Recipes / Meat
Karoo-style lamb chops
Thick lamb loin chops with salt, coriander and lemon, cooked fast over hot coals with the fat crisped first.
- Prep
- 10 min
- On the fire
- 12 min
- Plan ahead
- 30 minutes resting with the spices
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan for 1 to 2 minutes until they smell nutty. Crush them roughly.
- Mix the coriander, pepper, garlic and oil. Rub it over the chops and leave them out of the fridge for 30 minutes. Salt them just before they go on the fire.
- Stand the chops on their fat edge on the grid, leaning against each other, for 2 to 3 minutes until the fat is golden and crisp.
- Lay the chops flat over hot coals. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes a side for a pink middle.
- Squeeze the lemon over the chops as they come off the fire. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Done when: the outside is well browned and a thermometer reads 63°C (145°F) in the middle for medium. They keep cooking a little while they rest.
Tips
- Thin chops overcook before they brown. Ask the butcher for chops cut at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick.
- Lamb fat causes flare-ups. Keep a cooler area on the grid to move the chops to when flames come up.
- Use a rosemary sprig as a brush to wipe the lemon juice over the meat.
Karoo lamb comes from the dry interior of South Africa, where the sheep graze on wild herbs and shrubs. Cooks there keep the seasoning simple, and this recipe does the same with any good lamb.