This Beef Gyro recipe produces the most flavorful and tender beef, and can be made in a slow cooker or instant pot. Topped with fresh vegetables, and a homemade tzatziki sauce, this tasty dish couldn’t be easier to make from home!
Looking for more slow cooker recipes? Try Slow Cooker Ribs, Pot Roast, Pulled Pork, or Crock Pot Baked Ziti!
Why I love this recipe:
- Quick – Just dump it in and walk away! The slow cooker takes a few hours, but the Instant Pot is ready to eat in under an hour.
- Delicious – From the tender and flavorful beef, to the crisp fresh vegetables and the homemade tzatziki sauce, this meal really can’t be beat!
- Crowd Pleaser – This is one of my favorite meals to make for company. It’s made in one pot so my kitchen stays clean, and everyone can assemble their own! I always get so many compliments!
How to make Beef Gyros:
Make Tzatziki Sauce: Combine all ingredients and stir well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Prep Beef: Remove any large pieces of fat from the beef roast and then slice the meat into thin, 1/4 inch strips (You could ask your butcher to this for you). Place in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Make Marinade: In a small bowl combine the olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, cumin, thyme, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Pour over meat.
Cook Beef Gyro Meat: Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or until beef is tender.
Assemble: Add a lettuce to a pita. Top with tomatoes, cucumber, and onion. Top gyro sandwich with meat and drizzle with homemade tzatziki sauce.
Serve: I like to add a little hot sauce as well, but that’s optional.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The tzatziki sauce can be made and all the vegetables can be sliced and prepped ahead of time, just keep everything in separate containers in the fridge until ready to serve.
To Freeze: The gyro meat can be frozen in a freezer safe bag before or after cooking. My preference is to freeze before cooking. Thinly slice the beef and place in a freezer bag with the beef gyro marinade, then freeze. Let thaw completely in the fridge then dump and cook in the instant pot or slow cooker.
More Instant Pot Recipes:
- White Chicken Chili
- Beef Noodle Soup
- Instant Pot Corn on the Cob
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Instant Pot Short Ribs
- Instant Pot Yogurt
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Recipe
Beef Gyros (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 pounds beef chuck roast , sliced into thin quarter inch strips
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
For serving:
- 5 soft pitas
- 5 lettuce leaves
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes , halved
- 1/4 of a red onion thinly sliced
- 1 English cucumber , sliced, and then halved
Tzatziki Sauce:
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 clove garlic , finely minced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- For the Tzatziki Sauce: Combine all ingredients and stir well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
For Slow Cooker:
- Remove any large pieces of fat from the beef roast and then slice the meat into thin, 1/4 inch strips. Place in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl combine the olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, cumin, thyme, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Pour over meat. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or until beef is tender.
- Add a lettuce leaf to a pita. Top with meat, tomatoes, cucumber, onion and tzatziki sauce.
For Instant Pot:
- Remove any large pieces of fat from the beef roast and then slice the meat into thin, 1/4 inch strips. Place in Instant pot.
- In a small bowl combine ⅓ cup of WATER, olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, cumin, thyme, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Pour over meat.
- Cover and turn the valve to "sealing." Press "manual" or high pressure, and set the timer for 30 minutes.
- After the timer beeps allow the instant pot to rest for 15 minutes before releasing any of the pressure. Remove the lid, taste, and add additional seasonings if needed.
- Add a lettuce leaf to a pita. Top with meat, tomatoes, cucumber, onion and tzatziki sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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I originally shared this recipe April 2017. Updated January 2022.
This post contains affiliate links.
This looks amazing and I plan on making it, but was wondering if you could come up with a recipe for chicken shawarma using a crockpot or instant pot?
Loved it! I did everything exactly according to the recipe and it came out exactly as expected. I have a photo, but I do not see anyway to include it. It is on my FB page.
I discovered this recipe recently and have tried it in the slow cooker and the instant pot and it is now my “go to” way to cook beef! I just served the beef over rice and roasted veggies last time I made it and it was so delicious!!
Could I slide the beef after cooking? Just curious if I could save time without impacting the outcome too much. Thank you!
I left my chuck roast whole and shredded after, is was sooo tender and juicy, fell right apart! The seasoning needed adjusting slightly, just to suit my families preferences and was a huge hit!!
I made this in my IP. The only thing I changed was I added diced cucumber to my sauce. It was delicious. Absolutely loved it. Had leftovers for lunch the next day, still delicious. The hardest part was slicing a semi frozen piece of meat, next time I will definitely let the butcher do that. 100% will make this again.
Could I use Chicken instead? I don’t want to eat much beef.
We have a chicken gyro recipe right here and it’s SUCH a good one! https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/chicken-gyros/
Delicious! I used the Instant Pot and it turned out well. Trimming the meat is pretty time consuming, so opt for the butcher’s help if you can.
So tender and delicious!
Just wanted to ask about the slow cooker recipe. It didn’t look like it has much liquid to be cooking for 6 hours. Is something missing in the recipe ? Looks yummy!
Nope, it all comes together perfectly! Please come back and leave a review if you get a chance to try it!
DId it in the crock pot today. perfect!
Hi Lauren,
follow all your recipes and Enjoy all! This one reminds me of a Doner Kebab I enjoyed. How can I modify this
using velveted chicken breast strips in the IP ?
My favorite, now I can make at home. Mmm. Thank you
Made this tonight in the slow cooker. Amazing! Beef was so tender. The only thing I changed was adding the cucumber to the tzatziki.
This was great! Perfect recipe for summer
Sorry but you forgot the cucumber in the Tzatziki — they are the basis of the sauce.
I didn’t add them since I was already adding cucumbers to the gyro itself.
Best meal my daughter has ever made and she’s a fantastic chef! The meat was melt in your mouth delicious. I seriously could not stop eating this!!!
Came across this recipe. A nice twist on a classic. Personally I think it’s better than the classic. SO GOOD
This was absolutely delicious! I cooked the meat in the IP and was able to get it going in less than 10 minutes. We served it as a salad: lettuce, tomatoes and red onion topped with tzatziki and meat. Will definitely double the meat next time so we can have it for lunches. Thanks for an easy, wonderful meal!
This was so good! I made the beef in the crockpot and seasoned LIBERALLY with salt and pepper. It fell apart! I almost wish I had doubled the recipe so we can have leftovers for longer 😂. I also didn’t have red wine vinegar so I left that out of the taziki. My kiddo was eating it with a spoon! So tasty!
This was fantastic!!! Did the meat just as written and everyone loved it!!! I may add a more salt next time. But I didn’t measure it when I was sprinkling it on the meat.
I made the tzaztiki sauce with plain cashew yogurt instead of Greek yogurt and it was fantastic!!!
Thank you! I enjoyed This review!
Made this tonight in my Instant Pot. Very easy recipe and beef was extremely tender, however, not as flavorful as I was hoping. Also the Tzatziki Sauce wasn’t what I was expecting (I was hoping it would taste more like my local Greek restaurant’s Tzatziki Sauce). Next time, I will add cucumber into sauce instead of in gyro and skip the vinegar altogether. Also would add more seasoning to the beef.
This recipe is delicious! I added 1/2 grated cucumber and a small amount of sour cream to tone down the Greek yogurt. I will definitely be making this again ❤️
Made these last night in the IP and they were delicious! I would say the meat was more of a pot roast texture but it worked! The flavors were wonderful and my fiancé enjoyed them too! Thanks for the recipe!
If I cook the meat in the instant pot instead of a slow cooker, how long and on what pressure settings?
The IP Instructions are right underneath the slow cooker instructions.
I have no manual button option, I have the instant pot do well. I have a low or high pressure setting which wasn’t listed in the recipe. I put it on low, hoping for the best
Hi Kim, High pressure is what you want whenever a recipe refers to “manual”.
My very first instant pot experience and it’s fantastic! I would not be surprised to find the Mr sneaking a bowl for a midnight snack later after his super sized supper. Thank you for sharing
Greetings! I jumped into the Insta Pot pool with this recipe, To call this a gyro meat is disingenuous, it was very good, but nothing like authentic gyro meat. The Tzatziki and condiments as well as pita allowed me to consider this a gyro knock off. I presented to my wife and kids as pot roast gyros. It was a hit, and in the end thats all that matters!
We’ve used this recipe dozens of times. My family loves gyros and this recipe is so easy in the instant pot. I usually sauté vegetables as well to give it more flavor. So good!
Looking forward to making this today! I am going to use chicken instead. That is only because we have had a lot of red meat the past few nights. Thanks for posting a great recipe! I will come back and leave a review on the final production! ?
Not a big fan of this one! The meat was super moist, but it tasted more like pot roast than gyro.
The beef was DELICIOUS!!! My family ate the entire pot of beef. I will definitely be making this again. Thanks for the recipe!!
I love to hear that! Thanks for coming back to comment 🙂
This is SO good! I used a slow cooker, and I wouldn’t change a thing in the recipe – even though I’m sure it could be adapted in many ways. Enjoy! (Next time I make it, I think I’ll use Indian naan for the bread – so soft and tasty.)
I’m so happy you liked them! Thanks for sharing <3 Hope you get to try more of my recipes soon!
This was the first recipe I tried in my new instant pot and it was so easy and delicious! My family loved it. I’m excited to try more of your instant pot recipes!
This beef is delicious! This is the second dish I’ve made in my new Instant Pot. Can I safely double or triple this?
Thanks Barbaba! So happy you liked it. I think you can double it as long as everything stays below that safety line in the instant pot insert.
Loved it! I used stonefire naan from Costco.(that’s what I had)
I’m not going to say this tasted like an authentic gyro but I really loved it (and so did my husband). I’m going to repurpose the meat and juices for a beef sandwich with au jus tomorrow. I found the BEST pita bread that was so delicious. I also thought I could make this into a pizza for one more dinner! Thanks so much!
Not a big fan of this one. The tzatziki was not as good as I was hoping. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I wouldn’t make this again. Bummer!
The tzatziki sauce should always have cucumbers in it. Probably why it wasn’t very good Amanda.
I left the cucumbers out of the sauce because fresh cucumbers are layered inside the the gyro, and then topped with the sauce. You don’t need them twice.
Actually, you do need the cucumber in the tzatziki. That’s what make it tzatziki.
Can’t wait to make this!!! Literally gonna save me so much money.