Grilled Lamb Chops with Herby Yogurt Sauce
Plain yogurt is an excellent base for a marinade. It slowly tenderizes meat, rendering it juicy but never mealy or tough, and leaves a pleasantly tangy flavor behind. This simple sauce, a blend of yogurt, shallots, salt, and lemon, is a perfect match for lamb's richness. This recipe cleverly sets aside a portion of the seasoned yogurt to puree with tender green herbs and lemon juice for a quick finishing sauce after the lamb is done. Serve the lamb with a quick salad of couscous and cucumbers for a meal.
Lamb Loin Chops with Red Wine Pan Sauce with Cumin and Chiles
Toasty cumin and piquant chiles, offset with fresh cilantro and lime zest, balance bold red wine in this quick pan sauce. The technique is simple: this recipe starts with searing bone-in lamb chops to perfection – a step that also creates the rich drippings that will become the basis for the red wine sauce. After searing the meat, sweat chile and garlic in the meat drippings before deglazing with wine, then add stock, enrich the sauce with butter, and finish it with fresh aromatics. The rich flavor of lamb is delicious here, but you can substitute cuts of beef, such as skirt steak, hanger steak or filet mignon, which would work just as well with the red wine-based sauce. To make this pan sauce with other proteins, start from step 2, working with 1 tablespoon of reserved drippings, and proceed to build the red wine sauce as written.
Spicy Lamb Chops
This quick and impressive lamb chop recipe is perfect to serve for either a simple weeknight dinner or an elegant party. The sharp heat and bright flavors from the chopped herb, chile, and lemon sauce balance the fat and gaminess in the lamb. If you'd like, you can French the lamb chops (cut between and around to reveal the bones), or ask your butcher to do it for you. Serve with roasted fingerling potatoes and a simple salad.
Lamb Shoulder Chops with Herb and Sunflower Seed Salad
Lamb shoulder chops cook quickly; they’re a very forgiving cut that’s perfect for outdoor grilling. Here, Justin Chapple pairs the grilled lamb with a simple salad of parsley, cilantro, dill, mint, chives, and crunchy sunflower seeds—the tender herbs are a fresh foil for the lamb. Pick up one bunch of chives and two bunches each of parsley, cilantro, dill, and mint for the herb salad.
Double-Cut Lamb Chops with Garlic-Caper Rub
Punchy anchovies and garlic mellow during their short cook time, adding umami to double-cut lamb chops. Reverse-searing using the broiler results in perfectly cooked lamb with a crispy exterior; use a probe thermometer to monitor the internal temperature for best results. Serve the carved chops over cooked orzo to balance out the meal. Christopher Bates of Element Winery in New York recommends a cool-climate Syrah from the Finger Lakes or Northern Rhône to pair with the lamb chops. "I love amplifying it with savory, briny flavors like capers,” says Bates.
Roasted Lamb Chops with Brown Sugar-Rum Glaze
With plenty of garlic and rubbed sage to brighten savory, gamey lamb, these roasted chops are bold and balanced. If the glaze begins to set before serving, gently warm it over low heat. Chef and cookbook author Alexander Smalls serves these lamb chops at his epic dinner parties at his apartment in Harlem.