Can't get enough of your favorite Greek restaurant's gyros? Try this quick and easy chicken gyro recipe for something just as delicious, but far better for you! Yogurt-marinated chicken tenders, packed with flavor from warm spices, and loaded into a pita wrap with homemade tzatziki sauce and all the fixings you love!
You can make this Greek chicken in a skillet or pan, outdoor grill, or baked in the oven. Check out the tips and step-by-step tutorial below.
Here's the thing about restaurant gyros--the ones made of a combination of lamb and beef, roasted for hours on a spit--they are absolutely delicious! And I do eat them, occasionally. But, reality is, they are a bit on the heavier side.
But we don't have to give up the bright Greek flavors, there is a way to make a darn good gyro right at home that is healthier and still just as delicious: Homemade Greek Chicken Gyros!
Homemade Chicken Gyro Recipe with Tzatziki
Super succulent chicken breast tenders, loaded with all the bright Greek flavors we love (the secret is in the marinade we talk about later.) Warm up some pita to carry the chicken, add in tztaziki sauce, some veggies, and olives, and you've got your chicken gyros!
One of things I really love about this chicken gyro recipe is that it comes together so quickly, making for a wholesome meal any night of the week. And no, you do not need to fire up the grill, although you can if you want. But you can just make the chicken in your skillet or even baked in the oven (I've included all the cooking options below.)
Greek Chicken Marinade/ Gyro Chicken Marinade
The yogurt marinade is the secret to flavor-packed gyros! I make a simple and versatile Greek chicken marinade that you can use regularly, even if you're not making chicken gyros. This is a yogurt marinade with a nice dose of fresh minced garlic and a few warm spices (oregano, paprika, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper, cayenne if you like heat). A little fresh lemon juice and red wine vinegar add enough citrus, and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil rounds up the flavor.
What does yogurt add to the marinade here? The lactic acid and calcium in yogurt works to gently break down the protein in the chicken breast tenders, making them more flavorful and super tender. And you'll notice a bit of a crust too around this chicken, the yogurt does that too!
My advice for you here is to make sure you get the chicken marinating at least 30 minutes before you're ready to cook it (you can marinate the chicken overnight for even more flavor.)
How to Make this Chicken Gyro Recipe
1. First, make the marinade. Combine the Greek yogurt with garlic, spices, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix with a spoon or whisk to make sure all is well-combined.
2. Add chicken to the Greek yogurt marinade. Using a pair of tongs, toss chicken and make sure all the pieces are well-coated in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (You can also do this step one night in advance and refrigerate overnight.)
3. When you're ready, heat a little bit of extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is just shimmering (don't let it smoke.) Add chicken (make sure you shake excess marinade off). Cook for 5 minutes on one side until nicely browned, then turn over and cook another 5 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. (Resist disturbing the chicken as it cooks, you want a great color on these tenders!)
(I did use a cast iron skillet as you see in this picture, but I do think non-stick is easier to work with in this case.)
4. Assemble the yummy gyros! Warm your pitas and spread some mean homemade tztaziki sauce. Add a couple pieces of your beautiful Greek chicken and top with the sliced veggies and olives. Enjoy!
Can I grill or bake the chicken instead?
For these chicken gyros, you can absolutely use an outdoor grill, or you can bake the chicken if you need to:
-For outdoor grill. Grill chicken tenders over medium heat for about 5 minutes on one side, turn over and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. Be sure the grill grates are lightly oiled, and shake excess marinate before placing chicken on the grill.
- For oven. To bake, heat oven to 375 degrees F. Shake excess marinade off the chicken tenders and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in heated oven for about 20 minutes or until done.
What to Serve with Chicken Gyros?
These chicken gyros are a complete meal on their own, really. If you want to change things up, rather than cutting up slices of veggies to top your gyros, try this Mediterranean-style homemade salsa. You can also add a bright salad to start with is always nice. There are lots of salad options in the recipe archives here, including Traditional Greek Salad, Mediterranean Couscous Salad, Watermelon Salad, or Grilled Zucchini Salad.
For sides, a new favorite are these easy baked zucchini sticks with thyme and Parmesan! And if you have the time for a hearty side, try Greek roasted potatoes. These take a bit of time in the oven, but you can prepare them in advance and just heat up when you're ready to serve the gyros.
Watch the Video for How to Make These Homemade Chicken Gyros
More Mediterranean chicken recipes to try:
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BEST Homemade Chicken Gyro Recipe
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Makes 4 to 5 gyro wraps 1x
Description
Easy homemade Greek chicken gyro recipe. Yogurt-marinated chicken tenders, packed with flavor from warm spices, and loaded into a pita wrap with homemade tzatziki sauce and all the fixings you love! You can make this Greek chicken in a non-stick pan, outdoor grill, or baked in the oven.
Check out all the tips and step-by-step up in the post.
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 1.5 lb Chicken tenders
- Extra virgin olive oil for the pan (see our Greek extra virgin olive oils here)
For the Chicken Gyro Marinade
- 1 cup Greek yogurt (you can use reduced fat or fat free Greek yogurt if you like)
- Juice of 1 large lemon
- 2 tbsp Greek extra virgin olive oil (try Private Reserve Greek EVOO)
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- Kosher salt, generous pinch to taste
- Black pepper, generous pinch to taste
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- pinch cayenne pepper, optional
Other Gyro Fixings
- Pita bread
- Homemade Tztaziki Sauce (Recipe Here)
- 1 large Tomato, sliced
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 1 green pepper, cored and sliced
- 1 small red onion, sliced into half moons
- pitted kalamata olives
Instructions
- Marinate chicken and prepare gyro fixings. In a larger mixing bowl, combine the marinade ingredients, mix well. Add the chicken tenders and mix to make sure chicken is well coated with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or refrigerate overnight.) Meanwhile, make Tztaziki sauce according to this recipe, and prepare the pita and other gyro fixings.
- Cook chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high until shimmering but not smoking. Add chicken tenders to the pan (make sure to shake off any excess marinade before adding chicken to the pan.) Cook on one side undisturbed for 5 minutes until browned. Using a pair of tongs, turn chicken over and cook on other side for another 5 minutes or until chicken is done. (See notes for outdoor grilling)
- Assemble the chicken gyros. Warm up some pita. Spread Tztaziki sauce on top, then add chicken (about 2 to 3 tenders) and top with tomato, cucumber, green pepper, red onion and olives as you like. Wrap the pita up and enjoy!
Notes
- Cook's Tip: Allow 30 minutes of inactive time for chicken to marinate.
- Cook's Tip for Prepare Ahead: You can prepare the chicken and marinate one night in advance. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to cook.
- Cook's Tip for Outdoor Grilling: If you'd rather fire up the grill for these chicken gyros, you can grill them on a medium-heated grill for 5 minutes on one side, turn over and cook another 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken is fully done (internal temperature should register 165 degrees F.)
- Cook's Tip for Baking in the Oven: heat oven to 375 degrees F. Shake excess marinade off the chicken tenders and arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in heated oven for about 20 minutes or until done.
- What to Serve With Chicken Gyros? The obvious choice to add next to these gyros is a traditional Greek salad, but I also highly recommend this tasty Mediterranean couscous salad or this grilled zucchini salad. Greek Roasted Potatoes are also great to add, if you have the time.
- To make Tztaziki sauce: Use this recipe for tzatziki sauce (tztaziki sauce nutrition information is included with its own recipe.)
- Shop Ingredients: Visit The Mediterranean Dish Shop for our Greek Extra virgin olive oils and our all-natural and organic spices including sweet paprika, ground cumin, and coriander. Create your own 6-pack of spices or try our Ultimate Mediterranean Spice Bundle.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stovetop or grilled
- Cuisine: Greek
This is yet another Suzy favorite of mine. It has become an almost weekly event in my household. I love love love this recipe!
Awesome! I'm so happy to hear that!
Yup, thats the recipe for the greek gyro chicken. Spot on.
Thank you, Robert!
Super tasty. Exactly what I was looking for.
Awesome! Thanks so much, Amy!
It was good, my boyfriend enjoyed it 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
Awesome!
Made this with chicken breast cut into cubes and served with home made pitta, fom this site, mediterranean salad, homemade chips and tadziki. Everyone enjoyed it. Lovely flavours. Next time i will also serve home made hummus. Thankyou, great recipe.
My husband and I spent our honey moon in Greece this past September. We loved the gyro and we have been craving them ever since. I came across this recipe and thought I would give it a try. Wow it was so delicious!! We will make this again that's for sure. We both agreed that it reminded us of the ones in Greece.
So glad! thank you for sharing
Definitely a 5 star recipe! I love love love the marinade and honestly just everything about this recipe.
(you should FOR SURE make the homemade tzatziki sauce because oh my goodness I am so happy I did, I made it with non-fat yogurt and it was awesome!)
So happy you enjoyed it, Mia!
So good!
Thanks, Joe! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
These were so good! I sliced chicken breast’s into strips and used buttermilk instead of Greek yogurt and the chicken tasted amazing. I cooked the strips in an air fryer. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Hi, this was tasty, thank you. I had a giggle when i got to the instructions (step 1) where it talks about a mixing bowel where I'm pretty sure you meant a mixing bowl 🙂
Hahaha! Good catch! I’ll have to correct that!
I made these chicken gyros last night and they turned out to be very tasty. The tztaziki sauce was perfect too!! I also made mushroom gyro, substituted the chicken for mushroom and that turned out good as well. Thank you for this recipe!
My pleasure! So glad you enjoyed it!
Have never made gyros before and this recipe was the absolute perfect introduction.
They were so flavoursome and juicy and I will be making these again.
I did mine on a rack in the oven and they crisped up nicely on the outer (some charred bits) and were still very juicy inside. I used skinless thigh chicken which was excellent with this mixture. I cooked the thighs whole and then sliced them up once cooked.
Also cooked up some hot chips with paprika and rosemary on them to add inside - so good.
I made the chicken alongside this gluten free flatbread to use as pita and it went SO welll together. Coeliacs check it out - so great to be able to replicate this delicious dish at home.
https://www.feastingonfruit.com/vegan-gluten-free-flatbread/#comment-260977
Thanks so much!
Thanks for sharing, Alex! I also have a recipe for pita bread that works well with gluten free flour: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/homemade-pita-bread-recipe/
Hello! I'm going to prep these for lunches throughout the week, and I can't wait to try them! I was just wondering if the nutrition information is just the chicken and marinade, or does it include the "fixins" minus the tzatziki? Just asking so I can track my macros properly. Thanks!!!
Hi Jenn, the nutrition information is our best estimate using a simple program to calculate, but it does include the yogurt marinade and the fixings (if you are using Tzatziki sauce, you'll follow that recipe for the nutrition information for the sauce).
Is there a non-dairy substitute for the yogurt?
There are non-dairy yogurt substitutes out there, but I haven't tried them myself. You can try marinating the chicken in an olive oil and lemon juice based marinate instead like we do in this chicken Souvlaki recipe: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/greek-chicken-souvlaki-recipe-tzatziki/
I made these last night! The flavor was incredible on the chicken just the right amount of spice and acidity! The mean was super easy to make too which is great on busy nights. Can’t wait to make these again
Awesome! Thank you, Gina!
This was an excellent recipe! I did add a little more salt to each piece of chicken when it was ready to cook because my first few chicken pieces were lacking salt. I made a Lebanese garlic sauce to go with it and roast cauliflower, so good!
Thanks for sharing, Aja!
Aloha,
I made a mistake by buying cumin seeds instead of ground cumin. Is there any way I can alter the seeds or should I just go back to the store.:)
Hi there, if you have a grinder of sorts, you can grind the seeds into powder to use as directed.