Even people who profess that they don’t like lamb, will have a change of heart after the first bite of this grilled leg of lamb. (True testimony from my dinner guests.) The lamb is marinated in garlic, herbs, lemon and mustard. It is then grilled over charcoal (or a gas grill) and cooked to perfection. Instead of traditional mint jelly, a Mint-Parsley Chimichurri (uncooked sauce) is served on the side. The mint, garlic and a little acid from vinegar and lemon juice is the perfect accompaniment to this grilled dinner.
I am still swooning over this grilled leg of lamb. Holy Moly! The meat was super moist, tender and loaded with delicious flavor! What’s even more gratifying, to me, is that I have two family members who profess that they really don’t like lamb. My oldest brother, in fact, wasn’t too thrilled when I told him I was going to make grilled leg of lamb. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Our mother used to serve us mutton, when we were kids. Blecccch. I was turned off at the thought of eating lamb– until I discovered that Rack of Lamb or Braised Leg of Lamb is much milder in flavor.
My son, however, adores lamb– and I have to admit that I’ve joined the same fan club. When I’m feeling like splurging on the cost of ordering Rack of Lamb at a restaurant, it’s such a treat–and a budget splurge. My son was driving down to spend the holiday with us and he requested lamb. Son, you got it! Since we’ve been having beautiful weather, I decided to ask my husband to help me grill a boneless, butterflied leg of lamb.
I ordered a 5 pound leg of lamb, and asked my butcher to remove the bone and butterfly it for me. I generously seasoned it with salt and pepper, and made the marinade.
For the marinade, I cut some garden fresh sprigs of rosemary, onion, garlic, vinegar and lemon zest. Using my Vitamix Blender (or you could use a food processor) I “buzzed” the ingredients into a spreadable “paste”.
Since the marinade turned out to be more of a paste, I decided to slather the seasoned lamb with the “paste” and placed it into a 9×13 dish. Otherwise, I would have poured the marinade into a gallon sized zip-loc bag. Into the refrigerator it went for several hours.
It was time for my husband to prepare our Weber charcoal grill, so I removed the lamb from the refrigerator to come to room temperature (at least 30 minutes). I threaded some skewers through the leg of lamb, as I read it helps to flip the meat much easier (more on that later).
My husband has become quite proficient with a charcoal grill, thanks to this book that I bought for him a few years ago. That book helped us both to understand more about direct and indirect grilling. For this recipe, we want a double stack of briquets on one side and a smaller one on the other. These charcoal holder baskets are a big help, because he can easily “drag” one over if he wants to reduce the amount of heat. So, here we go!
Indeed, the skewers did make placing the lamb on top of the hot coals pretty easy.
The lamb has a lot of fat, and that is placed on the hot grill– fat side down. Sizzle, sizzle!
Whoa! There is a lot of flare-up but Craig has a squirt bottle of water on standby. It’s safe to say that one side has been seared– so now to flip it over and sear the other side.
I’ll be honest– for a moment I was worried that the lamb would tasted burned. Spoiler alert: it didn’t!
The lamb is now removed from the “hot” side and scooted over to where there are minimum coals. He placed the lid on and grilled the lamb until it reached about 130F (about 45 minutes).
Here’s something “key” that I want to bring to your attention– see how there are three “chunks” of meat? Hold that thought and keep on reading…
I sliced into the thick part of the lamb, and my son was ecstatic. He loves his lamb rare. However, since I had two family members who weren’t thrilled with lamb (or so they thought), I asked Craig to put the remaining lamb back on the grill until it reached 145F.
Perfect! The lamb was more pink and slightly well done on the edges. Happy, happy, happy! Traditionally, folks like mint jelly on the side of lamb. That’s not our thing and I could never bond with that idea.
Then it hit me! Chimichurri sauce! This sauce is uncooked and originated in South America (Argentina/Uruguay). Traditionally, it’s made with parsley, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes, garlic and oregano. It’s delicious on steaks. Since our garden has fresh mint, I decided to make a mint chimichurri sauce.
I have a mini food processor, so I added the ingredients, and gave it a buzz until finely chopped.
Since I had zested a lemon for the marinade, I didn’t want to waste it. So, after tasting the sauce, I decided some lemon juice would kick it up a small notch. It did!
Perfection!
We were all anxious to dig in, so I plated my son’s rare leg of lamb, put a little chimichurri sauce on the side, and served creamed spinach with a panko topping and roasted baby potatoes (recipes to come) on the side.
GRILLING NOTES: In hindsight, I should have just cut the butterflied leg of lamb into three chunks. I think it would have been easier to move the smaller pieces off to the cooler side of the grill and allow the thicker pieces to cook over direct heat a bit longer. No biggie, but I know I’ll make this recipe again. Also, I think I’d trim off more of the fat, because the flare ups kept my husband on his toes trying to tame them!
TASTING NOTES: The lamb was so mild in flavor, and char crust was out of this world delicious. The mint chimichurri sauce was the perfect choice to compliment the lamb– it had the bright flavor of a little lemon, a slight tang of vinegar, just the right amount of garlic and it was a flavor explosion. Even my lamb “haters” went back for seconds of the lamb. I wish I had made double the chimichurri sauce as it was a hot ticket!
Grilled Butterlifed Leg of Lamb with a Mint Chimichurri Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion roughly cut
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
- 1 lemon zested, reserve zest
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 5-6 pound leg of lamb butterflied
For the Mint Chimichurri sauce:
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves (spearmint)
- 1 cup fresh Italian parsley
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice optional
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
For the marinade:
- combine the onion, garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, apple cider vinegar, mustard and olive oil into a food processor and pulse to combine.NOTE: I used my Vitamix blender, or you can simply finely chop the onion, garlic and rosemary and combine with the remaining liquids.
Marinate the lamb:
- Generously season the lamb with salt and pepper**. To marinate, if using a 1-gallon zip-loc bag, place the lamb and the marinade in the bag and “smoosh” to make sure that the lamb is evenly coated. Otherwise, pour about half the marinade into a large rimmed pan (I used a 9×13 glass dish), place the lamb in and pour the remaining marinade on top. Make sure that the lamb is evenly coated. Refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours (or overnight).NOTE: If there is a lot of fat on the lamb, I recommend trimming the excess fat as there will definitely be a LOT of flareups!
Prepare the charcoal grill:
- Layer the coals on one side of the grill, double-layered and then one sparsley layer of charcoals on the other side of the grill.
For a gas grill:
- Heat the grill on high on all burners to start. (After the initial searing you will reduce the heat.)
Preparing the lamb for grilling:
- Remove the lamb from refrigerator and remove from the bag or dish and let come to room temperature; (about 30 minutes) covered with plastic wrap.
- NOTE: You can skewer the lamb to make it easier to flip over. In hindsight, though we did this, our lamb wasn’t evenly butterflied. I recommend, that you can cut the leg of lamb in thirds– so that thicker pieces can grill a bit longer, while any thinner chunks can be set off-heat so it won’t overcook.
Searing the lamb:
- Place the lamb, fat side down, on the grill on the hot side (double layer charcoals). NOTE: Unless you’ve trimmed off the excess fat, I can guarantee that you will have a lot of flare-ups, so definitely have a squirt bottle of water at the ready.
- Sear one side for 4 minutes, then flip the lamb over to sear the other side for another 4 minutes.
Cooking on a charcoal grill:
- Move the lamb to the cooler side of charcoal grill and finish cooking
Cooking on a gas grill:
- If you are using a gas grill, lower the heat to low. You will want to maintain a temperature of 300-350°F.
- Cover the grill and let cook for an additional 35-45 minutes (depending on how thick, and how many pounds the roast is), until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the roast registers 130°F (for medium rare) or 145F for medium (how we prefer it).
- Let rest before cutting: Transfer to a cutting board with a well to catch the juices. Cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Remove the skewers if you are using any.
- Cut across the grain, 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices.
For the mint chimicchurri:
- Place the garlic, mint and parsley leaves into a food processor and pulse several times until finely chopped.
- Add the vinegar, lemon juice, salt, red pepper flakes and olive oil and pulse a few more times until combined.
Notes
Lamb was my dad’s favorite. 🙂 And your recipe looks so good – I will definitely give this one a rey!
a TRY. (typing too fast!)
LOL! I hope you love it. Thanks for stopping by. ❤️
I know I would love this recipe. We all are lamb lovers in my family and I use a similar recipe from Julia Child. I find that removing all the fat I can really helps, not just with the flare ups on the grill, but it is where the “gamey” taste resides. I made a Greek style tzatziki to go with our Easter lamb, but I love the idea of the mint chimichurri.