Sheet pan Greek bifteki (beef burger) stuffed with feta and cooked in the oven with potato wedges – a super-easy recipe that’s ready in under 30 minutes.
Does food taste better when you are on holiday? I haven’t conducted any official research, but, between you and me, yes it does! I associate Greek bifteki with summer holidays on sun-drenched Skiathos island and so automatically this extremely simple dish tastes incredible!
What’s more it’s a sheet pan wonder that’s ready in under 30 minutes – I do love a meal that requires minimal washing up. If it were up to me everything would be made in one pot, a sheet pan or the Instant Pot. I love cooking but I despise washing up, as I am sure my husband would tell you. He is the one always cleaning up after me!
What is bifteki?
If you have never heard of bifteki and are expecting something exotic, then I have to let you down easy. Bifteki is simply a beef patty or burger made with herby minced beef or lamb. It can be cooked under the grill, on your BBQ, or in the oven as I have done here.
Although Greek bifteki very much resembles a burger in every respect, it is almost never served in a bun in Greece. Instead it is served with potatoes or rice and salad and flavourful enough to stand on its own, no ketchup required. All you need is a squeeze of lemon – which is why most Greek food will be served with a lemon wedge on the side.
How to make Greek bifteki
Use the best quality minced beef (or lamb) you can find – I like to use organic 10% fat minced beef. Don’t use very lean mince as you will end up with a dry sad bifteki. Use fresh herbs such as mint and parsley, but also a good pinch of rigani (dried oregano).
Finally you can stuff your bifteki with a slice of feta cheese for extra flavour – or you can crumble the cheese in the bifteki mix if you prefer in order to conceal it. You might have little kids who hate feta when they can detect it, as mine sometimes do!
How to cook bifteki
For an authentic ‘on holidays’ taste you should be cooking these on a charcoal BBQ as you would regular old burgers. But they taste pretty incredible cooked in your oven in a sheet pan with potato wedges.
Heat your oven to 220°C (430°F) and drizzle the largest sheet pan you own with olive oil. Scatter potato wedges on the tray, coating them in the oil, and season liberally with salt and pepper.
Add a good pinch of dried oregano and then nestle the bifteki among the potatoes. It might be a tight squeeze, but everything will shrink slightly as it cooks.
Cook for 20 minutes then add a couple of bunches vine tomatoes, still on the vine (this, I admit, is mostly for how pretty they look). Scatter with feta cheese and finely sliced red onion and stick back in the oven for 5 minutes, just long enough for the tomatoes to blister and cheese to melt a little.
Serve with a green salad or a Greek salad and think back to those summer holidays…
Love Greek food? Here are some more recipes you can try!
- Slow cooker lamb kleftiko
- Greek souvlaki with homemade pitta and tzatziki
- Greek pastitsio
- One-pot oven roasted Greek chicken
- Lamb giaortlou kebabs
Sheet pan Greek bifteki with potatoes
Ingredients
- For the burgers
- 450 g | 1lb beef mince 10% fat or above
- 1 red onion roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 slice toaster bread
- Handful fresh parsley
- 5 mint leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 5 small slices feta cheese
- Olive oil to drizzle
- 6 large potatoes such as Maris Piper, cut into wedges
- 2 large garlic cloves sliced
- 1 small lemon halved
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Olive oil to drizzle
- Salt and pepper to season
- 2 bunches cherry tomatoes on the vine
- 100 g | 3 1/2 oz feta cheese crumbled
- 1 small red onion sliced thinly
- fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Put the bread, onion, garlic and herbs in a mini chopper or food processor and pulse until minced.
- Add to a bowl together with the salt, egg, red wine vinegar and lemon zest and use your hands to really mix well together.
- Divide into 5 portions. Flatten each into a dish and place a small piece of feta cheese in the middle. Fold the edges over the cheese, encasing it.
- Drizzle the bifteki with a little olive oil and cover with cling film. Place in the fridge until needed.
- Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F) and drizzle a large sheet pan with olive oil.
- Spread the potato wedges in the tray, tossing them to coat in the oil. Season liberally with salt and pepper and scatter with oregano.
- Nestle the bifteki and lemon wedges among the potatoes, it will be a fairly tight fit. Cook for 20 minutes.
- Take the sheet pan out of the oven and add the tomatoes, crumbled feta and red onion. Drizzle with a little oil and season the tomatoes with salt.
- Cook for another 5 minutes or until the tomatoes are slightly blistered. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley
- Serve with a Greek salad.
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Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
cheese-stuffed burgers? I’m in!!