Name: Traeger Grilled Lamb Chops with Blackberry Pan Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 3 bone-in lamb loin chops; 3 tbsp Smoke Junkie seasoning; 3 tbsp Banner Butter Blackberry & Basil compound butter; 1/2 cup fresh blackberries; 4 tbsp finely chopped red onion; 1 clove garlic; 1 tsp prepared horseradish; 1 tsp sugar; 1/4 cup red wine

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While often reserved for special occasions, sometimes a perfectly grilled lamb chop is a great weeknight meal. In about 30 minutes, we whipped together this recipe for an amazing weeknight meal of grilled lamb chops with blackberry pan sauce. Make it tonight for your family, and everyone will feel like they’ve just had dinner at a fine restaurant, despite being in pjs!

Grilled lamb chops with blackberry pan sauce

LAMB CHOPS ON THE GRILL

In my opinion, there’s no place lamb chops should be cooked other than the grill. It’s the best way to create wonderful grill marks, to get a bit of wood-fired flavor in the meat, and to achieve the perfect medium-rare result. Add a pan sauce like my blackberry one and you have an amazing elevated dinner.

WHAT KIND OF LAMB CHOPS?

In this recipe, we used bone-in lamb loin chops. They’re like mini- T-bone steaks of lamb, with a piece of bone down the middle. The flavor of these chops cannot be beaten– super rich and delicious and tender because of the placement of the bone.

You can also use lamb rib chops for a similar effect, which eat more like a lollipop than a t-bone. In many ways, people prefer rib chops because they’re easier to eat, appear to have more meat to bone ratio, and cook very quickly and simply.

The final kind of lamb chop you could buy is the shoulder chop– which I’ve actually never cooked. They’re bigger and more meaty– and require a bit longer cook time to tenderize some of the tougher muscles. You can marinate these kind of chops, but still cook them to medium-rare.

HOW LONG TO GRILL LAMB CHOPS

We cooked these lamb chops with blackberry pan sauce for about 7 minutes per side, until the internal temperature reached about 130/135*. The chops then rested on a tented plate for about 10 minutes while we made the sauce, which helped with the carry-over cooking. You want the lamb to end up medium or medium-rare for the best bite, flavor and tenderness.

As noted elsewhere, the lamb chops are grilled on our Traeger Ranger grill on a high heat (450*) on grill grates that provide a wonderful set of seared lines when done. I don’t know about you, but grill marks on lamb chops = something I love!

SIMPLE BUT ELEVATED PAN SAUCE

Any great grilled meat is taken to the next level with a delicious sauce. Sometimes we go for a salsa or relish of fresh, flavorful and chopped ingredients. Other times, a sauce that comes together in about 8 minutes in a saucepan while the meat rests after grilling is the perfect addition.

For this recipe, we started with the idea that we wanted a hot/warm sauce to compliment the freshly-grilled lamb chops. And using ingredients we had in the fridge– fresh berries, horseradish sauce, artisan butter and some wine– we came up with a delicious and super quick sauce that compliments the richness of grilled lamb chops so perfectly.

If we had it, we would have used shallot in the place of red onion, but the flavors are very similar. By cooking the red onion in butter briefly, it cuts some of the strength of flavor of the onion, and adds some umami to the sauce. A cube of crushed garlic cloves (purchased frozen from the store) is a great addition to the sautéed onion.

We used handmade, artisan butter in this recipe, and the blackberry-basil flavor of the butter was perfect for this sauce. Banner Butter out of Georgia makes amazing sauces, and their blackberry-basil butter is a springtime seasonal flavor. Clearly, we found it in the freezer and it was perfect for this sauce. If you don’t have a butter like this, you can use regular butter for the same effect, and add more berries and some fresh herbs if you can.

A splash of red wine makes up the sauciness of this sauce and goes really well with the fresh blackberries. After all the ingredients are combined, we added just a touch more butter to the sauce (once the pan was off the heat) to add a layer of richness and creaminess to the sauce. It’s a trick you learn from cooking magazines– a great way to finish a sauce.

You can pour this blackberry pan sauce over the lamb chops before serving, or create a pool of sauce on the bottom of a plate and carefully place the lamb chops atop. Either way, be sure you have plenty of sauce on hand for extra dipping purposes!

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

Bone-in lamb loin chops
My Smoke Junkie seasoning
Banner Butter Blackberry & Basil compound butter
Fresh blackberries
Red onion
Garlic
Prepared horseradish
Sugar
Red wine

WHY COOKING LAMB CHOPS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS

Grilled lamb on the Traeger is truly delicious. It is a quick-cooking meat that only needs a short amount of grilling time to become perfectly cooked. We like our lamb medium when it’s done, so it remains tender, flavorful and moist. By cooking it to 135*, you get a great outer crust and the carry-over cooking from the heat will get it to about 140/145* for a perfect medium temperature.

For this recipe, we grilled the lamb chops on the Traeger Ranger grill using grill grates, which provided an amazing grill mark crust on the finished dish. If you want all-over crust on a cut like this, use a flat cast iron skillet or griddle for all over searing. But I think that distinct grill hatch marks on the meat are an added semi-professional touch!

Check out this infographic provided by Traeger for more info on how to cook lamb chops perfectly.

STEP-BY-STEP

Preheat your Traeger Ranger to 425* and place grill grates in the grill. Allow the grill to get very hot.
While the grill preheats, prepare the lamb chops by patting them dry with a paper towel after unwrapping them.
Season the chops all over with my Smoke Junkie seasoning and allow the meat to sweat for 5-10 minutes.
Cook the lamb chops on the preheated grill, creating strong grill marks.
To get an excellent grill-mark grid, turn the meat 90* while cooking on one side, which will give you a grid.
Grill the lamb chops on one side for about 5-7 minutes, then flip and repeat.
Continue cooking for 5-7 minutes on the second side until grill marks are achieved and the interior temperature of the meat reaches about 135*.
Pull the chops from the grill and tent loosely with foil on a plate.
While the meat rests, create the pan sauce.
In a small skillet, saute 2/3 of the butter with the finely chopped onion and crushed garlic until just translucent, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the prepared horseradish sauce, then the sugar and the whole blackberries.
Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat, and then add the wine and bring to a quick boil.
Using a spoon or spatula, gently crush or cut the berries into smaller pieces.
Continue cooking for 2-4 minutes until the wine reduces slightly.
Remove the sauce from the heat of the stove and stir in the remaining 1/3 of the butter until smooth.
Arrange the grilled chops on a serving platter and top with the blackberry pan sauce.
Serve your Traeger grilled lamb chops with blackberry pan sauce immediately and enjoy!

ALTERNATE RECIPES AND PRODUCTS USED

Products used in this cook:

Traeger Ranger grill
Superior Farms lamb chops
My Spiceology Smoke Junkie Seasoning
Banner Butter artisan butter (we used a seasonal flavor)

CONCLUSION/ CALL TO ACTION

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