Gyro Pizza Recipe - Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Meditteranean flair: A delicious gyro pizza recipe

Making pizza at home provides plenty of opportunities to explore what you can cook in a pizza oven, so here’s some information about the humble gyro, and little recipe to make gyro pizza in your own wood-fired oven!

The hero gyro

You’ve probably heard of gyros, or even been corrected on the pronunciation by one of your annoying friends (“it’s YEE-ROW!”). Gyros are a delicious food-stand staple with their origins in the Ottoman Empire and are served by Greek establishments and streetside vendors in cities all over the world today. Traditionally, it’s made with lamb, tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki on pita bread according to Plated, but there are plenty of variations cooked to order that cater to a variety of tastes.

The gyro can trace its origins to the doner kebab, a Turkish dish also common in the Ottoman Empire that found its popularity in 1970s Germany, where a Turkish immigrant introduced a version wrapped in a pita to serve out of his food stand near a Berlin subway station. Interestingly enough, the words gyro, doner, and shawarma all have the meaning of “turn” in their respective languages, owing to the meat sliced off of a rotating skewer when preparing the sandwiches.

It’s in the tzatziki

The gyro itself is pretty simple, but tzatziki is a sauce that hasn’t fully entered American vernacular and has definitely led to more than one confused diner. Tzatziki is actually very easy to make, with a few simple ingredients that are also light in calories and full of probiotics. To make Tzatziki, all you need is plain yogurt, finely diced cucumbers, dill, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

Allrecipes has a simple method available that suggests combining the ingredients in a food processor, but we recommend straining the yogurt first and mixing the ingredients by hand with some time allowed for the flavors to soak into the yogurt. Straining the yogurt and avoiding a rough blending method both help to avoid a runny consistency or weird oil-water separation in your sauce.

Good tzatziki gives refreshing notes that play nicely with the other vegetables in the gyro sandwich, and provide a complement to the denser flavors of the meat used. Put on top of a pizza using gyro-inspired toppings after a stint in the oven, and it will be a delicious contrast of light flavors and cool temperatures atop a rich, wood-fired pizza!

Try the Gyro Pizza recipe below to get a mix of Mediterranean flavors sure to be a hit with the whole family. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy cooking together on the patio? 

Check out this video from Carmen Parisi, President of Chicago Brick Oven!

Ingredients

• 1 - 12" pizza shell – check out our video to learn how to make your own!
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 2 c lamb meat, cooked and sliced
• 1 c Feta cheese
• 1 c tzatziki sauce

Preparation

Preheat brick oven to 750 F. Brush oil across pizza shell. Evenly arrange sliced tomatoes, onions, and lamb. Sprinkle feta cheese on top and bake for 2-1/2 minutes.
Remove from oven. Spread spoonfuls of tzatziki across the top of the pizza, and enjoy!

Are you filled with amazing pizza ideas but don’t have the pizza oven you need to pull it off? Check out our Chicago Brick Oven 500 Wood Fired Pizza Oven Kit and get started cooking today!