American Gyros - How to Make a Gyros Sandwich - Lamb & Beef "Mystery Meat" Demystified

[Music] hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with heroes that's right i'm gonna attempt to make what some people call mystery meat slightly less mysterious and while we will be taking some of the excitement away that comes from wondering exactly what you're eating i think we're more than gonna make up for that with something that's more wholesome and i think every bit is delicious and basically the two ways you can do this is with whole chunks of meat or ground meat which is what we'll be using today since that's my favorite plus i think this method is a lot easier to pull off in the home kitchen so with that let's go ahead and get started with our ground meat which yes looks like a giant brain but it's really just a pound of ground beef here on the left and I'm using the 80/20 lean to fat ratio and then over here on the right we have a pound of ground lamb and while the lean fat percentage wasn't listed i'm guessing it's about the same and then besides our ground beef and lamb blend we're also gonna add a whole bunch of diced onions as well as a generous amount of crushed garlic and then we'll go ahead and herb this up with some freshly chopped rosemary as well as some non fresh dried oregano and by the way even if you have fresh I do prefer the dry oregano here as I think the flavor works a little better and then as far as seasonings go we're definitely gonna need a whole bunch of salt as well as some freshly ground black pepper I'm also gonna toss in some ground cumin as well as some paprika and then we'll also do a very small pinch of cinnamon not too much be careful but I think a pinch provides a little bit of sweetness in the background and then we'll finish the seasonings with a few shakes of cayenne pepper which brings me to the last and maybe most controversial ingredient I like to sprinkle in a tablespoon or two of fine dry bread crumb and if you can try to get most of it in the bowl and then once we have all that in there what we'll do is give this a mix until it's thoroughly combined and for me the best tool for this operation is your bare hand or hands and the reason I mentioned the breadcrumbs might be a little controversial is because they would be considered filler and added for the purpose of stretching the meat thereby maximizing profits that are possibly unlicensed unregulated mystery meat Street cart but that's exactly why I added them since that's the exact texture I'm going for but of course if you do want to go pure meat you could leave them out I mean you guys are after all the heroes of your garrow's or if you're into the alternative pronunciation you could also be the Kurtis Blow of what many people call a gyro which could actually be the right way to say it since there's no such thing as a gyroscope but either way like I said we will mix that very thoroughly with our hand and then once that set what we'll do is transfer that into this baking dish which I rub very lightly with oil and I'm also gonna lay in this piece of parchment paper and we will get a little oil on that and then turn it over and press it in and that's gonna make it a lot easier to lift out of the dish once it's cooled and we'll go ahead and transfer in that meat and press it down and by the way if you're concerned that we're overworking the meat because we just mixed it so thoroughly with our hand and now we're working it again as we press it into this dish do not worry that's not a concern here okay we're basically making a bad meatloaf on purpose and I don't mean bad tasting I just mean something that's not tender alright for the texture of the final product to be exactly what I want once this is cooked we want it nice and firm and not soft and crumbly so we'll go ahead and transfer our meat in at which point it's ready to roast so let's go ahead and transfer that into the center of a 350 degree oven for about 40 to 45 minutes or until it's nicely browned it looks a little something like this and if you're not into going by time and appearances what we want to shoot for is an internal temp somewhere between 160 and 165 and then all we need to do at this point is let it cool down to room temp at which point we'll remove it from the dish on to place so we can wrap it up and pop in the fridge and while it cools if you want I guess you can slice a little piece off the side and give it a try and while it should taste perfectly delicious just like this keep in mind this is gonna get even better when we Brown it up in the pan which reminds me a lot of the gear owes recipes to use ground meat totally skip that step okay they think you're done at this point when it comes out of the oven they say they just slice it and make your sandwiches but that is not how I gear Oh so while I did enjoy this bite it mostly just made me excited for what's gonna happen later so like I said we're gonna let that cool down at which point we'll transfer it onto a plate and thanks to our genius parchment paper trick earlier we are going to be able to easily lift this out so we'll grab either side and lift straight up well that was unfortunate so that didn't work but as you've heard me say before we never let the food win so we'll go to plan B and transfer this with a spatula and I know the paper still on the bottom I'll remove it later I'm too upset now and then what we'll do is cover that in plastic and transfer it into the fridge until thoroughly chilled so yes this is something you can make well ahead of time and then just keep it in the fridge until you're ready to make sandwiches which after a couple hours I was and then what we'll do once that is fully chilled is pull it out unwrap it and proceed to slice it up in any shape or size we want and generally my strategy for this is to make two cuts lengthwise and then we'll just turn those and cut across into I don't know about an eighth inch thick slices all right we don't want them too thick or too thin but somewhere in between and that's it once our gira speed is cut up we can move into final production and for me that means browning these up in a pan over medium-high heat and a little bit of olive oil for maybe two minutes per side or until nicely caramelized and for me this is one of the whole keys to the operation because while it does taste okay just after baking once it's chilled and browned up like this I feel like it gets even more flavorful and I think the texture improves and by the way this also simulates the traditional garros method where the meat is rotating over the fire and as that surface cooks the meat is shaved off and used to make a wrap or sandwich or whatever you're doing so I really do like this method if you're sans rotisserie which most of us are and then once the browning of our meat is complete we will proceed to final assembly which is going to start with this homemade Lebanese mountain bread which I will be showing you since I finally perfected it I know it looks like a pita but it's not it's far superior and what we'll do is spread that generously with tzatziki sauce although I think it's pronounced at Sikhi who knows but I do know we have a video for that and I also like to do a little bit of shredded romaine as well as some quarter cherry tomatoes which are currently the best and sweetest tomatoes available and then we'll go ahead and place down our meat which is just so beautiful and fragrant and then I'm gonna finish up with a little bit of pickled red onion which I will tell you how to make on the blog post and then last but not least a little sprinkling of Aleppo pepper and that's it that's how I like to build my Gear O's and then I should mention there's a very traditional way to roll these up but my flatbread was a little too small plus I don't know how to do it so I'm just gonna fold mine over and get it up to my mouth like this and that my friends was incredibly delicious and shockingly close to what you may experience from one of the mythical magical mystery meat street carts that are generally found in the most dangerous neighborhoods in America's most dangerous cities and yet despite that people will line up because that's just how delicious these are and by the way if you love lamb and want to go a hundred percent ground lamb I've done it that way before and it's very good but for me half beef and half lamb makes it just a little bit more mild and for my tasted Lee's a little closer to what you get when you order these out but anyway that's it my take on a Giro sandwich be sure to stay tuned for the upcoming Lebanese mountain bread video which is currently my favorite kind of flatbread will actually forget flatbread it's probably currently my favorite bread so stay tuned for the upcoming Lebanese mountain bread video bop regardless of what you serve this honor and I really do hope you give it a try soon so head over to food which is calm for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy [Music]

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 860,257

Rating: 4.8956275 out of 5

Keywords: Gyros, gyro, Sandwich, Lamb, Beef, Mystery, Meat, street food, kebab, greek, middle eastern, chef, john, foodwishes, cooking, food, recipe, recipes

Id: QRodQr0lVww

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2017