The best chicken gyro recipe ever. Using the rotisserie feature of your air fryer oven, boneless chicken thighs are marinated with Greek yoghurt, lemon, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and oregano then rotated until perfectly cooked.
Inspired by my love for chicken gyros, this air fryer gyro meat is easy to adapt. Serve your Greek chicken kebab meat in wraps or pita breads or alternatively served healthier in a chicken gyro bowl.
Heads up! This chicken gyro recipe is so so popular with our air fryer readers that they asked us to feature it in our air fryer beginner’s cookbook called Air Fryer Easy Everyday. You can get a copy here.
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My Love For The Air Fryer Rotisserie
If you are new to Recipe This, then you will not know that I am addicted to using the rotisserie of the air fryer oven.
You have a fantastic rotisserie rod with the air fryer oven, then you can clip into place and then turn your air fryer into a rotisserie. (this is the air fryer oven we have) and then you can rotate as much food as you want.
My favourites so far include air fryer duck, air fryer pork roast, air fryer roast beef, and my all time favourite air fryer ham.
But my biggest ambition for the rotisserie has been to load the meat onto the rod and create a takeaway style kebab, and this is exactly what I am doing today with our air fryer chicken gyro meat.
Chicken Gyro Recipe
Recently, I went to the BBC Good Food Show. It felt like it was the place to go if you wanted to drink a lot of cocktails, eat a lot of brownies and buy sausage rolls.
There was not that many things there that had the wow factor and made me want to visit the show again.
In fact, there was a real lack of great food, considering it was the BBC food show!
But what did stand out was the Greek kebab stall. There was a long wait but OMG it was a wait worth doing and we took back to our room chicken gyros, Greek salad, and a few other bits and pieces.
It reminded me that I MUST MAKE air fryer chicken gyros and dust off the air fryer oven.
So, with the authentic gyro recipe we are recreating it today for you for the air fryer oven.
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What Is Chicken Gyro?
A gyro recipe, which is most commonly made with chicken, is a type of Greek kebab. It can also be made with pork, beef, or lamb or a mixture of the four.
Whilst you associate the Turkish kebab shops with the doner kebab, Greece has the gyro.
If you like a chicken kebab from the kebab shop, then you will love a chicken gyro.
And also (just like the doner meat) it is traditionally cooked on a slow rotating spit making it ideal for the rotisserie.
Can I Make Gyro Meat In The Air Fryer?
Yes, you can use your air fryer to make delicious gyro meat. You load as much marinated chicken thighs that will fit on your rod and then cook them in the air fryer oven.
We found that 1kg/2.2 pounds were ideal for the air fryer oven.
Is A Chicken Gyro Healthy?
Yes, a chicken gyro is a much healthier kebab option. Whilst a doner kebab is often associated with a lot of rubbish added, a gyro remains healthy.
This is because a gyro is generally chicken that is marinated in yoghurt with seasonings and then grilled.
Tell Me More About A Chicken Gyro Bowl
Whilst a classic chicken gyro recipe will be served in a wrap or in a warm pitta bread, a chicken gyro bowl takes all the ingredients apart from the bread and serves it in a bowl instead.
This turns your chicken gyro into a Greek chicken salad that tastes just as good and is perfect for warm summer days.
Simply swap the pitta bread for lettuce and you have your bowl ingredients ready to go.
What Is Chicken Gyro Meat Made Of?
Chicken gyro meat is made of boneless skinless chicken thighs that have been marinated.
The chicken gyro marinade includes Greek yoghurt (the hero) and balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, dried oregano and salt and pepper. Which are easy everyday ingredients that most of us have in our kitchen already.
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Chicken Gyro Ingredients
Marinade – It starts with the gyro chicken marinade. I recommend you get these marinate ingredients ready first and then it will make the prep process easier. You will need garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, Greek Yoghurt, dried oregano and salt and pepper. But if you scroll below you will see an ingredient swap that will make this ingredients list smaller.
Chicken – I highly recommend using boneless skinless chicken thighs. They are much more flavoursome than cooking with chicken breasts and also are very good for adding to the rotisserie.
Salad – Also, the above will give you Greek chicken for gyros. You will probably want some extras to transform them into a meal. I recommend having a little bowl with sliced tomatoes, same for cucumber and a bowl with Tzatziki sauce.
Bread – Then you can either use flatbreads or warm pitta breads that you have warmed up in the air fryer. I love to make air fryer flatbread for the ultimate treat, but the lazy quick meal at home is with pittas.
Tzatziki – To make the Tzatziki dip its so easy. Simply load into a bowl Greek yoghurt (I love the one from M&S), cucumber, lemon juice and garlic puree.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this air fryer gyros recipe it has been our Tower Air Fryer because it has a built in rotisserie feature and is perfect for a meal like this.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10 years.
How To Make Gyros In Air Fryer?
- Marinate. The night before you want chicken gyro meat, load the chicken into a Ziploc bag with the marinade ingredients and give the chicken thighs a good coating. Place the Ziploc bag in a bowl and fridge overnight.
- Tomorrow. Then the next day remove the Ziploc bag and keep your marinated chicken in the bowl. One at a time load onto the rod of your rotisserie and load as much chicken thighs that will fit. Pushing them down to fit as much on as you can.
- Secure. Next secure your rotisserie into place and cook for an hour at or until fully cooked.
- Sides. Then as your chicken gyro meat is cooking, you can be prepping the salad bits and getting your pitta breads ready.
And I am sure you can see now how easy it is cooking a recipe for chicken gyros in the air fryer and why you should be doing it too!
Chicken Gyro Seasoning
What I love about Mediterranean food, is the simplicity. There are no complicated ingredients or complicated seasonings, just simple food that is cooked its best way.
You look at Nandos chicken for example, which has a Portuguese influence and is just a simple marinade with barbecued chicken.
The same rule applies to chicken gyro seasoning. It just a simple marinade with ingredients such as lemon juice, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper.
How To Warm Pitta Bread In Air Fryer?
If you want warm pitta breads to serve with your chicken gyro meat, then you will be pleased to know you can use the air fryer for this.
Simply load pitta breads into the air fryer and air fry for 2 minutes at 160c/320f.
What To Do With Leftover Tzatziki Sauce?
I often find that I make more tzatziki sauce than I need. What I will do is treat it like a nice mayonnaise.
I will load it into sandwiches, have it on the side of my air fryer frittata at breakfast time and also serve it with some other chicken that I am making a salad with.
Greek Chicken Gyro Tips & Tricks
- When you thinly slice your cucumber for the salad, use some of this to add to your tzatziki dip as it will save slicing twice.
- I recommend 30 minutes at 180c then 30 minutes at 160c. This stops the chicken from ending up too dark as it rotates and gets the middle cooked.
- Watch the rotisserie spinning for 2 minutes before you leave it. Then you can make sure its okay and its not going to fall off.
- If you have a mandolin (or similar) use it for slicing up your tomatoes and cucumber. It will do e fantastic job and will give you a better shape.
More Mediterranean Favourites In The Air Fryer
- Air Fryer Piri Piri Chicken
- Air Fryer Cordon Bleu
- Air Fryer Frozen Falafels
- Air Fryer Greek Lamb Chops
Your Greek gyro recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Air Fryer Chicken Gyro Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Kg Chicken Thighs Boneless Skinless
- Pitta Bread
- 1 Large Tomato diced
- 1 Medium Cucumber diced
- Shredded Lettuce optional
Greek Gyro Marinade
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 Tbsp Thick Greek Yoghurt
- 2 Tsp Oregano
- Salt & Pepper
Tzatziki Sauce
- 1 Small Lemon juice only
- 1 Tsp Garlic Puree
- 3 Tbsp Greek Yoghurt
Kitchen Gadgets
- Tower Air Fryer Oven
- Ziploc Bag
Instructions
- Place your marinade ingredients into a Ziploc bag with your chicken thighs and give them a good mix. Load the Ziploc into a bowl and then place in the fridge overnight.
- The next day remove the bowl from the fridge and get rid of the Ziploc bag. Using the attachment for the rotisserie load the chicken onto it and then push it down to fit in as much as you can.
- Then secure the rotisserie into place and air fry for 30 minutes at 180c/360f, followed by a further 30 minutes at 160c/320f.
- Whilst the air fryer is rotating make your tzatziki sauce by mixing some of the cucumber you have diced with the rest of the tzatziki sauce ingredients. Then test and if too garlicky balance it out with a little more lemon juice and Greek yoghurt.
- Also load the rest of the cucumber into a bowl, another with tomato and then get out anything else you plan to serve with it.
- When the chicken thigh gyros are cooked allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Then remove from the rotisserie and it will be like a big log of chicken pieces and then slice them lengthways into chunks that resemble chicken kebabs you have purchased.
- Once fully sliced you will have a big collection of gyro chicken meat that you can then make a gyro bowl with or load into pitta breads with your cucumber, tomato, and sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
I cannot say just how good these are. I have not used my air fryer oven all that much but i had to try these and they delicious, your instructions were clear precise and easy to follow, many thanks a real favourite in our household!
Thanks for the recipe. My heritage is Greek and I’ve been trying different Greek marinate recipes and am anxious to try this one. Thanks.