Perfect for summer, these grilled garlic and herb coated lamb (or mutton) chops are fast and simple to prepare and cook!
It’s that great time of year where dinner involves a simple salad, new potatoes. maybe some corn on the cob and whatever meat you have taken out of the freezer thrown on the BBQ. I can eat like this every night in summer, especially when we are alternating between grilled zucchini and beans from the garden or freshly picked tomatoes and peppers!
This is another one of those “is it really a recipe?” recipes. It’s more of a new way to cook something simple, which if you are anything like me is always welcome!
I asked on my instagram stories the other day how many of you buy your meat fresh from the supermarket. Most of you get meat from the farm which is awesome – we do too! Because of that, I’ll be sharing more recipes and ideas for things like mince, sausages and chops – all the things that we end up with lots of when we get meat from the farm!
These herb coated lamb chops (feel free to use mutton if that’s what you have, it’s what we use!) are really just a new way to serve a pretty simple dinner.
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The herb marinade comes together in just a few minutes. Use whatever fresh herbs you have in the garden – I like using mint and rosemary. A bit of olive oil, a couple of cloves of garlic and some balsamic vinegar then coat the chops. If you have time, you can do this in advance but you can do it immediately before cooking.
A few tips for cooking perfect chops:
- Trim the fat before cooking them. Sometimes the chops we get from the farm have a really thick layer of fat on them. I find that trimming this first and leaving about 5mm of fat helps them cook faster but still retains that delicious flavour.
- Cook them in a really hot pan or on the BBQ. Hot and fast is the way to go. I like cooking them for about 5 minutes on either side over a medium heat in a cast iron grill pan. This way they are medium rare when cooked which is just how we like them.
- Let them rest for a few minutes before serving. This is really important for all meat as it helps the meat lose less juice when you cut into it and therefore makes it juicier and tastier when you do eat it!
Total time for this meal is under 30 minutes – that’s what I call summer cooking!
Made this? Tag me on Instagram @thekiwicountrygirl and hashtag it #thekiwicountrygirl.
- 4 – 6 lamb (or mutton) chops
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary & mint)
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 cloves crushed garlic
- Salt & pepper
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If the chops are quite fatty, use a sharp knife to cut most of the fat off, leaving about 5mm of fat on the chops.
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Mix together the marinade ingredients and spoon half of it evenly over the chops. Reserve the other half of the marinade for the other side of the chops once they are cooking. If you have time, you can do this a couple of hours before cooking but this is not neccesary.
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Heat the BBQ or a cast iron grill pan over a medium-high heat. Place the chops herb side down on the BBQ or in the frying pan and spoon the remaining marinade over them. Cook for 4-6 minutes and then flip over and cook for a further 4-6 minutes or until the meat is cooked to your liking.
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Remove from the heat and allow to rest for a few minutes before serving.
