Gyro Pizza Recipe

Ready to fuse two Mediterranean classics? Our Gyro Pizza combines food from two of our favorite countries – Italy (of course) and Greece! I can’t WAIT to dig into this one!

This is another collaboration with our friends at A Food Lover’s Kitchen, who introduced me to the idea of making a gyro at home using skewers! If you want a chicken alternative to the lamb version below, check out their Greek Chicken Gyro recipe. We also use their recipe for our Tzatziki!

First Things First: How Do You Say Gyro??

The “gyro” is pronounced ‘yee-roh’! And it is the Greek variant that has evolved from the Turkish doner kebab and the Middle Eastern shawarma (both delicious as well!). All of these dishes are traditionally made by roasting meat on a vertical spit from which it is sliced and served generally in some sort of wrap or roll.

In fact, the word gyro literally translates to “turn” or “revolution”.

When Greek immigrants brought this cooking technique to the United States in the early 20th century, the gyro (rotisserie and the food) we know today began to take shape. Once coming to America, the gyro adapted to local tastes and available ingredients. While back in Greece, the gyro is traditionally made with lamb, American gyros are often a blend of beef and lamb (or often chicken), which is then seasoned with local spices and served with ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and, most crucially, tzatziki sauce. The New York Times documents the history of the gyro in the US and why it is on basically every Greek restaurant menu.

And while the spit is still the most common method of cooking gyro meat, it is not always done this way – especially by home cooks who seldom have a spit cooker – like us – which is why we’re improvising today!

The Gyro Pizza

In our research, we couldn’t find anyone claiming to be the originator of the gyro pizza, but it can certainly be found on menus across the US. That generally means we can do what we want here!

Our gyro pizza is going to be a pizza bianca – meaning no tomato sauce. Instead, we will use the classic ingredients found in a gyro, add some olive oil, and substitute pizza dough for the pita.

Dough For Your Gyro Pizza

Pita bread and pizza dough are remarkably similar – both are leavened dough (i.e. using yeast), flour, water, and salt. Pita bread will use olive oil (and so do several pizza doughs) and the formed dough is left to rest a little bit so it will dry out a touch before baking.

While there’s nothing wrong with buying an off-the-shelf pizza dough for this pizza (or even pita), I’d encourage you to try making your own! We have a number of delicious pizza dough recipes you can try! If it’s your first time, go with our Easy Peasy Pizza Dough. If you want to be get a little closer to Pita for the crust, use our Olive Oil Pizza Dough recipe.

Gyro Pizza Ingredients

Makes 2 pizzas:

• Two 10 ounces pizza doughs
• 12-16 ounces cooked gyro meat (more on this below)
• 1 whole red onion, sliced as described below
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, extra virgin
• 2 teaspoons of Greek seasoning (more on this below)
• 2 ounces olives, sliced or chopped
• 3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 4 ounces fresh cherry tomato, diced
• 8 ounces of tzatziki (recipe for this below)

The tzatziki will be added after cooking to give the pizza a very fresh flavor just like a traditional gyro.

How to Make Gyro Meat

The simplest option here might be to go to a local Greek (or other Mediterranean or Middle Eastern) restaurant and buy gyro/doner/shawarma meat where it should be very authentic and flavorful. If you do this, be sure to ask for more rare cuts since the meat will be cooked a second time on the pizza.

But what kind of website would we be if we didn’t show you how to do it yourself?!? The other advantage to doing it at home is that you can make sure it doesn’t overcook because you are effectively cooking it twice.

Our preferred way to make gyro meat at home is to cook it on skewers on our grill and then slice it for the pizza. You can use lamb (traditional), beef, chicken, or any combination that you prefer. I guess you could even use pork, although I’ve never actually seen that before (unless you’re making al Pastor meat, like we did for our Pizza al Pastor).

Gyro Seasoning and Preparing the Meat

The most critical part of the gyro is arguably the seasoning. Well, that and good quality meat! And while some gyros use ground meat that’s formed, you’ll likely have a bit of trouble with that on our mini spit!

So instead, I recommend using relatively thin cuts of meat. You can use bone-in, which will add a little flavor, but it will make cutting harder.

You can use lamb, beef, or both. I’ve used boneless lamb sirloin chops.

For our Greek meat seasoning, we like using Spice House’s Greektown seasoning. But of course you can make your own. For that, I recommend Evolving Table’s Greek seasoning.

Combine the seasoning and rub over all of the meat and refrigerate for at least 6 hours (prefer 24).

Instructions for Cooking the Gyro Meat on an Improvised “Mini Gyro Stack”

Once the meat has fully seasoned, it’s time to build your mini gyro. Slice your onion (I used red as it appears to be the more and take a decent slice from the top and bottom to make the base and top.

Then slice thin slices of onion to alternate with the meat and continue to alternate.

Finish it with the other end of the onion on top to help flavor the meat while it roasts and to shield it from drying out.

You’ll need to insert skewers to hold everything in place while it cooks. You may find that some skewers are too long to stand up in your oven! I ended up breaking off the top of the wooden skewers, then used longer skewers for the second part.

Cook the mini-gyro in the oven or on a grill at 275°F for about 1.5 to 2 hours. This method gives you beautifully roasted, tender meat with a hint of char from the caramelized edges. You’ll want the lamb to reach no higher than 145°F, which is medium rare. That’s because we have more cooking to do.

When the mini-gyro is 30 minutes from being done, it’s time to preheat the pizza oven.

Again, don’t cook the Mini Gyro to more that 145°F.

Remove the Mini Gyro from the oven and lay it on its side. I needed to use longer skewers for this part and you might too.

Finishing the Mini Gyro in the Pizza Oven.

If you’re using an outdoor pizza oven, you can really get a nice sear to finish off the gyro meat. You’ll have to be watching this the entire time, because it goes VERY quickly. I rotated the Gyro a quarter turn every 30 seconds for a total of 2 minutes. If you don’t have an outdoor pizza oven, you can also use the broiler in your oven. Same thing – watch it like a hawk!

Slice the outer edges from the gyro into the cast iron pan. I found mopping up the juice was helpful to keep the meat nice and moist.

How to Make Tzaziki

Of course you can buy premade tzatziki, but you can also make it from scratch. A Food Lover’s Kitchen has a wonderful recipe that we love. It combines Greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, olive oil, dill, garlic, salt, and pepper. Be sure to dry the cucumber so the sauce is nice and thick!

How to Make Gyro Pizza

With your dough, meat, and other ingredients ready, it’s time to combine them all to make your gyro pizza!

I used our Olive Oil Pizza Dough for the crust and spread with a light coating of olive oil and a hearty dash of Spice House’s Greektown seasoning.

Next add about 4-5 ounces of gyro meat and some of the cooked onion. Sprinkle 2 ounces of feta cheese and 1 ounce of sliced olives.

Bake the pizza at the proper temperature for your pizza crust. Our olive oil pizza dough is a Neapolitan recipe with 2% olive oil, so we cooked it at ~700°F – a little cooler than a normal Neapolitan.

Final Touches for Our Gyro Pizza

When the pizza comes out of the oven, finish it with diced fresh tomato, small dollops of Tzatziki, and a small bowl of Tzatziki on the side for dipping. You can also add some fresh spinach if you’d like. If you really like onion, you can add some fresh red onion, but that’s a little much for my taste!

Variations on Gyro Pizza: Döner or Shawarma Pizza

The most obvious options for variation here would be to pivot to a doner or shawarma pizza. What’s the difference?

Option 1: Döner Pizza

Döners are probably the least common of these “sandwiches” in the US, but quite popular in Canada and the Germanic areas of Europe. A döner pizza is “supposed” to use ground meat (typically lamb and beef together) instead of sliced (it’s ground then formed for the spit). The seasoning for döner meat is essentially the same, although it probably won’t have marjoram and often has quite a bit of paprika, some coriander, and possibly a pinch of chili powder – and the seasoning is mixed into the ground meat before forming.

Döners are also not generally served with tzatziki and, if you’re in Canada, it will likely be served with a sweet döner sauce made from condensed milk. Despite being Canadian, I’m not a fan! Toppings would generally be onions, tomatoes, and lettuce – the latter two, I’d suggest adding after cooking.

Option 2: Shawarma Pizza

Shawarma is typically made from beef or beef and lamb layered on a spit (although you’ll often find chicken as an option in the US). There are a lot of variations on the seasoning of the meat due to the large region where these are made. For a shawarma pizza, I would suggest using the gyro seasoning and our grilled skewer method.

Shawarmas also have different toppings than a gyro. For sauce, they might use hummus, tahini, tabouli, or a white garlic sauce (not to be confused with döner sauce!). Toppings usually include onion, tomato, dill pickles, and pickled turnip (pink). Again, I would only cook the onion and add the rest of the toppings after.

April 18, 2025