Mom’s Marinated and Grilled Lamb@judyschickens

Mom had two ways of cooking roasted lamb, the Easter Sunday way, or marinated and grilled, the everyday and sometimes Easter Sunday way. The marinade recipe she used was from a cousin, Lynn Alpert.

We all know how you get a good recipe, “Mom, this lamb is soo good. How did you make it?” you say as you look for a piece of paper and a pen. Being the recipe keeper for the family, I usually traveled with my Recipe Collector’s Notebook published by Workman Publishing in the early 1980s. If there was ever a book filled with Dirty Pages, it is this one.

I used it to record recipes Mom cooked during summer and holiday trips. Cooking fresh vegetables in beautiful ways was Mom’s thing; I learned from the master.

Please refer to the post Mom’s Roasted Lamb with Herb and Goat Cheese Topping for detailed instructions for another way to cook lamb.

Ingredients:

1 3 to 5-pound boned leg of lamb
¼ cup onion, diced
½ cup Major Grey’s Chutney
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 cloves garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon garlic pepper

Mise en Place:

Instructions:

Trim fat from lamb per instructions from the previous post.

Pierce meat with a sharp knife to allow marinade to seep into the tough leg muscles.

Mix marinade ingredients together in a small measuring cup.

Put lamb and marinade in a gallon-sized plastic bag and turn bag all around until the meat is well-coated. Refrigerate for 24 hours, turning regularly.

Grilling Meat

This is not my domain. My stepfather is the master griller in our family. My husband, brothers, and sons have all learned from him. Because he IS so good, wherever he goes, he gets tasked with the job of grilling.

While my experienced stepfather doesn’t need a meat thermometer to know when meat is cooked, those in training might want to start with one. The key to grilling meat is to remember that food continues to cook and reabsorb juices for a good fifteen minutes after it comes off the grill. You can read about allowing meat to rest here.

Back in Nashville, my husband turned the meat many times as it cooked. When the meat thermometer read 140º in the thickest piece, he removed it from the grill, covered it with foil, and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing. The results were amazing.