Easter Lamb Chops Recipe

Giada shows you how to make a fragrant lamb chop dish for Easter, packed with fresh herbs.

Easter Lamb Chops Recipe A traditional Easter main course is Lamb. It’s one of the most popular meats in Italy and makes one of my favorite dishes, Grilled Lamb Chops. I marinate the chops with garlic, herbs and cayenne pepper, a mix that really access the robust flavor of the lamb. Then I grill them just a few minutes and serve. Grilled lamb chops are easy and delicious perfect for a holiday meal. I’m going to start with my Lamb Chops because they need about an hour to marinate in the refrigerator and the longer you let them sit, the more they absorb the flavors of the rub So, let gets started on the rub. I’m going to start by grabbing two garlic cloves, there we go. We’re just going to give them a quick crush. It’ll just help you to peel them and it’s so simple. We’re just going to throw all of these ingredients in a food processor. We’ll grind them all up and then we’ll just rub it on the lamb. Lamb is so flavorful that you could just put salt, pepper, and olive oil on it and it would be fantastic or you can do lemon juice with mint or mint and parsley. There are lots of different combinations. And now, for our fresh herbs, rosemary, it’s so fragrant. So we’re just going to need about a tablespoon of rosemary and rosemary and lamb go perfectly together. And if you have a hard time in finding fresh herbs, you could substitute with fried herbs. You would have to use a little bit less so I’m using about a tablespoon of rosemary. You’d use about a teaspoon of dried rosemary. But I’m going to tell to you, there’s nothing like grilling fresh herbs. The aroma, it gives to the room, the flavor it gives to the meat. I just love it. Italians love lamb and next to pork, it’s one of the most popular meats and it’s traditional at Easter time. They usually roast it over an open fire, sometimes they roast it whole. We like to use lamb chops in my family. There we go, that’s probably about a tablespoon. We’re going to add some fresh thyme. And thyme is part of the mint family, so it has a really fresh flavor to it that I love with this dish. So about a teaspoon of thyme leaves and we’re just taking them right of the stock here. If you want it to substitute, you could substitute with mint or maybe even oregano. I just love the flavor of rosemary and thyme together, a little bit more, it is so fresh and it’s so fragrant. I love it. Okay. And then for some heat, a pinch of cayenne pepper, just sort of gives it that spark in your mouth and of course, some salt and we’re going to chop it for a minute and then I’m going to add some olive oil. If you do not have a food processor, you could just as easily chop everything up. But I like to use the food processor because it really mixes all the ingredients together and gives me a nice thick rub. Add a little bit of olive oil, a couple tablespoons or so, there we go. It will bind everything together. Here we go. I’m just going to use my spatula to clean the edges. You can make this rub ahead of time and you can put it in the fridge, it will probably last about a day or two. I like it to make it the same day only because when you cut those fresh herbs, the aroma is so fantastic. Now, let me grab my lamb and what we’re going to is we’re just going to rub the lam with these seasonings. I’m using lamb chops1. I happen to love this cut but you could also use a leg of lamb which is a little bit cheaper and still just as delicious. And when you are buying lamb, you want to look for a deep pink to reddish color and the one way that you will also know if the meat is fresh is that -- on the actual lamb chop is nice snowy white. If it starts to turn colors, you know it’s set for a while. I’m going to turn it around and just rub the other side. Alright, perfect. I’m going to wrap them up nice and tight and then I’m going to pop them in the fridge for about an hour and then we grill them up.