!
- I HIGHLY recommend chicken thighs since they’re more forgiving. They will stay juicy on high temperature and are naturally more tender than chicken breasts.
- There’s two methods to cook your chicken for this recipe: one is more authentic with a makeshift rotisserie spit in your oven & the other is thinly slicing your chicken and broiling it.
Tzatziki
- Cucumber – Best cucumbers to use for this sauce are English cucumbers because they’re seedless. If you do opt for regular cucumbers, peel them and deseed them to avoid them in your sauce.
- Greek Yogurt – the perfect base for a creamy, healthy sauce! Make sure to use full fat Greek yogurt.
- Dill & Mint – highly recommend going fresh here, but if you’re in a pinch dried is perfectly fine.
- Garlic – some people like it more “garlicky”, so start with 1-2 garlic cloves and adjust as you go.
- Lemon Juice – use the zest & juice for maximum flavor notes.
Greek Chicken Gyro Instructions
1. Marinate chicken
Preheat the oven to 375 F. In a large bowl mix chicken thighs with the marinade ingredients listed in the recipe below. Let this marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
2. Prep Tzatziki sauce
Before prepping your sauce, shred cucumbers. Using a kitchen towel or paper towel wrap the shredded cucumber and squeeze out any water. In a medium bowl, mix in the rest of tzatziki sauce ingredients listed below.
3. Assemble spit
On a baking sheet or oven safe pan, cut the top & bottom of an onion. Lay flat and stick 2-4 wooden skewers through the onion. Skewer each chicken thigh. Roast in the oven for about 40 min.
4. Prep Greek-style Salad
Dice your vegetables. Mix in your dressing.
5. Slice chicken and broil.
Thinly slice the chicken from the skewers. Broil in that same pan for about 7 minutes or until charred and cooked to an internal temperature of at least 175F.
Spread a layer of tzatziki sauce on your warm pita bread. Give yourself a good serving of sliced chicken along with a heaping spoonful of salad. Personally, I feel no gyro is complete without fries so this would be the perfect time to add some air fried french fries. Garnish with feta cheese if you’d like.
RECIPE TIPS
#1 – Building Homemade Spit
You can definitely opt to buy one on Amazon (link here) or use an onion with the top and bottom sliced off. Try to use the largest onion you can find to build a good foundation. Soak your wooden skewers for 10 minutes before using them. I’ve found the magic number is 3 skewers in the shape of a triangle.
#2 – No Fuss Method
If you really don’t have time for cooking you chicken on a spit, just thinly slice your chicken, season and broil. It’ll give the same effect in half the time.
If you liked this Authentic Greek Gyro recipe, check out some other popular chicken recipe on the blog!
Authentic Greek Gyro
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp mint, minced
- 1/2 tsp parsley, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 5-6 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 1 large onion, peeled
Tzatziki
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 cucumber shredded
- 1 tbsp mint, chopped
- 1 tbsp dill, fresh or dried
- 1/2 lemon, zest and juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
Salad
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 2 plum tomatoes, deseeded & diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp oregano
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F and marinate chicken with all the ingredients above for at least 30 min.
- Peel a large onion & cut the bottom and top off. Pierce 2-3 soaked, wooden skewers through the top of the onion. Skewer marinated chicken thighs one by one. Roast in the oven for 20-25 min.
- Shred cucumber, wrap in a paper towel and squeeze out all the water. Add the rest of the ingredients to make the tzatziki. Let it rest in the fridge.
- In a mixing bowl, combine all the salad ingredients and place in the fridge.
- Remove chicken from the oven and slice it. It should have some color but still be raw. Broil for 5-7 minutes until cooked through.
- Serve with a warm pita or naan bread.
This looks delicious, I can’t wait to try it. Thanks, Rose!