My Dad's Lamb Chops by Rachel

A great meat for a holiday dish if you want to do something a little different is lamb.  When I went home for Thanksgiving, my dad made a delicious lamb chop dish and I'm not even a lamb person.  I'm very sensitive to gamey tasting meats, but my dad's recipe eliminated a lot of that taste from the lamb chops.  They were tender and very yummy!

I made these for a holiday party with my friends and they were a huge hit, so these will definitely be going into my recipe book for life.

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs of lamb chops, frenched
2 tbsps / 6 sprigs of rosemary (it's really however much you want, but don't go too overboard, otherwise your food will taste like Christmas trees...)
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp agave

+extra soy sauce used during cooking




- If your lamb chops came in a rack, just separate them from each other.

Nice and separated.

- Sprinkle the salt and pepper on both sides of each lamb chop and rub them in.  Add the soy sauce, sugar, olive oil, and rosemary to the chops and mix in with your hands until each chop is covered with the marinade.  Let sit for about 1 hour in the fridge.

Tip: if you are worried about the gamey taste, add a little more rosemary- I find that this helps to mask that taste.

- Remove the chops fridge and let them sit in room temperature for about 20 minutes.  Turn on your cast iron skillet or griddle.  Either way, you want to cook these on cast iron to get a nice, crusty sear on the outside.  Set your stove on high and let your cast iron heat up to very hot.  Reduce the heat to medium-high.

- Place the chops down on one side and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes without touching or moving it.  After that, lift up the chops to make sure that you're seeing the crusting on the outside.  If you see that, flip them over.

- On the other side, add a little drizzle of agave to each chop and a couple drops of soy sauce.  Let them cook until they are medium rare to medium.  This will keep the chops tender.  If you want to cook them longer though, you can.  If you want them medium rare to medium, then cook them for just 2-3 minutes on each side, then remove them from the heat.

- Let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving.  I topped mine with a few extra sprigs of rosemary for garnish and smell.  Rosemary with cooked red meat smells AMAZING together.

Don't mind my messy plating!  Bon appetit!  Enjoy :)