Cooking Gyros on a BBQ Spit

One of the Best Ways to Cater for a Party

Gyros (pronounced yeros)  is a style of cooking on a BBQ spit that originated in the Mediterranean in the 19th century and in more recent years it is becoming prevalent among spit roasting enthusiasts throughout Australia.

What is it?

For those who aren’t familiar with cooking gyros on a BBQ spit, the easiest way to describe it is the thinly sliced shaved meat that the fish and chip shops make souvlakis out of. While chicken or lamb are typically used to make gyros, essentially any thinly sliced cuts of meat can be used. 

Here at BBQ Spit Rotisseries we’re finding that more customers are cooking gyros on their BBQ spits to cater for their parties as it’s such as an easy way to cook, and allows you to shave bits of meat from the outside while continuing to cook the inside. Unlike when you’re cooking a whole chicken or roast and you need to allow the meat to cook all the way through and remove it from the skewer before carving, gyros is designed to be shaved throughout the cooking process while still on the skewer and then allowing it to continue to cook through.

This works really well for 18th and 21st birthday parties where the kids tend to turn up at the party at all different times. Gyros allow you to continue shaving more meat from the outside so you always have freshly carved hot meat to serve. 

Here’s a short video of chicken and lamb chicken gyros cooking on the Flaming Coals Mini Spit Roaster that'll send your tastebuds into overdrive. 

Equipment:
If you’re planning on cooking your own gyros at home, here is what you’ll need:
•    BBQ Spit
•    Charcoal (mallee root charcoal is the best)
•    BBQ spit skewer
•    BBQ spit motor
•    Gyros discs

What is a gyros disc?

Not many people know what a gyros disc is, so hopefully, the below video helps explain what they are and the benefits of using the discs over the prongs. Essentially though, it allows the meat to be carved easier against the flat surface of the disc rather than trying to dodge the spikes on the prong. It's not essential, however, when you've got your electric carving knife going full steam ahead over hot charcoal, you want as few obstacles as possible!

What meat to buy:
• Lamb's shoulder
• Chicken thigh

Recipe: If you're a newbie to cooking gyros and you're not quite sure how to marinate the meat, you could ask the butcher to marinate it for you. Otherwise, if you're fussy like I am and like to do things yourself, here's a lamb gyros recipe that I quite often use

Tip: To keep the meat from drying out, alternate lamb and chicken pieces so the fat from the lamb keeps the chicken from drying out. 

Did you know? The Greek word Gyros means “to turn” and was taken from the Turkish word Doner, which also means “to turn”. The Greeks originally used to call this style of cooking Doner instead of Gyros, however, changed it to Gyros as they were criticized for using a Turkish word! It seems that not even the humble BBQ spit can escape politics!  

by: Rhiannon Peterson