Basil Pesto Lamb Racks

My love affair with lamb is well documented. It’s my favorite meat. Yes, even more than steak and baby back ribs. Maybe it’s because I don’t get to eat it all that often. And despite my love of lamb, I’ve never posted my favorite lamb recipe – Basil Pesto Lamb Racks. And with Easter coming up, I figured I would document my go-to lamb recipe.

Basil Pesto Lamb Racks Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 2 racks of lamb
• Salt and fresh black pepper

How to Make Pesto Marinade

Combine everything but the last two items on the above list in a blender and pulse until mostly smooth with some small chunks still throughout:

You don’t have to make your own basil pesto. There are lots of store bought products that are fantastic. 99% of the time I use a jarred pesto.

Lamb Prep

Next up, hit the lamb on both sides with salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Don’t sweat the ‘silver skin.’ This isn’t a beef tenderloin. That skin will melt during the cooking process.

Marinate the Lamb

Place the lamb racks in a resealable plastic bag and ladle in the pesto marinade:

Seal the bag and place in the fridge for 2-24 hours:

How to grill Pesto Lamb Racks

Now prepare the grill for two zone grilling, also known as indirect grilling, with coals on one side and nothing on the other until you put the meat on. Target temp inside the grill is 300F. Place the lamb on the side with no coals, toss some smoke wood on the fire (I used pecan), and close the lid:

We’re going for the reverse sear method of grilling. That means we smoke first and sear second.

Why?

Because once we sear, the meat won’t take on much smoke flavor. This way we get the smoky deliciousness as well as that wonderful char.

Best of both worlds.

It will not take long for the basil pesto lamb racks to get to my desired 120F-125F degrees, which is when I want to sear them. In fact, these are in that range right now and they’ve only been on the grill maybe 30 minutes:

They still look really red.

I thought the same thing, and had I not checked, I probably would’ve left them on another 15 minutes before searing. I decided to check how far along they were.

Thanks to my handy dandy Thermapen, I found out they were ready to sear:

For years I cooked by feel and look. And for years I overcooked and undercooked countless cuts of meat. Then I got one of these instant read thermometers and it’s no longer a guessing game.

In 2 seconds, I know exactly how done the meat is.

Time to sear!

If the fire has died, add some more coals and get it really raging.

Then place the lamb right over the heat:

All we’re looking for is a little char to take them to medium rare.

If you want it more done than that, I’ll explain how at the end.

That little flare up in the middle caused my lamb racks to char on one end and not the other.

So flip them around:

Expect lots of fire

This pesto marinade for the lamb is very flammable due to the oil content.

Keep rotating the lamb racks so they take a little fire but not too much.. 

Once the lamb racks are charred evenly, flip them over:

My basil pesto lamb racks are charred on both sides and have a glorious flavor crust.

But do they need to go back over to the side with no coals and bake some more or can I plate them?

Only one way to know for sure:

Time to plate, slice and serve:

Basil Pesto Lamb Racks Run Down

That is heaven on a cutting board right there! Basil Pesto Lamb Racks, reverse seared with pecan wood to a beautiful medium rare. If you use a store bought pesto marinade for lamb, prep on this is all of 2 minutes and cooking time is less than 40. How would you like to knock out the entree for Easter dinner in less than 45 minutes?

***Pro Tip ~ If you want to ace the presentation and minimize the risk of people getting their nice clothes dirty on Easter, wrap the bones in aluminum foil to keep them from blackening. I don’t care if my hands get a little messy, but on Easter Sunday when folks are donning their finest, it might be a good idea to wrap the bones, after all, those bones are the handle to these succulent lamb lollipops***

How to cook beyond Medium Rare

Now some of you would rather go to medium or even medium well. Simple. There are two ways of doing this. Smoke until the meat is 10 degrees below your desired doneness and then sear, or sear at 120-125 like I did and after they are charred, put the lamb racks back over on the side with no coals and close the lid to bake.

If you want to feed a bigger crowd on Easter, why not try bone in Leg of Lamb (or boneless leg of lamb) instead.

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Print Recipe

Basil Pesto Lamb Racks

Lamb racks, marinated in basil pesto and reverse seared over lump charcoal and smoke wood to a beautiful medium rare - Pesto Lamb Racks

Prep Time2 minutes mins

Cook Time43 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Finger Food, Main Course

Cuisine: American, American Fare, BBQ, Mediterranean

Keyword: Basil, Basil Pesto, Lamb, Lamb Lollipops, Lamb Racks, Pesto, Rack of Lamb, reverse sear, reverse seared

Servings: 4 People

Ingredients

• 4 cup fresh basil leaves only
• ½ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup pine nuts
• 3 clove garlic
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese , freshly grated
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt
• 2 rack lamb ribs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Combine everything but the last two items in a blender
• Pulse until smooth with some small chunks
• Hit the lamb with salt and black pepper on both sides and then put it in a resealable plastic bag
• Spoon the pesto over the lamb racks, seal the bag and place in the fridge for 2-24 hours
• Prepare the grill for two zone grilling otherwise known as indirect grilling
• Put coals and smoke wood on one side and the lamb on the other
• Target temperature inside the grill is 300 degrees
• Close the lid and smoke until the lamb reaches 120-125 degrees (about 25-35 minutes) then sear on the side with the coals
• When searing is done, lamb should be at 135 or medium rare
• If you desire the lamb more done, simply move to the side with no coals, close the lid and bake until cooked to your desired doneness

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: March 2, 2016