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When you think of Greek food you probably think of the delicious Greek Chicken Gyros. Vendors line the streets in all the Greek cities with their vertical rotisserie of meat (either pork or chicken) ready to make you the most life-changing wrap you’ll ever find. You’ll usually find these served with fresh tomatoes, onions, fries, and tzatziki. It’s seriously so good and it’s making my mouth water thinking about it.
Why You’ll Love Greek Chicken Gyros
- Healthy: The best part about these delicious chicken gyros is that they are healthy for you but taste next level, amazing!
- Authentic: Make your own authentic Greek Chicken Gyros right in your kitchen. The whole family will love it
- Simple: This authentic way of cooking takes some time, but it takes easy ingredients and is super simple to make
Ingredients
Greek Yogurt – Greek yogurt is such a versatile ingredient in our kitchen. You can use it in your tzatziki or other dips, and you can marinate your meat in it like this Greek Chicken Gyros recipe. The best part is that it’s healthy and protein-packed
Maria Koutsogiannia
Maria is the creator of FoodByMaria and your go-to Greek food expert for cozy, flavor-packed recipes. Inspired by her Mediterranean roots, she brings traditional Greek flavors, feel-good ingredients, and a whole lot of joy to everyday cooking.
Tzatziki – One of the most common dips you’ll find in Greek cuisine is tzatziki! It is a cucumber yogurt dip and it’s so easy to make on your own with a few healthy ingredients. You can check out my recipe here
How to Make Greek Chicken Gyros
- Make the marinade: add all of the marinade ingredients to a medium-sized mixing bowl or baking dish and whisk together.
- Marinate the chicken: add the chicken thighs to the marinade, toss to combine well, and put in the fridge to marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
- Once the chicken has marinated for at least 1 hour, remove from the fridge and preheat the oven to 400F.
- Use a vertical spit (meant for oven use) OR use an onion half as a base and position a skewer or two vertically into the onion like a spit on a sheet pan lined with foil. Thread the chicken thighs onto the skewer, making sure to rotate each thigh a bit as you go and the thighs are layered tightly together.
- Bake for 1- 1 ½ hours, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F (75°C). Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing/carving off slices of the chicken. Serve with pita, tzatziki, and vegetables or in a bowl (see below for ideas).
Tips and Tricks
- Marinade: You want to marinate your chicken for 24 hours. You can always marinade for less time but you won’t get as much of the flavors absorbed into the meat. I promise you, it’s worth the wait
- Cooking Time: What makes authentic gyros is the slow cooking time to make it so flavorful and juicy
- Gyro Pan Skewer: Pick one of these up from Amazon. It will make the baking and serving so much easier for you
Variations
Chicken Gyros Bowl
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup halved baby tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- 1/2 cup black olives
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
- 1/2 cup tzatziki (make our easy tzatziki recipe)
- 2 pitas (make our fluffy Greek pita bread recipe)
Use the cooked chicken to make chicken gyros bowls by dividing the cooked chicken, rice, baby tomatoes, chopped cucumber, olives, crumbled feta cheese, sliced romaine lettuce, tzatziki, and pita between 4 bowls.
Best served with
How to Store Leftovers
This chicken is so good leftover. Store it in the fridge for up to 3 days and use it on literally anything – wraps, salads, bowls.
Common Questions
Souvlaki is marinated meat such as pork, chicken, beef, or lamb grilled on a skewer. Gyro is made with stacked meat that has been cooked on a vertical rotisserie.
Absolutely! You don’t need a giant spit rotisserie to make gyros at home. You can easily replicate it with some skewers and an onion.
We got our’s on Amazon.
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Watch the Video
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- ½ lemon juiced
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Variation: chicken gyros bowl
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup halved baby tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped cucumber
- ½ cup black olives
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
- ½ cup tzatziki, (make our easy tzatziki recipe)
- 2 pitas, (make our fluffy Greek pita bread recipe)
Variation: Gyro chicken with vegetables
- 2-2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 12-16 thighs)
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ large white onion, grated
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp all spice
- ⅛ tsp cloves
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- ½ red onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 red pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup baby potatoes
Variation: Chicken shawarma
- 2-2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 12-16 thighs)
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp ground chili powder
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp ground all spice
- 1 tbsp ground pepper
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
Start Cooking- Make the marinade: add all of the marinade ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl or baking dish and whisk together.
- Marinate the chicken: add the chicken thighs to the marinade, toss to combine well and put in the fridge to marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
- Once the chicken has marinated for at least 1 hour, remove from the fridge and preheat the oven to 400F.
- Use a vertical spit (meant for oven use) OR use an onion half as a base and position a skewer or two vertically into the onion like a spit on a sheet pan lined with foil. Thread the chicken thighs onto the skewer, making sure to rotate each thigh a bit as you go and the thighs are layered tightly together.
- Bake for 1- 1 ½ hours, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F (75°C). Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing / carving off slices of the chicken. Serve with pita, tzatziki and vegetables or in a bowl (see below for ideas).
Variation: chicken gyros bowl
- Use the cooked chicken to make chicken gyros bowls by dividing the cooked chicken, rice, baby tomatoes, chopped cucumber, olives, crumbled feta cheese, sliced romaine lettuce, tzatziki and pita between 4 bowls.
Variation: Gyro chicken with vegetables
- Make the marinade: add all of the marinade ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl or baking dish and whisk together (salt, pepper, garlic, dried oregano, lemon juice, ground cumin, Greek yogurt, olive oil, grated onion, cinnamon, all spice, cloves and dried parsley).
- Marinate the chicken: add the chicken thighs to the marinade, toss to combine well and put in the fridge to marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
- Once the chicken has marinated for at least 1 hour, remove from the fridge and preheat the oven to 400F.
- Use a vertical spit (meant for oven use) OR use an onion half as a base and position a skewer or two vertically into the onion like a spit on a sheet pan lined with foil. Thread the chicken thighs onto the skewer, making sure to rotate each thigh a bit as you go and the thighs are layered tightly together. Add the chopped red onion, chopped red pepper and potatoes to the base of the vertical spit (or sheet pan if you’re using).
- Bake for 1- 1 ½ hours, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F (75°C), baste the vegetables with any pan juices at the half hour mark. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing / carving off slices of the chicken. Serve with pita, tzatziki and vegetables or in a bowl (see above for ideas).
Variation: Chicken shawarma
- Make the marinade: add all of the marinade ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl or baking dish and whisk together.
- Marinate the chicken: add the chicken thighs to the marinade, toss to combine well and put in the fridge to marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours.
- Once the chicken has marinated for at least 1 hour, remove from the fridge and preheat the oven to 400F.
- Use a vertical spit (meant for oven use) OR use an onion half as a base and position a skewer or two vertically into the onion like a spit on a sheet pan lined with foil. Thread the chicken thighs onto the skewer, making sure to rotate each thigh a bit as you go and the thighs are layered tightly together.
- Bake for 1- 1 ½ hours, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F (75°C). Let cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing / carving off slices of the chicken. Serve with pita, tzatziki and vegetables or in a bowl (see below for ideas).
Notes
- Serving suggestions:
- Serve the Chicken Shawarma as a bowl with french fries, garlic sauce or Greek Tzatziki Sauce, pickled turnips or pickled onions and our Simple Homemade Greek Salad
Loved it? Let me know in the comments below! Find more recipes like this in my healthy Greek dinners guide.
184 people are discussing this recipe. Join in
Where can 8 by the pan
Here you go: https://go.foodbymaria.com/amzn/skewer-vertical-us
I forgot to click the stars! We loved this. 5 stars!
Thank you so much, Eve!
We made this last week and grilled the chicken. But it would be interesting to see the rotisserie link. I am planning a Greek feast for early October, 16 guests, donated for a fundraising event. This marinade was so wonderful. Definitely going into the menu for the party!
It’s linked in the FoodByMaria IG BIO!! You’re going to love it!!! The vertical skewer is also in my bio!
Hello Maria,
This chicken gyros is so delicious and so easy! Question …..after carving the outer pieces which had a nice char the inside chicken while cooked to 165 had no color ….put it back in the oven? Char it once carved? Please advise…..thank you in advance ! You are the BEST!
you can lightly fry them if you want!!! and with some of the juices from the base of the pan!
You’ve made chicken great again!
Thank you so much, Karson!
I got the pan immediately after watching the video! I’ve made this recipe so many times since then and it’s a HIT! I also made her tzatziki sauce, lemon potatoes and the Greek apple cake for a full meal. They are all incredible! just wondering for those hot summer days, would I be able to bbq them as an alternative when I don’t want to run the oven? 🙂
I honestly do not see why not! Just make sure it cooks till internal temp of 165F!
I made this on charter in Italy two weeks ago and my guests absolutely loved it. I was happy I made my Captain his plate beforehand because everyones plates and all the platters where cleaned! I served with a fennel infused tzatziki, fresh Italian cherry tomatoes, chopped lettuce and pickled red onion and grilled pita. My guests could not stop raving about it and two of them even pot the rotisserie pan on the spot. This was a perfect lunch addition to my charter menu and is not difficult to make. I am looking forward to mastering your pita bread recipe before my next trip to add to the WOW!!
that makes me so happy!!!!!!
Served this to charter guests this last week while sailing in Italy and they loved it! I was happy I had made my Captains plate first because the plates and platters were cleaned. I served with a simple, fennel infused Tzatziki, fresh Italian cherry tomatoes (which were so delicious and flavorful), chopped lettuce and picked red onion. Everyone loved the rotisserie pan and two people purchased it on the spot. This was a major hit and not to make.
Wow, this makes me so happy!!! How freaking cool is this!! Thanks hun!!
One of the best chicken recipes I have ever made and the cooking method using the Amazon pan was so innovative. I am very impressed by the authenticity of your recipes and your narrative
Thank you so much, Jane!!!
Just made this and it was delish I pared it with the lemon garlic baby potatoes as whipped feta amaze!! It too just under 2 hrs for 2.5 lbs of chicken thighs.
That makes me so happy, thank you Marta!!!!