The Easiest Way To Make Homemade Gyros Is With A Trusty Sheet Pan

There are six words that immediately make a recipe more appealing: It's made on a sheet pan. Voila — just like that, your dinner prep goes from stirring, adding ingredients, increasing the stovetop heat, and constant maintenance to sliding a pan into the oven and forgetting about it until the timer goes off. Basically, it's like magic.

So here's a pitch for your next lazy weeknight meal: Juicy, warm, tangy gyros. Wrapped in warm pita and smothered in creamy tzatziki, this Greek street food is both refreshing and filling, with endless customization options depending on your meat (or vegetable) and topping preferences. It's perfect for a group with different dietary restrictions, or a family with picky eaters. It'll come together in under an hour and hits all the major food groups for a balanced meal that you'll feel good about eating. The best part? It's made on a sheet pan.

Gyros have been around the U.S. for more than a century, originating in Greece and becoming a street food staple in Chicago and New York City in the mid-1960s. They're characterized by thin, roasted slices of pork, chicken, lamb, or beef sandwiched in a fluffy pita, topped with a tangy cucumber tzatziki sauce and fresh veggies. Traditionally, the meat is roasted vertically, with pieces sliced off as they cook. But in case you don't have a spare roasting spit lying around the house, cooking the meat on a basic sheet pan works just fine — and requires a lot less effort.

Because gyros largely feature fresh toppings like tomatoes, lettuce, and onions, whichever meat you choose might be the only thing on your sheet pan, making picking a cook time easy. But if you want to add some roasted veggies, like cauliflower or sweet potato, or make your dinner vegetarian by replacing the meat with mushrooms or chickpeas, keep in mind the different cook times that these components may have, and cut your sheet pan ingredients into similar sizes so that they'll all cook evenly. If you're worried that your meat won't be cooked through, add it to the oven first, and throw on your veggies a little later. Finally, if you have a stash of cucumbers, use them up by making a fresh tzatziki sauce to drizzle on top of your warm gyro.