Kalimera’s Famous Chicken Gyros

This Chicken Gyros recipe was given to me by the owner of Kalimera Souvlaki Art, a wildly popular gyros bar in Melbourne. It’s ridiculously, unbelievably, eye-rollingly good. The secret lies in a simple marinade made with just four pantry spices. Seriously!!!

Kalimera’s Greek Chicken Gyros

A couple of years ago, I did a series for Good Food Australia called Secret Recipes where I shared recipes for some of the world’s most iconic dishes, generously passed to me by the very restaurants famous for them.

The first one I did was for the great Greek gyros. I have always been obsessed with gyros, and for most of my life I have been loyal to my original recipe made with a heady yogurt-garlic-oregano marinade. I still love it, but today’s gyros recipe is something else….

It was given to me by Thomas Deliopoulos, owner of Kalimera Souvlaki Art which is a wildly popular souvlaki bar in a vibrant Greek neighbourhood called Oakleigh in Melbourne. It serves up gyros so good it has esteemed chefs like Australia’s Ben Shrewery and New York Times food critic Sam Sifton raving about it!

Thomas’ recipe has a unique marinade made only with spices – it doesn’t even have minced garlic in it – with a surprising secret – curry powder! Not enough to make it taste like curry, it just adds a layer of flavour that makes an otherwise fairly regular spice mix into something wow!

At Kalimera, the gyros is cooked the traditional way on giant vertical rotisseries layered with fistfuls of fat. I just pan-fry or BBQ it, and was originally worried this home version would be lacking. But by tweaking the spice amounts slightly (also because I am pretty sure Kalimera uses better quality spices than regular grocery stores sell), I can safely say I was wrong. I’ve made it for many people now, and everyone is nuts for it!

Thank you for the recipe Thomas! It’s seriously great. I look forward to visiting Kalimera again!

Ingredients in Kalimera’s Greek Chicken Gyros

This is an unusual mix of pantry spices that creates a magical gyros marinade – the flavour Kalimera Souvlaki Art has become famous for!

1. Kalimera’s secret chicken gyros marinade

• Curry powder – Just regular western curry powder, the type you get from ordinary grocery stores. Mild, not spicy. Kalimera’s secret ingredient!

• Mustard powder – Another surprising ingredient you don’t usually see in typical Greek marinades! Adds earthiness into the flavour. Dijon mustard is not quite the same but will make a decent substitute.

• Sweet / regular paprika – not spicy or smoked.

• Dried oregano – a Greek favours. Fresh oregano is not the same here.

• Extra virgin olive oil – the liquid to make the marinade.

• Salt and pepper – I use cooking salt (kosher salt is the US equivalent). If you only have table salt, decrease the quantities in the recipe by 50%, if you have salt flakes, increase by 50%.

2. COPYCAT KALIMERA GYROS SAUCE

Thomas was coy about revealing his exact gyros sauce recipe, however, he did tell me what’s in it so I made a copycat up. I think it’s pretty close! Here’s what you need:

• Plain yoghurt – preferably Greek or Greek-style. Full fat is best, though low-fat will work just fine.

• Whole-egg mayonnaise – This is the only type of mayonnaise I use because it has a smoother flavour than regular mayonnaise which is more vinegary and/or sweeter. S&W and Hellman’s are the brands I get. Kewpie is also ideal as it is similar in flavour. But, it’s ok! 🙂 You can use regular mayonnaise if that’s all you got, or prefer!

• Extra virgin olive oil – to enrich the sauce.

• American yellow mustard – the secret ingredient!! Gives the sauce a warm colour and a hint of flavour. Dijon mustard is not the same, we want the full-on bright yellow stuff!! 🙂 Substitute with Dijon mustard. Don’t use hot English mustard, oh gosh, that would make this too spicy!

• Garlic and paprika – These are the two spices that add flavour into the sauce.

3. for the gyros

Use the bread-type of pita bread, if you can find it. That’s the traditional bread used for gyros. Otherwise, any flatbread will work here.

• Gyros pita bread / souvlaki bread – As noted above, I use the bready-type of pita bread that is about 5mm / 0.2″ thick, 21cm / 8.5″ wide. My favourite is the Golden Top brand Souvlaki Bread , which is popular with Greek restaurants and souvlaki shops here in Australia. I get mine from Harris Farms (I’m in Sydney).

  Don’t be deterred if you can’t find this type of pita bread! Gyros is fabulous wrapped in anything – regular thin pita bread, flatbreads, Lebanese bread, even tortillas!

• Tomato – Halved and thinly sliced.

• Lettuce – Kalimera don’t use lettuce in theirs but I do like a bit of fresh leafy greengage inside. Feel free to skip it!

• Red onion – Similarly to lettuce, this is my addition. I like a little bit of oniony-freshness is wraps like this.

• HOT CHIPS! I know the gyros purists will approve, it wouldn’t be a proper Greek street-style gyros without them! However, it is optional and I must confess, most of the times I make gyros for a regular meal I do not include them, just out of sheer laziness – and because the gyros is so good (and stuffed full) even without them. 🙂

  I just use frozen – cook them as you please (I bake for everyday, fry to impress) – though if you really want to show off, make your own fries!

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How to make Kalimera’s famous Chicken Gyros

Kalimera cooks their chicken gyros on giant vertical rotisseries. We’re just going to use our stove or BBQ, not skewering involved. Not the same show but you still get the flavour!

1. Marinade chicken

1. Mix the marinade in a large bowl.

2. Marinade – Toss the chicken through, making sure you get the marinade into all the cracks and crevices! Then leave it to marinade overnight – 24 hours is ideal, 12 hours is enough, 3 hours is the bare minimum (in my books, though a friend has made this without marinading at all and thinks that once the chicken is chopped and tossed, you get enough flavour).

2. Cook

1. Sauce first – Mix the sauce up first before cooking the chicken as it benefits from resting for about 20 minutes to let the flavours meld.

2. Hot chips next, if using – Then cook the hot chips using whatever method works. If you’re baking or air frying, time it so they are ready when the gyros is ready to assemble. If you’re frying, fry then keep them warm in a 100°C/200°F oven.

3. Cook chicken either on the stove in a non-stick pan or better yet, on a BBQ, until deep golden brown and charred on the edges. You won’t need oil as the marinade has enough. Use medium high heat, so the surface won’t burn before the inside cooks through.

   Small thighs will take about 3 minutes on each side, large ones 4 – 5 minutes. If you want to be sure, check the internal temperature – it should be at least 72°C/162°F when you take it off the BBQ. It will rise to 76°C/169°F once rested.

4. Rest – Remove the chicken from the BBQ/stove into a pan or tray. Loosely cover with foil then let it rest for 3 minutes (or however long it takes to cook the rest, if cooking in batches using a fry-pan). Resting is critical so the fibres re-absorb the meat juices so they don’t run out when you chop the chicken!

5. Warm the pita bread – While the chicken is resting, warm the pita bread. This is especially important if you are using the bready-type, else it will crack when you fold. The easiest way is to just stack on a plate and microwave for 1 – 1 1/2 minutes on high, until it is warm and pliable in the middle.

   Else, you can brush with water and pan fry (careful not to make the surface crispy, else it will crack when folded) or wrap in foil and warm in the oven.

6. Slice the chicken into 8mm / 1/3″ strips.

7. Assemble gyros – To assemble, smear sauce down the middle. Pile chicken on, then place lettuce and tomato down the side. Sprinkle with red onion, top with chips, drizzle with more sauce then fold and devour!

This is such a great recipe to make in big batch because it’s so simple to make the marinade – just measuring out dry spices, no squeezing lemon, not even mincing garlic. Excellent to bag up marinated meat for the freezer, or big-batch cooking for groups.

It’s also one of those foods that you can lay everything out for everyone to help themselves to make their own wraps. I make no secret that I’m a fan of foods like that (like this one, this one, this one and this one). Yes, partially because it’s less work for me. But also I just like DIY foods – just feels more interactive and inclusive to eat this way rather than formal plated food!

Thoughts? 🙂 – Nagi x

PS While I made gyros wraps, can you imagine how good this would be in plate-form with a pile of this meat on spiced Lebanese rice (Mejadra) with tabbouleh or shredded lettuce and tomato, a huge dollop of tzatziki or hummus and folded flatbread tucked into the side? Yesssss!!

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Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

After shuttling between seven houses over his lifetime, we’ve started moving into Dozer’s forever home. 🥰 Can’t let a little move interrupt Dozer’s sleeping schedule and posting new recipes – here I am literally writing up these words mid-move!

It will be a few weeks before we’re properly in, but we’ve started! I’m so excited, after 11 years, I’m finally moving out of the office! 🎉