Jun 30, 20203 min read

Home Made Dairy Free Chicken Gyros on the Rotisserie

This was a really fun experiment for me and I was so thrilled watching my chicken spinning on the rotisserie! Perfect for a semi-large social distanced outdoor dinner :)

This post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a small commission if you purchase through them.

Have you ever gone to a shop where they serve gyros and hit the perfect timing to watch them shave down the meat off the large skewers that line the back wall? You know the wall... where they are slowly cooking lamb, beef or chicken to perfection! For some reason I have always loved that, even as a kid... so I'm actually shocked I have not tried this before! It did work out absolutely perfectly though!

I started with antibiotic free chicken thighs and de-boned them and removed the skin. You might be thinking... Lyndsay you can buy them that way and save the hassle! But these monster packages of chicken thighs were just $12 each, so I figured I could manage the extra labour for the price!

So once all de-boned and de-skinned, I got to work on the seasoning. I coated them generously with olive oil and tossed to get an even coating of the oil. I didn't really measure out the seasoning but what I can tell you is the majority of the seasoning should be the cumin and the paprika, the chicken does come out looking quite a brownish red hue from the seasoning. Depending on how much you use, aim to use half that volume of oregano and garlic and only a quarter of that volume of the chili flakes. The chili's are really up to your own personal heat tolerance. I then gave a really good squirt of lemon juice a few times, as I hand tossed the spices into the chicken to rub them into almost a paste on the chicken. It should not look like a thick paste but just fully coated with seasoning. It should look like the image below.

From here I got to work layering the thighs on my rotisserie spike. I played with the system here, basically all thighs got pierced through the middle rod and I changed the direction of the thigh in a weave pattern to ensure most of them also got pierced at least once by an outer spike.

I just continued to layer and layer until I used up all the thighs and then as I stuck the other spike end on the meat I just hand guided the outer spikes to pierce some of the meat as well. The idea is that the meat should remain tightly to the spike because it will spin. If any pieces end up moving or hanging once it hits the upside down position, it could over burn. This happened to me too so I did use some cooking twine as well to hold it all together.

I placed a tray of water underneath and cooked using the back rotisserie burner and the two outside lower burners on low, leaving the middle burner off.

I cooked this bad boy low and slow for 4 hours... once the meat got a nice crisp browning to it, I turned off the back rotisserie burner and put the two lower side burners up to a low medium to finish cooking through.

Then came the moment of childhood memories... I shaved this down! I wasn't as handy with it mind you but it worked! It was juicy in the inside with all the delicious crispy bits from the outside! This was a hit!

I served this with cut up cucumbers, white onion, tomatoes and hummus and a cashew creme instead of the garlic sauce or tzatziki. Some pickled red onions and chopped parsley were an excellent colourful garnish... and I set this out as a make your own gyro bar for my small gathering of guests!

I hope you try it!! and if so I truly love updates on how it worked for you.... did you find a new tip or trick to share? Even a photo of your success!!