A busy weekend made easier: Grilled Lamb Chops with Rosemary and Lemon

A simple marinade of lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary, garlic and Dijon mustard tenderizes and subtly flavors these chops. Recipe below.

AT THE END OF A BUSY LABOR DAY WEEKEND—Saturday in Milwaukee visiting our daughter and her boyfriend, a Sunday ramen dinner out with Marion’s sister—the actual holiday Monday found us at home, just the two of us. We wanted something meaty, preferably grilled, and not too laborious, given the day. These lamb chops absolutely delivered.

As we often do with lamb chops, we went for the cheap cuts. Lamb shoulder chops. They’re fatty and flavorful, but can be a bit tough. Marinating can help tame the chewiness, especially if your marinade includes acidic elements like the lemon juice in this recipe. Dry brining with kosher salt can quickly tenderize tough lamb chops; you’ll find that technique outlined in our Grilled Lamb Chops with Habanero Mango Salsa recipe here.

The marinade for this recipe is a simple one—lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, Dijon mustard (optional, but nice), salt and pepper. What sounds (and smells) pretty big actually is quite subtle after you grill the chops, a nice flavor enhancement that doesn’t announce itself. We’ve also pan seared this dish and the flavor was more pronounced then, not sure why.

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Grilled Lamb Chops with Rosemary and Lemon

A simple marinade tenderizes and subtly flavors these chops.

Ingredients

• 2 bone-in lamb shoulder chops, about 8 ounces each
• kosher salt (see Kitchen Notes)
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (see Kitchen Notes)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (optional—see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced (a generous tablespoon)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Season lamb chops generously with kosher salt and set aside while you prepare the marinade. The salt will begin the tenderizing of the chops.
• In a measuring cup, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, garlic, rosemary and a little additional kosher salt together. Add a generous grind of black pepper.
• Arrange chops in a single layer in a glass baking dish and brush marinade on both sides, coating the chops well. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and marinate chops in the fridge at least an hour and up to overnight. Alternatively, you can put the chops in a zippered plastic bag and add the marinade, making sure to coat the chops, and pop that in the fridge. In either case, turn the chops at least once.
• About 1/2 hour before you’re ready to put the chops on the grill, take them out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature. If you’re grilling with charcoal, do this when you light the coals.
• Arrange the grill for indirect cooking; again, if you’re using charcoal, arrange the coals on one side of the grill. Lightly brush the grilling rack with oil. Remove the chops from the marinade, shaking off excess marinade, and place them on the grill away from the coals. Close the lid and cook for just a minute or so. This will let some of the marinade drip off without causing flareups.
• Move chops over the coals, close the lid and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the chops, close the lid and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Again, keep an eye out for flareups, moving the chops if necessary.
• Transfer chops to a serving platter, let them rest for about 5 minutes and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Salt? What’s the diff? There are two main kinds of kosher salt. Morton’s and Diamond Crystal. Morton’s and regular table salt have the same level of sodium; Diamond Crystal has about half the sodium. It’s slightly coarser than table salt, but less coarse than Morton’s kosher salt.

Fresh lemon juice or bottled? We love fresh lemons, but we don’t love seeing them go bad. So we try to keep bottled lemon juice on hand. If you have do use fresh lemons, you can also add the zest to the marinade.

Mustard? No? We know some people don't like mustard, so you can totally skip it. But it disappears into the dish while helping bring it to life.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. This week’s plate has both personal history and actual history adjacency. Let’s start with the adjacency. We bought this plate at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Yes, torpedoes were once made in what is now an art center, from 1918 to 1923. The beautiful ceramic plate itself was made much later, in the early 1980s. The ceramist’s mark on the bottom is simply neus. We’ve not been able to track them down. As for the personal history, we bought the plate in said torpedo factory on our honeymoon, a gift to ourselves. Every time we use it, we remember all of that.