Gyro Tacos
Wait, what?Yep. Gyro Tacos. We recently visited the Wapiti Colorado Pub in Estes Park, CO and these amazing tacos were on the menu. After trying them, we just had to make our own. So with some browsing and combining, this is what we came up with.First you have to make the meat. For this we turned to one of our favs, Alton Brown. He never let's us down. Then on to the sauce. The gyro tacos at the Wapiti used Ranch Tsatziki sauce and, since we wanted to get as close to that as possible, we headed over to the Hidden Valley Ranch web site and came up with a combination of Alton Brown's sauce and Hidden Valley's sauce.
Print Pin RateEquipment
- Rotisserie
Ingredients
The Meat
- 1 lb 80% Ground Beef
- 1 lb ground lamb
- 1 medium onion
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp dried marjoram
- 1 tbsp dried ground rosemary
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Ranch Tsatziki Sauce
The Taco
- 1 medium tomato chopped
- 1 medium red onion chopped
- 4 – 5 fresh mint leaves chopped
- 8 6 inch flour tortillas (taco size)
Instructions
Prep The Meat
- Process the onion in a food processor for 10 to 15 seconds.
- Turn the processed onion out into the center of a tea towel. Gather up the ends of the towel and squeeze until almost all of the juice is removed. Discard juice.
- Put the lamb, onion, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a bowl and mix well with your hands, then place it in a food processor and and process until it is a fine paste. Stop the processor as needed to scrape down sides of bowl.Alton says this takes about a minute, but that's going to depend on the size and power of your processor. With our processor we had to do this in batches, which is why we needed to mix the ingredients first. Most importantly is that it really needs to be FINELY processed or it will never hold together on the spit.
- Form the meat mixture into a loaf shape and place on top of 2 overlapping pieces of plastic wrap that are at least 18 inches long. Roll the mixture in the plastic wrap tightly, making sure to remove any air pockets. This is also VERY important. Get it as tight as you can. Once the meat is completely rolled in the wrap, twist the ends of the plastic wrap until the surface of the wrap is tight. Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to overnight, to allow the mixture to firm up.
Cook the Meat (in the oven)
- We did this on a rotisserie, but it's definitely possible to do it in the oven as well. Alton says to put the meat in a loaf pan if you're going to do it in the oven, but we would probably lay the loaf out on a bakers rack on top of a parchment lined baking sheet, cook at 425 for 15 – 20 minutes flipping the loaf over half way through, then reduce the heat to 350 and cook until the internal temp is 165 (probably 15 – 20 minutes). Turn the heat off in the oven and let the loaf rest inside until the internal temp reaches 175.
Cook the Meat (on the rotisserie)
- Set the grill up for indirect heat at 350F.
- Pull the loaf out of the fridge and unwrap it.
- Spit it. Make sure the loaf is in the middle of the spit and use the rotisserie forks to support it on the top and bottom (we've ordered new 4 prong forks now that should be able to support the loaf even better, but this way worked out just fine).
- Place a drip pan on the center of the grill and load the spit onto the rotisserie. If you have an infrared rotisserie burner turn it on high. Turn the center burners on high and let cook for 15 minutes or so with the lid open until there's a bit of a sear on the outside of the loaf, then turn off the rotisserie and center burners and close the lid.Continue to cook until the internal temp is 165 (probably 15 – 20 minutes). Turn the burners off and let the loaf continue to spin until the internal temp is 175.
Make the Tacos
- While the loaf is finishing, chop the tomatoes, onions, and mint leaves, then take the sauce out of the fridge.Warm the tortillas up on a dry skillet.
- No instruction here, just a look at the beautiful gyro loaf.
- Thinly slice the loaf.
- Chop the slices into bite-size pieces.
- Construct your tacos by filling the tortillas with meat, sauce, tomatoes, and onions and bite em!
