Indulge in the rich flavors and succulent texture of Elise's Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb, a culinary masterpiece that tantalizes taste buds with its tender meat and aromatic herbs. This comprehensive guide presents not only the signature lamb recipe but also a delightful assortment of accompaniments, ensuring a complete and memorable dining experience. From the vibrant and refreshing Salsa Verde, bursting with fresh herbs and tangy capers, to the velvety smooth and flavorful Garlic Butter, adding a touch of richness, each recipe is carefully crafted to complement the lamb's natural goodness. Discover the secrets behind the perfect Grilled Vegetables, showcasing the vibrant colors and natural sweetness of seasonal produce, and elevate your meal with the tangy and aromatic Chimichurri Sauce, adding a burst of South American flair. Whether you're a seasoned grill master or embarking on your culinary journey, this collection of recipes will guide you every step of the way, transforming your backyard barbecue into an extraordinary feast.
Here are our top 10 tried and tested recipes!
GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
A butterflied leg of lamb, which cooks quickly and evenly on the grill, has been split down the center, then unfolded and spread open to resemble a butterfly.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Food & Cooking Ingredients Meat & Poultry Lamb Recipes
Time 2h
Number Of Ingredients 7
Steps:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, vinegar, rosemary, garlic, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Place lamb in a large shallow dish with marinade, and turn to coat. Cover; marinate 1 hour at room temperature or up to overnight in refrigerator, turning occasionally. (Bring to room temperature before grilling.)
- Heat grill to medium-high. Thread several metal skewers through lamb in both directions to hold meat together during cooking.
- Grill lamb until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat registers 140 degrees for medium rare, 10 to 15 minutes per side. Let the meat rest, covered, about 10 minutes. Remove the skewers. Slice the meat thinly, against the grain where possible.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 271 g, Fat 13 g, Protein 35 g
GRILLED LEG OF LAMB
Steps:
- Combine marinade ingredients and place in a one-gallon resealable plastic bag. Unfold the lamb and examine how the butcher butterflied it. You may need to further cut it so the meat is of fairly uniform thickness. You may also have to cut it into 2 to 3 smaller, easier to handle portions. Add lamb to plastic bag and marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Place lamb on grill over well-heated coals or low-medium flame gas grill. Turn lamb 2 to 3 times while grilling and remove once degree of doneness is achieved (measure with instant-read thermometer). Allow meat to rest 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
- Serve with any/all of the following: 1. Reduced marinade (cook down while grilling meat); 2. Fresh garlic aioli; 3. Raspberry jalapeno sauce (recipe below)
- Serve this to someone who thinks they don't like lamb. It's a huge hit at our annual July 4th barbecue.
- Sweat the garlic, onions and peppers in the butter. Add preserves, stirring constantly until liquefied. Add wine and reduce to syrupy consistency.
GRILLED LEG OF LAMB
Provided by Ina Garten
Categories main-dish
Time 1h27m
Yield 8 to 12 servings
Number Of Ingredients 8
Steps:
- Combine the yogurt, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a large non-reactive bowl. Add the lamb, making sure it is covered with marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator, covered, overnight or for up to 3 days.
- Bring the lamb to room temperature. Prepare a charcoal grill with hot coals. Scrape the marinade off the lamb, wipe the meat with paper towels, and season it generously with salt and pepper. Brush the grill with oil to keep the lamb from sticking, and grill on both sides until the internal temperature is 120 to 125 degrees for rare. This will take 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how hot the grill is.
- Remove the lamb to a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 20 minutes. Then slice and serve.
ELISE'S GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
Sear the lamb first, on both sides, grilling on high heat for a short amount of time. Then cook the lamb on lower heat until it is cooked through. In my opinion, the only way to eat lamb is medium rare or rare. There is nothing more depressing than dried-out, over-cooked lamb! For this reason it is essential that you use a meat thermometer to test the internal temperature of the roast. Preparation time DOES NOT include the 2 hour marinating time in the refrigerator!
Provided by Lindas Busy Kitchen
Categories Lamb/Sheep
Time 1h25m
Yield 8-10
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Put onion, garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil into a food processor and pulse to combine. (If you don't have a food processor, just chop the onions, garlic, and rosemary very well and combine with the rest.).
- Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper over the lamb.
- Place marinade and lamb into a 1-gallon freezer bag. Spread marinade over all sides of the meat.
- Seal the bag and refrigerate for 1- 2 hours.
- Remove lamb from refrigerator, and let come to room temperature (about 20 minutes).
- When ready to put on grill, remove from marinade bag. To help make the lamb easier to turn on the grill you can insert a couple of skewers through the lamb, crosswise.
- Prepare grill:
- If you are using a charcoal grill, prepare the coals so that they are double layered on one side of the grill, and sparsely single layered on the other side of the grill (this is called "banked" grilling).
- If you are using a gas grill, heat the grill on high on all burners to start. After the initial browning you will reduce the heat.
- Place the lamb, fat side down, on the grill on the hot side (double layer charcoals). You will likely get flareups, so be prepared with a squirt bottle of water or a couple of cups of water (if using a charcoal grill) to control the flames if needed.
- Sear one side for 4 minutes, then flip the lamb over to sear the other side for another 4 minutes.
- If you are using a charcoal grill, move the roast to the less hot side of the 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).
- 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 -1/2" thick slices.
- Serve slices on a warm platter; pour meat juices over the slices.
- Serve with mint jelly or horseradish.
ELISE'S ROAST LEG OF LAMB
The most important thing to remember about cooking a lamb roast is not OVER-COOK it. Lamb has such wonderful flavor on its own, and is so naturally tender, that it is bound to turn out well, as long as it is still a little pink inside. There is some debate over which method yields the best results - slow cooking at low heat the entire time, or searing first on high heat and then slow cooking. James Beard in his American Cookery prefers the slow-cook-low-heat method (he rubs the roast with salt and pepper and cooks it at 325°F the whole time.) You will also get great results with the searing method, starting at high heat and then dropping the temp which is the method described in this recipe. For this roast, pull it out at 130°F if you like it medium rare. As it rests the internal temperature will continue to rise a few points as the meat continues to cook.(I like lamb on the rare side of medium rare, and this roast was perfectly done for me). An accurate meat thermometer is essential. The marinade used works quite well, however; a simpler marinade of rosemary, olive oil, garlic, pepper, and lemon juice would do the trick quite nicely too. You can also make tiny slices into the surface of the roast and insert slivers of garlic and herbs if you like. NOTE: Preparation time DOES NOT include the marinating time overnight in the refrigerator!
Provided by Lindas Busy Kitchen
Categories Lamb/Sheep
Time 2h10m
Yield 8-10
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Marinade:.
- Blend ingredients in a blender, just a few pulses until well mixed.
- Lamb Roast:.
- Place lamb and marinade into a plastic bag. Squeeze out as much of the air as possible from the bag and seal. Wrap again with another plastic bag to ensure that the marinating lamb doesn't leak.
- Marinate for several hours, or overnight, in the refrigerator.
- Remove the lamb, still in its marinade bag, from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before putting in the oven to help bring the lamb closer to room temperature before roasting.
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Arrange two racks in the oven - a middle rack to hold the lamb, and a lower rack to hold a roasting pan with which to catch the drippings.
- Place the empty roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating. Note that this arrangement of racks and pans, with the roast sitting directly on the oven rack, will create a natural convection of heat in the oven, causing the roast to cook more quickly than if cooked the traditional method in a rack in a roasting pan.
- Remove the lamb roast from its marinade bag (you may want to temporarily place lamb in another roasting pan, just to make it less messy to work with.)
- Pat dry the marinade off the lamb with paper towels.
- Generously salt and pepper all sides of the roast.
- Arrange fattiest side up, so while the lamb is cooking the fat will melt into the meat.
- Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, not touching the bone if your roast is bone-in.
- Place directly on middle rack of the oven, with a roasting pan on a separate rack a rung lower, to catch the drippings. You may also want to put some water (a cup or so) in the bottom roasting pan, so that the drippings fall into the water instead of burning in the hot pan and smoking up your kitchen.
- Roast at 425, for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300, and roast an additional hour (for a 6 lb. roast), about 10-12 minutes per pound. If you are cooking a roast bone-in, the bone will act as an insulator and will require a longer cooking time than a boneless roast.
- Note that the method of cooking directly on the oven rack will mimic a convection oven and the cooking time/oven temp needed will be less than you would need if you cooked the roast on a rack in a roasting pan.
- If you are cooking the roast in a roasting pan, rack or not, start the roast at 450, then reduce the heat to 325.
- Also, the shape of the roast will have an impact on the cooking time. A rather long and thin roast will cook fairly quickly. A thicker roast may take longer than expected.
- At this point start checking the meat thermometer. Note that every time you open the oven door, you'll need 10 minutes or so to bring the oven back up to temperature, thus slowing down the cooking process. So, don't check too often.
- Remove from the oven anywhere from 130°F-135°F for medium rare. Lamb should never be cooked until well done, or it will be too dry.
- Let stand for 15-20 minutes before carving.
- Cut away the kitchen string, and slice with a sharp carving knife, 1/2" thick slices, against the grain of the meat.
- While the roast is resting, use a metal spatula to scrape up the drippings in the roasting pan. Use the drippings to make a gravy, or use just the drippings themselves to serve with the lamb.
- Serve with some homemade mint jelly for an added treat.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 747.6, Fat 49.3, SaturatedFat 20.2, Cholesterol 227.9, Sodium 196, Carbohydrate 2.9, Fiber 0.2, Sugar 1.6, Protein 63.4
GRILLED HOISIN-MARINATED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
Categories Garlic Lamb Broil Marinate Backyard BBQ Summer Grill Chill Grill/Barbecue Gourmet
Yield Serves 4 to 6 with leftovers
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- In a bowl whisk together hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, minces scallion, honey, and salt.
- Trim as much remaining fat as possible from lamb and in a shallow dish large enough to hold lamb flat spread marinade over both sides of it. Marinate lamb, covered and chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Prepare grill.
- Bring lamb to room temperature and grill on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals 12 to 15 minutes on each side, or until meat thermometer registers 140°F. for medium-rate meat. (Alternatively, lamb may be broiled under preheated broiler about 4 inches from heat for approximately the same time on each side as for grilling.) Transfer lamb to a cutting board and let stand 20 minutes before carving.
- Holding a sharp knife at a 45° angle, cut lamb across grain into thin slices. (If planning to make lamb salad, reserve one-third unsliced lamb, covered and chilled.)
- To make scallion brushes:
- Trim roots and green parts from scallions, leaving about 2 1/2-inch stalks. Make 1/2-inch lengthwise cuts at both ends of stalks and spread fringed ends gently. Put scallions in a bowl of ice and cold water and chill 2 hours, or until fringed ends have curled. Drain scallions well.
- Garnish lamb with scallion brushes and serve with eggplant.
GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
Butterflying a leg of lamb produces a more uniform thickness, furthered by pounding, so the meat cooks evenly from end to end. It also creates more surface area for grilling, so that more of the meat takes on a charred taste. In this recipe, the lamb is marinated to infuse it with herbal flavors, but you could simply season it with no more than salt and pepper before grilling.
Yield Serves 6 to 8
Number Of Ingredients 4
Steps:
- Prepare lamb and marinate Cover lamb with plastic wrap. Pound lamb with a meat mallet until it is slightly thicker than 1 inch all over. Reserve 1/2 cup marinade. Place lamb in a large resealable plastic bag and add remaining marinade, then force out air and seal. Massage the lamb a bit to coat it thoroughly. Set bag on a baking sheet (in case of leaks) in the refrigerator and marinate lamb 8 to 24 hours, turning bag occasionally.
- Grill Remove lamb from bag and wipe off and discard as much marinade as possible so surface is dry. Let lamb rest at room temperature 1 hour. Meanwhile, heat grill to medium-high (see Grill Temperature Guidelines, page 162). When it is hot, scrub with a grill brush and sweep lightly with oil. Season lamb on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill (press down with tongs initially to make sure the lamb is evenly in contact with grill) until charred in spots, 5 to 6 minutes, rotating the lamb 90 degrees halfway through. Flip the lamb, then brush with some reserved marinade and cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers 125°F, again rotating it 90 degrees halfway through. This will take 5 to 6 minutes more. Let lamb rest 5 minutes.
- Serve Slice lamb and serve with remaining reserved marinade on the side.
GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB WITH MINT
Provided by Moira Hodgson
Categories dinner, main course
Time 3h25m
Yield 8 to 10 servings
Number Of Ingredients 8
Steps:
- Wipe lamb dry with paper towels and remove any large pieces of fat. In a small bowl, mix together mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, rosemary and pepper. Spread mixture over lamb on both sides. Refrigerate for three hours or overnight.
- Preheat coal for grilling. Spread mint leaves on a serving dish so that they make a thick carpet. Lay lamb on a rack and grill seven to eight minutes on each side for medium rare. Cook longer for well done.
- Place lamb on a board and slice pieces thin with a sharp knife. Arrange pieces on top of the mint in overlapping layers and serve.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 546, UnsaturatedFat 24 grams, Carbohydrate 1 gram, Fat 42 grams, Fiber 0 grams, Protein 40 grams, SaturatedFat 15 grams, Sodium 243 milligrams, Sugar 0 grams, TransFat 0 grams
GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB
This is an excellent way to cook lamb. Even friends of ours who've never before liked lamb love this. When feeding children who turn their noses up at lamb we call this steak and they gobble it up. We do eventually tell them they really do like lamb because they just ate it! LOL, love doing that! The measurements are all approximate, use more olive oil if you wish, or more parsley, even sub out oregano for the rosemary. Double the paste recipe if using a large leg. Delicious with wild mushroom risotto and a Greek salad.
Provided by Penny Stettinius
Categories Lamb/Sheep
Time 1h15m
Yield 4-6 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Make sure your lamb has been butterflied evenly so when it cooks evenly.
- Place all ingredients except olive oil into blender or food processor.
- Blend into course goop while slowly adding olive oil until mixture forms a moderately wet paste, somewhat like pesto.
- Spread paste on lamb, cover and refrigerate. Take lamb out of refrigerator two hours prior to grilling.
- On a very hot grill sear lamb then cook covered at medium careful not to scorch.
- Cook until thermometer registers rare.
- Take off grill and cover with aluminum foil, letting the meat rest about 10-25 minutes before carving.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 969, Fat 73.2, SaturatedFat 23.5, Cholesterol 227.9, Sodium 203.6, Carbohydrate 11, Fiber 1.4, Sugar 0.9, Protein 65.1
GRILLED BUTTERFLIED LEG OF LAMB WITH HERBS
Provided by Pierre Franey
Categories dinner, main course
Time 2h
Yield 6 to 8 servings
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Lay the lamb out flat and sprinkle with salt and pepper on all sides.
- Put the oil in a baking dish large enough to hold the lamb. Add the lamb and sprinkle on both sides with mustard seed, cumin, garlic, thyme, fennel seeds, rosemary, bay leaves and lemon juice. Turn and rub the lamb so it is evenly coated with the ingredients. Marinate in a cool place for one or two hours, or up to six hours in a refrigerator. If refrigerated, let the lamb return to room temperature before cooking.
- Preheat a charcoal grill or the oven broiler.
- Remove lamb from marinade and reserve marinade. If a grill is used, put the lamb flat on the grill. If the broiler is used, place the lamb under the broiler 4 to 5 inches from the heat. Cook the lamb uncovered on the grill or under the broiler about 15 minutes. Turn and cook 10 to 15 minutes on the second side. For medium or well-done meat, cook longer.
- Meanwhile, bring the reserved marinade to a boil in a baking pan large enough to hold the lamb, stirring. Remove from heat, and swirl in butter and parsley. Transfer the lamb to the marinade pan, cover loosely with foil and keep warm. Let the meat rest 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Slice thinly and serve with the pan gravy.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 848, UnsaturatedFat 32 grams, Carbohydrate 3 grams, Fat 62 grams, Fiber 1 gram, Protein 66 grams, SaturatedFat 25 grams, Sodium 1117 milligrams, Sugar 0 grams, TransFat 0 grams
Tips:
- Choose the right cut of lamb: A leg of lamb is the best choice for butterflying, as it is a large, boneless cut that can be easily flattened.
- Butterfly the lamb properly: To butterfly the lamb, make a deep incision down the center of the leg, stopping about 1 inch from the bottom. Then, open the lamb up like a book and press it flat.
- Marinate the lamb: Marinating the lamb in a flavorful mixture of herbs, spices, and olive oil will help to tenderize the meat and add flavor.
- Grill the lamb over medium heat: Grilling the lamb over medium heat will help to prevent it from drying out. Cook the lamb for about 15 minutes per side, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Let the lamb rest before serving: Letting the lamb rest for 10 minutes before serving will help to redistribute the juices and make the meat more tender.
Conclusion:
Elise's grilled butterflied leg of lamb is a delicious and easy-to-make dish that is perfect for a special occasion dinner. With its tender meat and flavorful marinade, this dish is sure to impress your guests.
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