Grill that Leg of Lamb this Easter

Grill that Leg of Lamb this Easter. I promise you will not regret it. If you’ve been to this site before, you know that I have a full on obsession with lamb. I absolutely love lamb. It marries so well with a marinade. It’s like the heartiness of beef but takes on the marinade like pork. Sometimes I go with basil pesto, sometimes red wine, honey, mustard and rosemary, and sometimes I used a pre and post marinade. For the last one I did, I added a compound gorgonzola butter. For this one, I took that last recipe and tweaked it a bit. I also reverse seared it. 

Leg of Lamb Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, rough chopped
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 10 turns of a black pepper mill
• 10 turns of a white pepper mill (optional)
• 1 bone-in leg of lamb, approximately 7-8 pounds
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced into slivers
• 2 tbsp of rosemary sprigs
• Coarse salt
• Black pepper
• White pepper

Lamb Prep

There are two stages to prepping this recipe. Marinating and stuffing the meat. First the marinade. Combine everything above the leg of lamb in a bowl and blend together with a whisk or fork. Set the marinade aside and grab a long, slender knife to both slice the garlic but to also create slits in the leg of lamb. Slice the garlic lengthwise into long, skinny slivers:

Now take that same knife and put those slits in the leg of lamb and slide in the garlic slivers or rosemary or both:

***Pro Tip ~ Use the knife as a guide to insert the garlic and herbs

Slide the knife in and pull it to one side to create a gap between the side of the knife blade and the side of the slit that was just cut in the meat. Then slide a sliver of garlic or rosemary leaf down the side of the knife into the pocket. Hold garlic in place with the end of your finger (on the SIDE of the blade) while pulling the knife out. Makes it much easier to stud the meat with garlic and rosemary.

The goal is to have garlic, rosemary or both every couple of inches all the way around the leg of lamb:

Next up, place the leg of lamb in resealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Refrigerate the marinating lamb for 2-24 hours.

Remove the leg of lamb from the marinade and coat all sides with salt, black and white pepper and smoke it low and slow until the lamb hits 120ish:

Once it hit 120-125, I fired up another grill to put a good char on the outside:

The great thing about doing a whole leg of lamb like this for Easter is that part of it will be more well done and thus you will be able to accommodate everyone’s preferences. Here it is toward the middle where I like it:

And here it is toward the edges a little more done:

Grill that Leg of Lamb for Easter Summary

If a dedicated smoker is not an option, set up your conventional grill for two zone grilling with hot coals on one side and the lamb on the other. Target temperature inside the grill is 350F. Add your favorite smoke wood (oak and pecan work well). Bake/smoke the lamb on the grill until it reaches 120-125 and then place it over the hot coals to finish it up with a great sear. Trust me, you are going to be a rockstar this Easter if you follow this recipe.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or send me an email.

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Print Recipe

Grill that Leg of Lamb this Easter

Grill that Leg of Lamb this Easter, after studding it with garlic and rosemary on top of marinating it all night.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time3 hrs 15 mins

Total Time3 hrs 30 mins

Course: Entree

Cuisine: BBQ

Ingredients

• ½ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup red wine
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary rough chopped
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 3 clove garlic minced
• 10 turn black pepper
• 10 turn white pepper optional
• 1 bone-in leg of lamb approximately 7-8 pounds
• 2 clove garlic sliced into slivers
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary whole leaves
• coarse salt
• Black pepper
• White pepper

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients above the leg of lamb and whisk to blend through
• Slice the garlic cloves into thin slivers and stud the outside of the lamb every couple inches with the garlic or rosemary or both
• Put the leg of lamb in a resealable bag and pour the marinade over it
• Refrigerate for 4-24 hours
• Smoke at 350F until it reaches 120-125F degrees (about 3 hours) then sear to put on a nice flavor crust
• Remove from the heat, slice and serve

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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.

Scott Thomas

Latest posts by Scott Thomas (see all)

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