If you like me love lamb - you will fall in love with this recipe!!!!! And it definitely be a sure hit with your friends at the summer bbqs (PERFECT for Aussie Day bbq!)
The combination of fresh herbs, lemon and garlic is intoxicating and the char from the open flames gives it the perfect finish. I used the fresh herbs from my garden, you can't really substitute them with dried herbs here.
I used frenched lamb cutlets not regular. Although per kilo it costs more, when I compared two packets that were costing the same - frenched had 5 in a pack, regular - 4. Because of huge chunks of fat that you would need to discard or render. So you get more bang for your buck and as a bonus you don't need to do anything extra to them. You also won't overcook them by rendering fat on top of grilling, as they are very delicate.
Of course it needs to be medium rare and enjoyed with light red wine such as Pinot Noir.
I served it with baked sweet potatoes topped with sour cream sauce ( see recipe in Condiments section) and salad. Very simple.
Prep time does not include marinating time.
This recipe includes the video as well, which I hope you will enjoy! :)
Combine all marinade ingredients together: slice garlic, tear herbs, finely chop chillies, peel the lemon and cut the peel in small strips and squish a bit with the knife to release the juices. Juice the lemon ( I don't worry about seeds). Add olive oil, salt and pepper and white sugar.
Mix everything up and squeeze with hands few times to ensure all those flavours "marry" each other.
Keep tasting and adjust salt, pepper and sugar to your preferences.
Pour mix onto your cutlets and gently massage it in.
Put glad wrap over it and pop in the fridge to marinate. Ideally couple hours. But one will do if you short for time.
I served it with baked sweet potatoes, so while lamb marinating you can wash, season potatoes with oil, and salt and pepper and put in the oven at 180C minus 1 hour from when you think you will be ready to eat
20 min before cooking lamb, take it out of the fridge and let come to room temperature a little, so its not very cold when you put it on super hot plate.
Start your bbq. You will be using both hot plate and grill. Cover the lid and let heat up super hot.
But this time you would have your potatoes ready and waiting in the oven, and salads ready on the plate and whichever toppings you want to use with them. As cooking will only take few min plus couple min resting time.
Place your lamb on hot plate. Don't put too close together so it grills, not braises. Literally by the time you put all of them on, wait a min and start turning. Reserve the marinade.
Once you turned them, brush with marinade again. I love putting chunky bits on top so it grills nicely! You only need max 2 min on each side.
After that start moving them on flame grill the side you just brush down. Brush the top side. Once you see nice colour on them ( probably a min), turn them around. The main thing is NOT TO OVERCOOK IT!!!
Keep testing the softness with tongs it should have some resistance but still be pretty soft. (See my tip on how to tell how soft meat need to be for your liking in kitchen tips). It will depend on thickness of your cutlets, but 1, max 2 min on each side should be enough).
As you flipped them the last time - take the reminder of your marinade to pop it onto the hot place. As the flavours there are amazing, but because it had raw meat, you can't use it. So you reduce it and cook it on hot plate and it the perfect topping for your cutlets! (see video). If your neighbors were not jealous before - they will be now! the aroma of it when cooking down is amazing!
Remove cutlets and they will rest while you are putting everything on the plate.
They would have released their juices while resting - don't chuck it! pour over the cutlets!
Top with reduced marinade that turned into crisp bits if herbs and lemon peel.
AS you will see in the video, I couldn't wait and bit straight into it. So juicy, delicious, and perfectly cooked to medium rare!
Cheers! Enjoy!
Thank you so much for checking out this recipe. Like and share if you liked it and let me know your thoughts in the comment box below.
Servings 2