Kebab is my go-to street food, and one of the things that I miss from home is my favourite place in Dunakeszi, on my opinion, that little street food restaurant serves the best gyros meat all over the world... but since I have no chance to buy plane tickets every week to eat there, I'm always working on the best homemade version, and I think this time I got the result what I really want to share with you since it's finally very close to perfection.
Ingredients
Spice blend - for about 1 kg meat
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika powder
- 1 tsp thyme, basil, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon
- 2 cloves of garlic pressed
Kebab
- 1 kg chicken thighs, skin on
- Olive oil
- Tzatziki, salad, tomato, onions, spicy paprika sauce, cheese optional for serving
Pita bread
- 175 ml warm water
- 1 heaped tsp of instant yeast
- 2 tsp honey
- 300 g flour
Instructions
- First of all, prepare the gyros spice blend.
- Cover the meat pieces with the spice then place them into a roasting bag and add some olive oil.
- Roast the meat on 180ºC for about 30 minutes till it completely softens, then put the chicken thighs -first with the skin side down- on a roasting rack with a tray under that and save the oily gravy in a bowl. If it's possible, use the grill mode on your oven and continue to roast the meat until it becomes a bit crispy and repeat this on the other side as well. The chicken thighs should be crispy outside but soft and juicy inside.
- Use a sharp knife with a thin blade to carve really thin slices.
- For the pita bread let's mix the warm water with the instant yeast and the honey, then add the flour and knead a smooth dough.
- Let's create about 6 balls from the dough and make them flat with your hands and fingertips. They should be about 0,5 cm thick.
- Let them rise for about half an hour on a surface covered with flour.
- Set the oven to 200ºC, place the pita bread pieces on a tin covered with flour, and bake them about about 2 minutes after the pocket will form in the middle. You will easily notice that because they will be puffy.
- Finally, start to fill the fresh and warm pita bread with tzatziki, tomato slices, salad, onion and I dip the sliced meat in the oily gravy and heaped the pita with it then poured some spicy paprika sauce on the top.
- I normally serve it with fries and fresh salad on a plate and my personal favourite is grated cheese melting on the top... yum!

Kebab In Pita Bread - Photo by © Reka Csulak