Pot Roast Gyros
Trust me, I tried to make pita pockets
Time: 4 Hours 30 minutes
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 1/5
Making gyro meat has always felt somewhat intimidating. Slicing meat thinly before seasoning snd arranging on metal spikes just felt like a hassle that I should leave to a restaurant. Then, I found this recipe from Half Baked Harvest. It’s pretty much just a pot roast seasoned with gyro inspired seasonings. Let’s see if it hits the spot.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
None of the ingredients are really special here. The recipe asks for Pink Himalayan salt, but I doubt that it would make much of a difference if you used regular salt. I used Italian seasoning instead of fresh thyme, because I forgot to buy the latter and the former includes dry thyme in it. Instead of buying a beer, I just used chicken stock that I already had. Finally, I made the pitas, pickled red onions, and Tzatziki from scratch.
Tools:
Dutch oven
Cooking Review:
Prep: 15 minutes
The prep for this recipe included slicing the onion and shallots, chopping the garlic, and juicing the lemon. I put the shallots, onions, and garlic in the bottom of the dutch oven.
Season Beef and set up dutch oven: 9 minutes
I mixed the seasonings in a bowl and put the chuck roast in the dutch oven. I sprinkled the seasonings all over the roast before pouring the chicken stock and lemon juice over it, along with some water.
Roast: 3 hours 47 minutes
I covered the dutch oven and put it in the oven to cook for 3 and a half hours. I removed the top and increased the oven temperature and cooked the beef for another 10 minutes.
Sauce: 9 minutes
I removed the cooked chuck roast and began to shred it while the juices left over in the dutch oven came to a simmer on the stove. The butter was added to the sauce as it reduced and was poured over the shredded meat.
Assembly: 4 minutes
I took a pita and spread some tzatziki on it, followed by the pot roast meat, and topped with the pickled red onions.
Analysis:
The meat on its own is pretty tasty. While it doesn’t taste much like gyro meat in my opinion, it has a nice, full flavor and is pretty tender. The problem here, is that when it’s combined with the pita and tzatziki, the meat’s flavor gets lost. The other ingredients are pretty flavorful on their own, so when eaten together, it’s kind of like eating a pita with tzatziki sauce and a hint of tender beef. Despite this, I think this ‘gyro’ is still pretty satisfying to eat. It doesn’t exactly scratch they gyro itch, but you can tell that it’s trying. I’m going to give this recipe a 6/10. It may seem a little harsh, but when you’re going after something pretty unique, flavor wise and miss, there will be some disappointment. It’s certainly not bad, just different.
