Meat and Potatoes (Lamb Chops)

When I tell people that I am gluten-free, their first reaction is often to wonder what on earth I could possibly eat.   It’s really quite simple really.  Some of the time.  While I like to cook fancy meals and eat things like pizza or pasta that need to be made special, we are basic meat and potato people.  What could be easier?  Potatoes can be fixed a hundreds of different ways, and there are even more options for meat and fish.  (Disclaimer – this post isn’t really going to do much for you vegetarians out there.  But I’ll get to some of those recipes in the new year too.)

We try to be healthy and eat a lot of chicken and fish.  Other nights it’s pork – I love those little pork tenderloin roasts.  Sometimes I’ll get steak if it’s on sale.  But what we both love is lamb. 

Don’t think that lamb has to be expensive or fancy.  It isn’t!  Okay, so lamb chops (real ones) or whole legs are expensive.  But take a look at your grocery meat section.  See if that have something called a “shoulder chop.”  We can get two chops for under $4.00.  They’ll sometimes also have “steaks” cut off a leg that are perfect for two people, and almost as cheap.  Ground lamb is also on sale at times, and makes a great moussaka.  The shoulder chops do have a lot more fat running through them (think marbling on a steak), but this does cook out and in my opinion, makes them taste better.  Of course, the best lamb comes from the farmers’ market in the early summer, but that isn’t the cheap way to go!

So now that you have these lamb “chop,” what do you do with them?  My first choice is always the grill, but that’s my first choice for cooking a lot of meat.  However, it’s January and we’ve been getting an unbelievable amount of rain.  Not exactly grilling weather.  I have one of those ridged grill pans that works almost as well.  The ridges allow the fat to drain away from the meat, and you get the neat little grill marks on your food.

This isn’t really a recipe so much as a technique.  It involves making a rub of your liking and then grilling the seasoned meat.  But Cheryl of GlutenFree Goodness asked me how to cook lamb chops, and I have pictures, so here we go. 

LAMB CHOPS

Ingredients:

2 Lamb Shoulder Chops
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp crushed dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt
pepper (freshly ground)

Directions:

Mix together the oil with the garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.

Rub onto lamb chops and let sit for 15-30 minutes.

Heat a grill pan to medium high; spray pan with non-stick or other cooking spray.

Cook lamb about 3-4 minutes on each side, flipping once. If you want it less rare, keep the chops covered for some or most of the time. (The cooking time will depend greatly on how thick the chop is and how rare you like it.)

Serve and enjoy!

 

Note: Some people like mint jelly or mint sauce with lamb. We don’t, but it’s okay if you do – you just might then need to lessen the flavor of the rub. The herbs listed are merely what I usually use, but I sometimes vary them. I do like garlic and rosemary best with lamb.