20-Minute Gyro Skillet Casserole

gyro casserole in a skillet on a blue background with a tomato salad on top.

5 from 1 vote

20-Minute Gyro Skillet Casserole

Topped with a fresh and easy Mediterranean-inspired salad, this gyro skillet casserole recipe is an easy 20-minute weeknight dinner.

Cook Time20

Total Time20

Course: dinner

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keyword: Gyro, healthy, high protein

Servings:

Calories: 457kcal

Author: Mika Kinney

Ingredients

the casserole

1.25 cup banza chickpea rice or orzo, see notes for using white rice
2.5 cups bone broth any kind is fine
1 pound ground beef or lamb or bison
2 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Red pepper flakes can omit
2 teaspoon dried oregano

the salad

1 can chickpeas drained
½ c diced english cucumber about ⅓rd of one
1.5 tablespoon fresh dill minced, dried is fine
Juice from half a lemon
½ cup feta
½ c baby tomatoes halved, about 15 baby tomatoes
½ red onion diced
of salt and pepper to taste, start with ¼ teaspoon fo each

Instructions

Heat a pan over medium heat with a little oil. Add the 2 garlic cloves and saute until fragrant. Then add in the 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon Red pepper flakes, and 2 teaspoon dried oregano and saute another 30 seconds.
Add in the 1 pound ground beef and cook until browned and cooked through.
Add the 2.5 cups bone broth and 1.25 cup banza chickpea rice to the pan and stir to combine. Cover and bring to a boil. Then drop it to a simmer or low rolling boil. Continue to cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
If it seems to be drying out too fast, add more bone broth. If the rice is soft but there's too much liquid, remove the lid and let it continue to cook. the excess liquid shold evaporate pretty quickly.
While that cooks, make the salad by combining all the ingredients in a large bowls. toss gently to combine, then taste and season with additional salt and pepper as needed.
When the beef and rice are done, plate up each person a serving of beef and rice and then top with however much salad they want. If you're serving this at a dinner party then you can place the salad in the middle of the casserole for pretty presentation.
I try to avoid this though because they are difficult to reheat together.

Video

Notes

to make this with regular rice

Chickpea rice absorbs a lot more liquid so if you're making this with regular rice, you only need about 1.5 cups of broth. You can always add a little more at a time if you feel like it's absorbing all the liquid too fast.

expert tips

If there's not enough liquid, you can add more broth little by little.
Stir the rice frequently. Chickpea rice has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Remove the lid at the end to let any excess liquid cook off. Stir continuously as this is happening.
Serve the salad individually meaning each plate gets a bit of salad instead of on the entire skillet. Storing the salad with the casserole never works out well so if you can keep them seperate - that's the best!

how to store it

fridge

This casserole is best kept seperate from the salad. They will each keep for up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

frozen

You can freeze the beef and rice portion of this for up to 3 months. This makes a great meal to bring to nearly postpartum moms because of this! Bring them the frozen casserole base and a jar of the salad and all they have to do is pop the casserole in the oven meal prep

reheating

You can reheat the beef base in the microwave or on the stovetop with a little more broth to rehydrate it. Then top with the cold leftover salad.

Nutrition