Smoked Boneless Leg of Lamb

I have been eyeballing these legs of lamb for quite a while now. I was at the grocery store and they had several that were marked down 50%. Score! Now, I have never cooked a leg of lamb but I knew that it would be best about medium and since lamb is kind of gamey for some folks I wanted a real powerful rub and a nice minty sauce. This semi-boneless leg of lamb weighed in at just under 4.25 lbs.

I decided that I wanted it boneless to make it easier to season well throughout and to make carving easier in the end. I basically just cut a straight line down to the bone and then carefully all the way around the bone. Not too difficult.

For the rub I am using a few sprigs of fresh cilantro, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, fresh ground black pepper, some smoked salt and a bunch of chopped garlic.

I put that all into my mini food processor and drizzled in some EVOO to make a nice paste. The picture is kind of horrible but the paste is the consistency of pesto almost and the smell was fantastic!

The lamb was almost 2 inches thick but there was a large muscle that I butterflied so that it laid down almost flat. I then took my knife and cut a cross hatch pattern about 1 inch deep and 1 inch apart on both sides of my lamb. I then took the paste and rubbed half of it on each side of the lamb.

Time to roll it up and secure it with some twine and a few little metal skewers I had from a turkey trussing kit. Once it was all rolled up, I covered it with plastic wrap and placed it into the refrigerator for about 24 hours to marinate and absorb some of the herby goodness.

I decided to use my Brinkmann vertical water smoker. For the fuel I am using a 2×2 fuse (snake) of briquettes. I did some testing here a while back and I can hold about 230°, give or take 10°, for about 5-6 hours with this setup. I am using some dry apple and hickory wood chips for this smoke. 

I have had this beast for quite a long time and the water pan had a couple holes in it so I just fill that with sand to act as a big heat sink. Directly above that I put a grate and a drip pan filled with water. Then the top grate is sprayed and the lamb goes on. 

My phone was making a racket which means my lamb had reached 135° internal temperature. Once rested that should get it up to about 140° and a near perfect medium. I removed the lamb and wrapped it in foil and it went into the cooler to rest for about an hour while I made some saffron rice and collard greens. What a picture, the color is so fantastic!

Rested and ready to slice. Don’t forget to remove the twine and skewers!

Once I started slicing (and tasting) I knew we had a winner! Perfect temperature, great smoke ring, super juicy and very herbacious. I made a very light sauce with vinegar, mint, sugar and crushed red peppers. Almost a sweet and spicy mint au jus. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this meal plated but I got the most important parts I think. Well, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this creation!

Meet Meat!