How to Make the Best Roast Boneless Leg of Lamb with Garlic, Herb, and Bread Crumb Crust

[Music] if you're like me you only make a lego lamb once a year or maybe every other year but every time i use this one recipe because it's foolproof it goes with everything and it's holiday worthy and i remember bridget when you developed this recipe what 15 20 years ago yeah i just got my driver's license and i was hanging out the mall and i thought i could really use some lamb now it's been a while yeah but this recipe has stood the test of time for sure we wanted to get people to eat more lamb people don't eat enough lamb and the one lamb dish that they do like to eat often is rack of lamb with that crumb coating on the exterior so this is kind of an ode to the rack with a lot more lamb inside we are going to coat this with a crumb coating very easy to make and this just dresses it up a little bit so i've got here a piece of sandwich bread just one that's all we need i'll tear it into small pieces and we're using fresh breadcrumbs just because they're nice and fluffy even after they're baked later on we're just looking for breadcrumbs here not too fine we want them to be a little coarse so around 10 pulses should do it all right so that looks good not too broken down i'm going to transfer this back into that bowl that we had earlier all right we want lots of herbs in this it's a quarter cup of finely chopped fresh parsley and three tablespoons of fresh rosemary which sounds like a lot but it really isn't and rosemary lamb is such a classic combination exactly this is two tablespoons of finely chopped thyme three peeled garlic cloves and a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil you're going to see a lot of this ingredient all throughout all right so the lid goes back on and i'm going to let this process for about a minute until it's really broken down and finely chop that's looking pretty darn good now i want a tablespoon and a half we're going to use that to season the interior of the lamb and then the rest of this is going in with those bread crumbs now before i mix this together i have a couple more additions this is an ounce or a half a cup of grated parmesan cheese good seasoning great flavor and also it's going to help the crust become cohesive and i've got a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil well in this crumb coating i have to say i use on a lot of different meats because it's really versatile and tastes good on everything all right so that looks good enough of that let's move over to the star of the show it's the lamb this is going to serve about 68 so we like to use the half boneless leg of lamb it's around three and a half to four pounds and there's a reason that it's in this elasticated netting it's because in order to make a boneless legged lamb they had to take out the bone and that is a messy job if you've ever tried doing it yourself there's a lot of different muscles attached to that bone now that is not bad that's beautifully done now before we do anything here i do want to start to trim away any excess fat lamb fat is one of the reasons that lamb tastes gamey to a lot of people has a very low smoke point so it'll start to smoke before something like pork or beef fat would get a little bit of that fat off of the exterior on the top side as well we do want to leave a little bit of the fat on the outside though so you can see i'm just really leaving on this thin veneer fat and i think that's all i really want to take off at this point looks good this was the exterior of the lamb i'm going to put it with the interior side up now we want this to cook evenly and we want it to roll up easily we're going to try to even this out i've got a piece of plastic wrap goes right on here and i've got a meat pounder here sometimes at home i'll use a rubber mallet for this job or a rolling pin so i'm going to pound this lamb to about an even thickness around three quarter inch i do want to season the meat directly so i've got two teaspoons more of the extra virgin olive oil right all over everything and a teaspoon and a half of kosher salt and a half a teaspoon of black pepper all right let's just even that out a little bit all right so now let's bring up that herb paste again that was one and a half tablespoons of that i'm going to spread it out pretty evenly i do want to keep a little bit of a border about an inch away from the edge it's a good goal to aim for so we're going to roll this up and tuck any pieces under and then just start to roll this way up too the fat is all exposed like that all right now we're gonna tie it got six pieces of twine we're gonna space them about one and a half inches apart don't want to squeeze it too tight but enough to be secure the idea is that we're training it to stay in a compact form so i want to cut off any excess twine here just leave a little bit now you can actually let this sit in the fridge for a few hours but we're going to cook it right away i do want to do some last minute seasoning so i've got another teaspoon and a half of kosher salt roll it over and another half a teaspoon of black pepper same thing all over and then finally a tablespoon more of the extra virgin olive oil coat it all over i'm going to do a quick clean up and then we'll move on all right so we're going to cook this we're going to get a little bit of color on the roast itself before we add the crust we're going to use the skillet to do that so i have a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in this 12-inch skillet heating it over medium-high heat until it just starts to smoke i'm going to brown it on all sides squish it into the pan there it's about two minutes per side 10 minutes total that's a beautiful piece of lamb bridget all right so i'm going to turn this on its side you just want to get a little color on both ends just about 30 seconds per side all right so now moving this over to a rack over a rimmed baking sheet we're going to put this into a 375 degree oven and that is lower than a lot of leg of lamb sometimes you put leg of lamb into a 400 450 degree oven what that causes is any fat to start to render and it hits the pan and it smokes in the oven we engineered this to get people to eat lamb so no gaminess so 375 for about 30 minutes and we're looking for an internal temperature between 105 to 110. all right now i think we're ready to put on our bread crumb coating but i do want to take a temp 108. nicely done all right now i do want to get it off of this rack that rack and the sheet pan are pretty hot so we're going to move over to our carving board here and now i'm going to gently release release the hounds i'm going to release the twine just cut it because the basic structure here is set all right i'm being gentle i'm trying not to disturb the structure here too much it can start to unravel a little bit and the great thing about crumb coating it's kind of like buttercream on a cake it hides all sins in order to get this crumb coating to stick we need a glue we're going with dijon mustard yes they do with a rack of lamb so this is a tablespoon of dijon i don't need to be too neat about it or you don't need to be neat at all but i am going to move this closer because i want to start to pack these crumbs on the outside and really i want to get into all the sides and use my hands to really adhere it this is such a forgiving recipe too if the meat starts to unravel a little bit hey that's just a space for more crumbs that's it all right how's that looking messy enough for you yes so this is going to go back onto our rack this is going to go back into that 375 oven and this time it only needs to be in there for about 10-15 minutes we're going to get that top nice and brown bread crumbs all crispy oh gorgeous well thanks oh you mean the lamb i got it okay i always fall for that we're looking for 125 now there we go so we're hitting right around 128. and that is perfect because we want medium rare now transfer this up to nice and gentle nice and gentle a carving board and we're going to let this rest before we cut into it all right 20 minutes the lamb has rested and this is the best part the serving no bone beautiful crumbs on top gorgeous color of the meat oh yeah so we're cutting it into about half inch slices you don't want to go too thin here you want to make sure people get a good amount of crumbs just that little bit of herb right going through the center as with any long narrow piece of meat when you roast it the ends are slightly more done than the middle which is perfect for a crowd because some people like it a little more done and some people like it a little rare um look at how tender that is the lamb is so perfectly cooked and i love the bread crumbs and that little bit of rosemary not overpowering you know that more moderate oven too there's not that funky gaminess that a lot of people associate with lego lamb right because there wasn't all the smoke coming out of the oven yeah oh and right in the middle where you get that herb paste that's the payoff oh bridgette i love this recipe thank you you bet so there you have it you want to make this time-tested recipe for boneless legolam buy a boneless half leg and after trimming and pounding the roast rub the inside of the paste made of fresh herbs then tie it back up into a tidy package sear it quickly on the stove top then roast for about half an hour before removing the ties and adding the crumbs roast for 10 to 15 minutes longer then be sure to let rest before serving from america's test kitchen to your kitchen the ultimate recipe for roast boneless lego lamb seriously it's the only recipe you need for lamb thanks for watching america's test kitchen what do you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 129,957

Keywords: leg of lamb, roast lamb, cooking, cooks illustrated, cooks country, americas test kitchen, how to cook lamb

Id: -N2RyMyGWYc

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021