I was craving a Gyro and wanted to see how one would turn out on the Santa Maria grill. I have not made one before so I started by watching many youTube videos, most were not in English.
I started out with 3Lb of boneless leg of lamb, 3 Lb of top sirloin and 1/4 Lb of bacon.
I sliced the lamb and beef as close to 4" x 1/4" slices as possible but still used the smaller pieces. The bacon was sliced in thirds.
The lamb needed the most seasoning so I will start with it.
4 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon basil
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chipotle pepper
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
4 garlic cloves
about 1 tablespoon allspice
about 1 tablespoon star anise
2 dried chilis minus the stem.
finely grind all the dry seasonings then put in a bowl. Separately grind 4 garlic cloves or use a garlic press and add it in.
add about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil until it makes a nice paste.
The beef was easier, I just mixed Chimichuri seasoning with EVOO to the same paste consistency.
place the seasoning heavily on the top of the slices then face them down. Stack them in a container and let them marinate in the fridge overnight.
This afternoon I lit up the pit with Real Oak charcoal then added a wedge of Red Oak and several chunks of Apple wood. I placed the beef, lamb and bacon on the rotisserie skewer in an alternating pattern.
It cooked up pretty fast.
I would slice some off and put it back on to keep cooking.
I put the grill back on the pit and heated up the Pita bread.
I also made a tzatziki sauce. I added that with fresh cherry tomotos, cucumber slices and feta cheese. It came out great.
With plenty of left overs.
tzatziki sauce
16 Oz vanilla Greek yogurt.
1 small white onion
2 large cucumbers
salt
pepper
pickle juice.
1 lemon or lime juice
Grind the onion and then squeeze out the liquid with a tea towel. toss the juice.
skin the cucumber, remove the seeds with a spoon, grind it and squeeze out the liquid with a tea towel. toss the juice.
finely chop half of the second cucumber minus the seeds and skin.
mix it all in a bowl and add about 2 tablespoons of dill pickle juice. add salt and pepper as desired.
