Chicken Gyros

smokingal

With this latest cook, I wanted to make gyros out of chicken which resembled what I’ve made
in the past with beef and lamb mixtures.  This required an addition of fat to add moisture
and to help the ground meat stick together.  I chose to use beef marrow for this purpose, along with other ingredients that I already had on hand - chicken breasts, minced and drained
onions, minced garlic, garlic and onion powders, salt-free Cavender’s, Herbs de Provence,
sumac and sodium free chicken broth.

Everything got pureed in a food processor until it wound up as a fairly wet paste, which was rolled into as cylindrical a shape as I could manage, partially frozen, skewered, then fully frozen.

 

 

The Egg was dialed in at 275F, using oak and olive wood chunks.

I was worried that the high moisture content would prevent this vertical log from cooking in a
cohesive manner.  I was right.  About 2 hours in, I decided to take a peek.

 

 

Soooooooo.  Yeeaaahhh.  Not what I was shooting for.  No worries.  I had some 96 hour dough
that I needed to put to use and the flavor of the meat glob was outstanding.  I crafted a pizza
using the failed gyro log, tomatoes, sweet onions, parmesan, ricotta and fresh mozzarella cheeses.

 

 

It was hard to be too disappointed with how the meat turned out when the pizza turned out so
well.  However, I hadn’t given up just yet and determined what needed to change for my second attempt.  I used ground chicken breast and meat glue for the next effort, keeping everything else about the approach the same.

 

 

Two hours into the cook and so far so good.

 

 

All done with a much better outcome.

 

 

The chicken was sliced and lightly fried to give it some color.  Duck fat was
heated up for fries.

 

 

The chicken gyro was served with homemade tzatziki sauce and all the usual toppings, lettuce
onions, tomatoes and feta cheese.

 

 

The meat was tender, juicy and well seasoned and made for a nice little meal.  Definitely a
change of pace from the usual.

 

For dessert, I decided upon apple baklava.  The plan was to temper the usual heavy handed
sweetness of this dish with tart apples, along with a reduced amount of honey and sugar in the
syrup.  The syrup was made first, using no-sugar-added apple juice concentrate and 3 ounces
each of clover honey and granulated sugar, along with a cup of water.  This was reduced by a
third, until it was thickened.  A tablespoon of lemon juice was added and 2 cinnamon sticks
were tossed in to steep as the mixture cooled.

 

 

Ghee seasoned with Himalayan pink salt was heated on the Egg, along with chunks of Gala
apples which had been seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and ginger, then
covered in the remaining apple juice concentrate.  Once the apples had softened, they were
cooked further on the stovetop until tender and the liquid was reduced.

 

 

The walnut portion of the filling included Biscoff cookies and some granulated sugar that was
quickly pulsed in a food processor.  This was seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

 

 

With everything prepped and ready, I started the tedious phyllo dough layering process, placing the apple layers towards the center of the dish, and heavily basting each dough layer with ghee.

 

 

The baklava was baked at 350F for an hour.  Once done, the completely cooled honey apple
syrup was poured over and it was left to rest overnight for thorough saturation.

 

 

Finally time to snack on a piece.

 

 

The all-brown filling makes it hard to see the layers, so here’s a quick shot of a corner end
piece.

 

 

Using tart apples and small amounts of honey and sugar in this batch allowed for a real balance of flavors which are often muted by the overwhelming sweetness of this dessert.  The tart flavor helped to showcase the blend of spices.  The best description of this is a buttery, walnut filled baklava that was combined with an apple pie and a spice cookie crust.  Sticky, sweet good eats.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Meat glue for the win!

again, incredible cook start to finish. 

zahulio

Wow! Such impressive work. I don't recall ever seeing chicken gyros before

keener75

HOLY MACKINAW!

johnmitchell

Awesome as usual... One day could you show us a pic of your spice pantry..;) 

thetrim

kewl

lousubcap

Always impressive and a great initial audible.  What creativity and complete banquet right there.  Skills off the chart.  Congrats. 

chard

Outstanding!

HellrodKC

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.

Well done!

johnnyp

very cool.  I'm going to have to give this a shot soon.

Similar cook here- https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1177756/gyro-night#latest.   

Looks like @DoubleEgger used foil for part of the cooking process for the structural support.

DoubleEgger

johnnyp said:

very cool.  I'm going to have to give this a shot soon.

Similar cook here- https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1177756/gyro-night#latest.   

Looks like @DoubleEgger used foil for part of the cooking process for the structural support.

Yes. I completely wrap in foil until the last 15-20 minutes. It browns fast. 

caliking

I couldn't process this whole cook at one go. Had to stop as soon as I read about the beef marrow added in, because I was already drooling. And if that pizza was the rescue cook... wow.

Bookmarked for the baklava itself. May have to come back and read all of this again during the week. Just superb!

smokingal

Found out that the chicken gyro meat, shaved thin, makes for excellent chicken cheesesteaks.  Used it to work on my technique of multiple layers of meat and cheese while steaming the roll.   So full.  

JohnInCarolina

GATraveller

BGEChicago

@smokingal what a great post! I showed this to my 100% greek wife, guess what I'm cooking this weekend!!! Congrats on another fine cook!

pgprescott

A little drive and ambition out of you would be nice for a change! 😜

CigarCityEgger

Looks incredible, and a great audible with that pizza. Thanks for sharing!

Hub

Pics or it didn't happen ... oh wait!

Carolina Q

Interesting project. Never used meat glue as it just never sounded good to me. Not a fan of ground chicken either. But, you did interest me in chicken gyros so a little digging found this, solid chicken parts with a lovely char, sliced as if from a vertical spit roaster. Not sure how I'd do it on an egg, but I also have a kettle. I have to try this! Need a recipe for pocketless pita.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2g1evQedkY
Nice save with the pizza!

fishlessman

Carolina Q said:

Interesting project. Never used meat glue as it just never sounded good to me. Not a fan of ground chicken either. But, you did interest me in chicken gyros so a little digging found this, solid chicken parts with a lovely char, sliced as if from a vertical spit roaster. Not sure how I'd do it on an egg, but I also have a kettle. I have to try this! Need a recipe for pocketless pita.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2g1evQedkY
Nice save with the pizza!

made a contraption years ago to attempt this with breasts and thighs,  found out that skewers were the way to go to get the dark crispy exterior verse juicy center.  did the skewers last weekend

smokingal

@CarolinaQ Meat glue is made from natural sources, doesn't impart any flavor to the meat mixture and is deactivated by most cooking techniques. I used ground chicken to imitate the type of beef & lamb gyro meat I grew up eating, which was basically a cone shaped, cylindrical blob of ground meat roasted on a vertical grill. Grinding the meat this way also allowed me to fully incorporate additional fat. In Greece, I've noticed that their gyro meat is cooked in a manner that I've always attributed to a shawarma, solid meat slices roasted vertically.

It's not pocketless, but I like to use this recipe for pita bread.

nolaegghead

Not to mention meat glue (transglutaminase) is already and naturally found in most of the meat you eat. That's where it comes from. And added to the better, whole-muscle lunch meat. Since it is from meat, I believe they can call it a natural ingredient, or even "meat".

nolaegghead

Correction, commercially it is made from animals, in a round about way - the enzyme is produced by bacteria feeding on the animals.

bgebrent

@Nola you transglutaminase dog you!

WeberWho

Holy H€ll everything looks like it's out of some fancy cookbook! That looks truly amazing.

lkapigian

Bump @smokingal ....looking to see if you have a % of seasoning to weight of protein...............trying to engineer a Gyro Sausage with blended spices vs individual 

Thanks in advance 

smokingal

lkapigian said:

Bump @smokingal ....looking to see if you have a % of seasoning to weight of protein...............trying to engineer a Gyro Sausage with blended spices vs individual 

Thanks in advance 

Sorry, @lkapigian - I can't remember the last time I measured seasonings.  I think my measuring spoons are actually still in storage.  I do tend to go a bit lighter on herbs de provence, as a little goes a long way.  I just combine the spices per my taste, i.e. easy on the herbs de provence, very heavy on the garlic/onion and finely grind them using a spice grinder.  Once everything is well coated, I consider it well seasoned.

lkapigian

smokingal said:

lkapigian said:

Bump @smokingal ....looking to see if you have a % of seasoning to weight of protein...............trying to engineer a Gyro Sausage with blended spices vs individual 

Thanks in advance 

Sorry, @lkapigian - I can't remember the last time I measured seasonings.  I think my measuring spoons are actually still in storage.  I do tend to go a bit lighter on herbs de provence, as a little goes a long way.  I just combine the spices per my taste, i.e. easy on the herbs de provence, very heavy on the garlic/onion and finely grind them using a spice grinder.  Once everything is well coated, I consider it well seasoned.

No worries and thank you....sausage is really about the only thing I measure for repeatability and especially salt

The Cen-Tex Smoker

smokingal said:

lkapigian said:

Bump @smokingal ....looking to see if you have a % of seasoning to weight of protein...............trying to engineer a Gyro Sausage with blended spices vs individual 

Thanks in advance 

Sorry, @lkapigian - I can't remember the last time I measured seasonings.  I think my measuring spoons are actually still in storage.  I do tend to go a bit lighter on herbs de provence, as a little goes a long way.  I just combine the spices per my taste, i.e. easy on the herbs de provence, very heavy on the garlic/onion and finely grind them using a spice grinder.  Once everything is well coated, I consider it well seasoned.

You and @caliking would get along just fine. 

“Masalawurst is a concept, not a recipe” 

-Caliking 

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

smokingal said:

lkapigian said:

Bump @smokingal ....looking to see if you have a % of seasoning to weight of protein...............trying to engineer a Gyro Sausage with blended spices vs individual 

Thanks in advance 

Sorry, @lkapigian - I can't remember the last time I measured seasonings.  I think my measuring spoons are actually still in storage.  I do tend to go a bit lighter on herbs de provence, as a little goes a long way.  I just combine the spices per my taste, i.e. easy on the herbs de provence, very heavy on the garlic/onion and finely grind them using a spice grinder.  Once everything is well coated, I consider it well seasoned.

You and @caliking would get along just fine. 

“Masalawurst is a concept, not a recipe” 

-Caliking 

I'd really like to try that masalwurst 

I'm finding its anywhere from .5 -2 grams of herb/spice to kg of meat , I'll try and break out the spices in each blend and see what happens