Smoked Loin Lamb Chops – with Rosemary and Olive Oil
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As tradition would have it, at Easter, we like to do smoked lamb in the smoker.. Smoked lamb loin chops with rosemary and olive oil– dry brined with coarse kosher salt and then seasoned to perfection with my original rub . Might be the best lamb I've done yet.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Dry Brine Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Smoker Temp: 225°F
- Meat Finish Temp: 138°F (medium rare)
- Recommended Wood: Pecan/Apple Mix
- 10-12 Lamb loin chops (I found a great deal on these at Costco)
- Coarse kosher salt (for dry brining)
- Rosemary, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- Jeff's original rub
In my opinion, this is the most flavorful of the chops and because you can cook them at low heat in the smoker in under an hour, they are a great option for Easter Sunday meal. Just make sure you make plenty since each chop has a “T” shaped bone running through it leaving only about 3-4 ounces of meat in each one.
They are lean and flavorful and the smoke really sets them off.
I have been seeing these in Costco for a while now and I recommend you pick up a package even if you think you don't like lamb or haven't liked it in the past.
A dry brine is a simple sprinkling of coarse kosher salt (Morton's blue box) on the outside of the meat and letting it sit in the fridge for 2 or more hours. During this time the salt draws moisture to the surface where it mixes and becomes a flavorful slurry. This juice is drawn back into the meat, and the meat is now seasoned all the way through.
I usually only dry brine one side especially if the meat is not very thick or the pieces are rather small like these loin chops. If you are dry brining large meaty steaks that are really thick, you might consider doing both sides.
In most cases, you can be pretty generous and the meat will still not end up too salty. It is difficult to measure the salt used in dry brining. See the image below to get an idea of how much salt to use.
If you want to use an additional rub on the outside (which I recommend for these), be sure to use something low in salt such as my original rub
Here's the lamb chops salted and ready to go into the fridge:
After salting the top, place the lamb chops into the fridge for about 2 hours.
Once the lamb loin chops are dry brined, remove them from the fridge for the oil and herbs.
Note: There is no need to rinse.
This is best done an hour or two ahead of time to let the flavors fuse together.
Finely chop enough rosemary to make about a tablespoon.
Note: I've had a few of you email me saying this does not look like rosemary. I'm not sure entirely what doesn't look like chopped rosemary but to point out the process– I remove the leaves or “needles” from the stem and all but the very thin stems are discarded. The rosemary leaves/needles are finely chopped into what you see in the image below.
Pour ¼ cup of olive oil over the rosemary and let it sit until you are ready to use it.
Once ready, brush the olive oil and rosemary leaves onto the top and sides of the lamb chops. Be generous.
Let the seasoned lamb loin chops sit while you go get the smoker ready.
You can smoke them in any type or brand of smoker by following the heat recommendations and time estimations.
Set up your smoker for cooking at 225°F with indirect heat. If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up.
Add enough smoking wood to last 30-45 minutes.
Place the lamb chops on the smoker grate or use a pan and rack or Weber grill pan.. your choice.
At 225°F the chops should take about 50 minutes to reach medium rare. I usually shoot for about 138°F.
Remember, the time is simply an estimation, the temperature is what determines when the meat is done. Many things can change how long it actually takes such as:
- How cold the meat is when it goes into the smoker.
- How full the smoker is.
- Outside ambient temperature.
- How often the smoker door is opened.
Just as soon as the meat was ready, I removed it from the smoker.
Set the loin chops on the counter with foil tented over it for about 5-7 minutes to rest before serving.
Enjoy!
Smoked Loin Lamb Chops - with Rosemary and Olive Oil
Ingredients
- 10-12 Lamb loin chops
- Coarse kosher salt (for dry brining)
- Rosemary (finely chopped)
- Olive oil
- Jeff's Original rub
Instructions
- Place lamb loin chops on a cooling rack or cookie sheet.
- To dry brine, sprinkle salt generously on the top of the chops.
- Place the chops in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Remove the chops from the fridge, no rinsing is necessary.
- Make an infusion of rosemary and olive oil by pouring ¼ cup of olive oil over 1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary. Let the infusion sit for about an hour before you use it if possible.
- Brush the olive oil/rosemary on the top and sides of the lamb chops.
- Sprinkle the top, bottom and sides of the chops with Jeff's original rub. Be as generous as you like.. it's low in salt and big on flavor.
- Set up your smoker for cooking at 225°F with indirect heat.
- Use a mix of pecan and apple for smoke for great results.
- Monitor the internal temperature of the chops and when they reach 138 °F (medium rare) they are finished and should be removed from the smoker right away. This should take about 50 minutes.
- Let the chops rest on the counter with foil tented over them for about 5-7 minutes.
- Serve with a couple of Easter worthy sides and enjoy!
I love Lamb and have used somewhat the same recipe on 1″thick pork loin chops. It is a GREAT recipe, that works good on the grill also, but your smoker recipe is top tier. There is just something about Rosemary & Olive-oil. It goes great on just about EVERYTHING, meats, veggies, breads, etc. I have even put a pinch of Rosemary on various ice-cream, wow talk about an eye-opener.
Very simple and straightforward recipe that yielded some of the best lamb I’ve had! Smoking them low and slow led to a perfect medium rare that wasn’t tough at all. Highly recommend
I really don’t see how your picture is of chopped rosemary? The leaves are much too wide unless it is a rosemary I’ve never seen before. Anyway, I’m going to try it out today minus the rub. I like using lemon zest with my rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil. I’ve done this many times in the oven but it should work in my electric smoker as well.
Am I the only one who thinks the cover picture is brisket with burnt ends?
Hi there! Thanks so much for your recipe. We had the lamb from Costco and followed instructions to a T. The chops were so moist and tender. Thanks again.
Jeff,
Did you write this article or plagiarize it from somewhere else? I found the exact same recipe almost word-for-word on another website and was just wondering which of you stole it from the other. See here: [link removed]
This is definitely my article, written by me, myself and, I. There’s a lot of lazy bloggers out there these days duplicating whatever they can find online and sometimes changing a word here or a word there. It’s still plagiarism and it’s still a crying shame when people are too lazy to write their own articles based on their own experiences. I appreciate you letting me know about this.
Not sure there needs to be any resting time with meat this thin. Not much area for the juices to circulate. We had them hot off the smoker and they were perfect.
I’m going to try this for my first smoked lamb attempt. Sorry I have nothing negative to say.😃
My lamb chops came out WAY too salty. I used coarse kosher salt and applied about as much as you’re showing in the photoe. Otherwise, they cooke dperfectly. Seems like you really should wipe the salt off after dry brining. I’d try this again and maybe skip the brining all together.
Jeff, just did your lamb chops as part of a mixed grill on my (other brand) smoker. We didn’t do the rub, stopped at the oil & rosemary so as to not over power the other meats in the mixed grill. Thank you so much for this, the significant other wasn’t a huge fan of lamb and this has her converted! So delicious! She’s bought more chops so we can do this again!
hi Jeff, just curious: you are not showing Rosemary in the pictures for this recipe. do you use something else, or is that parsley or something.
Mike, This was fresh rosemary leaves removed from the stems and then chopped fine. This was added to oil and then applied to the chops before adding the seasoning.
These loin chops were amazing..the Camp Chef did an amazing job. They were melt in your mouth tender and very flavorful. Thank you Jeff.