[ed-Seth: Thanks again to Matt Gase, Michigan grad and CEO of Eat Well Embrace Life, for being a most excellent sponsor of Joe Pichey’s most excellent recipes. How I’d rank them: 1) Sriracha Carrot, 2) Yellow Lentil, 3) Edamame, 4) Black Bean, 5) Three-Peppers (no relation), 6) Wasabi Edamame, 7) White Bean, 8) Red lentil, 9) Beet, 10) Any other hummus. I don’t like beets. My wife keeps buying it because her list is almost my list in reverse.]
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Over the last few years, I’ve developed a strong taste for lamb. At first, I wasn’t a big fan. I’m not sure whether it was the texture or the strong flavor, but it took awhile to grow on me. Now, I try and work it into my tailgates whenever possible. The one thing I notice is how it’s either gone within 5 minutes or barely touched. It’s one of those “All or nothing” meats. I rarely fin d someone that is SO-SO on lamb. They either love it and can’t get enough or they turn and run. I hope this recipe helps change some minds on lamb and you can sneak it in on your next tailgate. Typically, I grill my lamb to a rare or medium rare, but wanted to try something new. This is the first time I’ve tried this, so fingers crossed. I cooked this one like a pork butt and pulled it for lamb nachos, street lamb tacos and shredded lamb sliders.
Ingredients:
- Boneless Leg of Lamb (4 - 5 lbs)
- Pita bread or Pita Chips
- Eat Well Embrace Life Hummus (Sriracha Carrot Hummus)
- Kalamata Olives
- Feta Cheese
- Pico De Gallo
- Slider Buns
- Tortillas
Lamb Au Jus :
- 2 cups Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- 2 TBS Hot Sauce
- 2 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar
[Hit THE JUMP for salt and garlic and meat]
Directions:
Set your grill or smoker up for indirect heat and shoot for a temperature of 225 - 250 degrees. Add a few chunks of pecan wood. While the grill is coming up to temp, season your boneless leg of lamb with either Lawry’s Casero Total Seasoning or Lavenders Greek Seasoning. Both are greek blends that a salty and garlicky flavor. I picked this leg of lamb up at my local Sam’s Club.
Go ahead and season aggressively. Leave the wrapping on the lamb as this will help hold everything together throughout the cook.
Once the smoker reaches 225 degrees, place the lamb on the pit and cook for approx 5 hours or until the internal temp reaches 185 degrees. Typically, I cook my lamb to 135 degrees with a pink center, but this time we’re going for fall apart tender and 205 degrees internal. Trust me, this was very hard for me as I love medium rare lamb. If you have a way to monitor the internal temperature of your meat during the cook, use it. I was given the new FlameBoss 200 at our recent Big Green Egg “EGGTOBERFEST” cook-off in Atlanta, so I thought I will give it a go. Awesome product. After about 4.5 hours at 250 degrees, the lamb looked like this. It had a nice crusty exterior, but was super soft.
As the internal temp approaches 185 degrees, assemble your AU JUS. Sound fancy eh? Just mix together your AU JUS ingredients and place in a foil pan. The disposable pans work great here, but I was out of them. Add your lamb to the AU JUS and cover tightly with foil.
Place your lamb back on the heat and let go until it reaches 205 degrees internal. You can use your trusty Thermapen for this or any other temp monitoring devise you have.
Once the lamb reaches 200 - 205 degrees, remove from the heat and let soak in the juices until you are ready to pull. You can use a set of tongs or forks to pull the meat. SAVE THISE JUICES. DO NOT THROW THEM OUT.
The lamb has a nice crusty exterior and a beautiful mahogany color. Yep, I ate a chunk of it. TASTEEEEEE!!!!!!
The lamb should pull apart very easily.
At this point, it’s up to you on how to serve it. I made some greek nachos along with some street tacos and a few sliders. If you want to make some nachos while the grill is still hot, take a few pitas and brush on some extra virgin olive oil. Pop them on the grill for about 30 seconds a side.
Assemble the chips on a platter and layer with your lamb, Eat Well Embrace Life Hummus, olives, pico and feta cheese. Feel free to go nuts with the toppings here.
I also made a few tacos and some sliders. You really can’t go wrong with the pulled lamb. You can place it in a crock pot along with that juice and keep it warm for hours. That juice is perfect for slider dipping. It’s packed with flavor.
This recipe is perfect for Saturday as it’s a late game and we have all day to slow cook our lamb. If nothing else, you can just grill up 10 lbs of pitas and dip them into your favorite Eat Well Embrace Life Hummus. They are all very good and perfect game day snack. Send me pics of your game day BBQ's and I will send you some coupons for free hummus. Send them to me at JPICHEY@MMMGOBLUBBQ.COM. GO BLUE!