Rack of lamb

Don’s been working on perfecting his Rack ‘O Lamb this summer, and tonight he finally nailed it.

Ingredients

A rack of lamb. This is a 8 rack (lambs have 16 ribs) from the local store, not some huge export from New Zealand.

The rub, all measurements are estimated. These are the ingredients we use, but just kind of grind them into a bowl till it looks right.

Lamb Rub

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon dry basil

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon rosemary

Olive oil (we use California Olive oil now…great flavor)

Hickory chips

Some recipes would add kosher salt, but we leave the salt input to the garlic salt

Directions

Rub the rack down with the lamb rub, put in a gallon sized zip lock. Pour olive oil on top and push it around to coat the ribs. Stick in the fridge overnight, or for a few hours.

Take ribs out and bring to room temperature, about an hour.

Gas grill

In about 10 inches of aluminum foil, toss a handful of dry hickory chips. put over a burner to the side. Fold loosely (not tight at all, like a taco)

Fire up the grill and bring to temperature. Once hot, sear the ribs on all sides. For us this takes about 2 to 3 minutes of hot flame, moving it around once a seer is done.

Turn off the heat below the seared ribs, but leave heat on over the foil pack with the hickory chips. Close the lid. If you’re hitting around 300 degrees, you’re good.

The key here is to cook via INDIRECT heat. You don’t want flames under this for 15 minutes or you’ll ruin the meat. Feel free to wrap the bones in foil to keep them from charring, we did this and it worked fine. Don’t let the meat sit too close to the side of the grill with the burner still running.

Cook for about 15 minutes and check the temperature. When you get around 140°, pull the ribs off the grill, put on a plate, tent with aluminum foil and let sit for 10 minutes. Cooking time will vary on different grills, but the goal is to have the lamp pink in the center and seared on the outside. This usually takes about 20 minutes for us.

In the kitchen

Heat the oven to 400°, heat a skillet to medium high.

Put some olive oil in the skillet, sear all sides of the lamb.

Stick skillet with lamb (or transfer to a glass backing dish) into oven and cook for 15 minutes. Check temperature of the meat, cook more if needed. Shoot for around 140°. At temperature, pull out the lamb, tent with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Bingo, the perfect rack of lamb. We serve it with Italian Vegetables.