Grilled Leg of Lamb with Rosemary, Mint and Garlic

This Grilled Leg of Lamb with Rosemary, Mint, and Garlic is juicy, flavorful, and perfect for entertaining. Whether you use bone-in or boneless, it’s an easy yet impressive meal for your next family dinner or holiday gathering.

There is something special about grilling meats on fire versus roasting it inside in the oven. The addition of char and smoke to meats really takes your meal to a whole new level of awesomeness.

Although this post focuses on grilling a bone-in leg of lamb, you can also use this marinade for a boneless version. You can also marinate the meat and prepare it in the oven, just in case you are buried in snow and can’t quite grill yet!

Ingredients you need

• Bone-in leg of lamb: This marinade can be made for a boneless leg of lamb, but your grilling times will be completely different. See below for grilling a boneless leg of lamb.
• Fresh herbs: I used fresh rosemary and mint. You can also use basil, oregano, thyme, parsley or cilantro. Fresh herbs adds way more flavor than dried herbs.
• Garlic
• Shallot: If you don’t have shallots, use a little red onion instead.
• Extra virgin olive oil: Oil adds moisture and flavor to the marinade so skimp on this thinking it is too fatty.
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon zest: Grating the zest from a lemon adds a wonderful lemony aroma without making the meat sour. You can also use lime or orange zest. Then squeeze the juice for your salad dressing!

Step-by-step directions

1. Make the marinade. In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients and make a paste.
2. Marinate the lamb. With a sharp knife, slice deep slits all over leg of lamb. Place the leg of lamb on a large baking sheet and rub herb mixture all over and stuff into the slits. Cover entire lego of lamb with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours or up to overnight.
3. Bring to room temperature. Remove leg of lamb 2 hours before cooking to allow meat to come to room temperature.
4. Prep the grill. If you are using a charcoal grill, add coals or wood charcoal and heat grill to 325ºF. If using a gas grill, preheat grill with all burners on high. After 15 minutes, turn off the center burners and reduce the outer burners to medium.
5. Grill the lamb. Place the lamb in the center of the grate and grill covered for until internal temperature reaches 140ºF, approximately 2 hours. Use some sort of meat thermometer to insure doneness!
6. Let lamb rest. Remove lamb from grill, cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Grilling tips

Our grill is not a traditional gas grill or a charcoal grill. We have a Big Steel Keg and grill using hardwood charcoal. For the past couple of years, we have perfected smoked beef brisket and smoked pulled pork using our Big Steel Keg.

We can control the internal temperature of your grill by adjusting the vents on the top and the bottom of the grill. With long cooking times and managing the heat, we decided to invest in a Wifi BBQ Temperature Controller.

The setup: You have two temperature leads, one inserted into the meat you are grilling and the other in the grill itself. You set the grill temperature and the meat doneness temperature with the controller. The kit comes with this little fan that regulates the grill temperature.

You can set how often you get texts/emails with temperature updates as well as get an alert when the meat has reached the internal temperature you have set. Its a real life safer when you are grilling meats for 2 hours or even 6 hours.

Recipe tips and FAQs

This recipe turned out beautifully on the grill. I usually grill a boneless butterflied leg of lamb marinated in yogurt. If you want to use this marinade but use a boneless legs of lamb, use that recipe for the grilling instructions.

If you want to use this marinade, but don’t have a grill, you can also cook this leg of lamb in the oven. Sometimes you can find the lamb with the bone in but with the exposed bone cut off. This helps the lamb fit in your oven. I have details in the recipe below.

We have now made this bone-in recipe several times and it gets inhaled super quick. You can eat it with balsamic roasted vegetables, roasted potatoes, or even Persian rice. You can even make sandwiches with the lamb and serve it with pita bread and mast-o khiar (Persian yogurt with mint, dill and cucumbers).

Just like the meat thermometers you use in your oven indoors, for accurate readings, remember to insert the thermometer into the thickest part of your meat, without touching any bone. Letting the meat rest after removing from the grill allows the juices to get absorbed back into the meat.

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Rosemary, Mint and Garlic

Laura Bashar | Family Spice

This Grilled Leg of Lamb with Rosemary, Mint, and Garlic is juicy, flavorful, and perfect for entertaining. Whether you use bone-in or boneless, it’s an easy yet impressive meal for your next family dinner or holiday gathering.

4.50 from 16 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Additional Time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 14 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 10

Calories 304 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 7 to 8 pound bone-in leg of lamb
• ¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary
• ¼ cup chopped fresh mint
• 6 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
• 1 shallot peeled and chopped
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Zest from 1 large lemon

Get Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

 

• With a sharp knife, slice deep slits all over leg of lamb.
• In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients and make a paste.
• Place the leg of lamb on a large baking sheet and rub herb mixture all over and stuff into the slits.
• Cover entire lego of lamb with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours or up to overnight.
• Remove leg of lamb 2 hours before cooking to allow meat to come to room temperature.
• If you using a Big Steel Keg or Big Green Egg, add coals or wood charcoal and heat grill to 325ºF.
• If using a gas grill, preheat grill with all burners on high. After 15 minutes, turn off the center burners and reduce the outer burners to medium.
• Place the lamb in the center of the grate and grill covered for until internal temperature reaches 140ºF, approximately 2 hours.
• Remove lamb from grill, cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Notes

Oven instructions:

• Prepare lamb the same way. Sometimes you can find the lamb with the bone in but with the exposed bone cut off. This helps the lamb fit in your oven.
• Place lamb fat side down on a roasting pan and broil for 5 minutes until the the lamb surface looks seared and browned. Turn the roast over and place under the broiler again until other side is seared, about 5 minutes more.
• Set oven temperature to 325°F and roast in a roasting pan until internal temperature reaches 135ºF. This can take up to 2 hours. Let roast rest for 10 minutes before carving.

TO STORE: Store any leftover lamb in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months.

TO REHEAT: Like steak, I prefer to reheat leftovers NOT in the microwave, but sauté in a hot pan with olive oil or butter.

Nutrition

Serving: 2slicesCalories: 304kcalCarbohydrates: 2.4gProtein: 21.4gFat: 23.3gSaturated Fat: 8.8gCholesterol: 82mgSodium: 761mgFiber: 0.9g

Keyword grilled leg of lamb

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Nutrition Disclaimer

Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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