A rack of lamb has to be one of the quickest and easiest midweek barbecue meals.
Most racks will come from butcher already Frenched, but depending on how good the butcher is will depend on how much extra work you have to do. I prefer to remove all of the fat cap because the fat is not going to render out and will take away from what is a really nice piece of meat. It also prevents any dry rub you apply from getting to the meat, which defeats its purpose entirely!
I like to cook lamb over charcoal, without adding any extra smoking wood for flavouring, as the charcoal imparts just enough already. Set your barbecue for about 270 Fahrenheit and let it come to a good stable temperature before cooking.
Whilst the barbecue is coming to temp apply your preferred dry rub to both sides of the rack. As we all know lamb is good friends with rosemary, garlic, pepper and salt. Have a play around with your ratios of these until you find something that meets your taste. As a start point, equal parts of rosemary, salt and pepper mixed with half of the same amount of garlic powder should set you in the right direction.
You’ll need to use a thermometer to monitor the internal temperature of the rack during cooking. If you like your lamb very pink then take it off the grill at about 140 Fahrenheit. If you prefer lamb to be more medium, leave it until the internal temperature is about 150 Fahrenheit before taking it off the grill.
Now it’s time to add some colour to the outside. We have a Weber Smokey Joe that we use for exactly this purpose at comps.
Alternatively, if you only have one barbecue take the rack of lamb off the grill and wrap it in foil and rest it whilst you reconfigure your barbecue for high heat grilling. In the accompanying photos with this article, the rack of lamb was cooked using a Kamado Joe. It takes about 15 minutes to reset the Kamado for high heat and then get it up to temperature after smoking.
Once the grill is it a good high heat, sear the outside of the rack of lamb until you are happy with the colour. This should only take about a minute per side. Be very careful not to let it burn as lamb that is charred on the outside isn’t too attractive. I would then typically wrap the rack in foil and rest it for about 10 minutes before slicing it into cutlets to serve.
Author: AJ
Complete BBQ tragic and committed collector of BBQs, particularly Webers. Even known to talk BBQ recipes in his sleep, AJ’s years of cooking triumphs and failures have left him completely convinced that BBQ is overthought.