I recently catered a party for a newly engaged couple. There would be 40 in attendance, mostly Greeks and a restaurateur among the invited. Another challenge? A kitchen with limited resources – one oven/range suitable for a home.
My solution to serving up lamb chops was to marinate the racks, vacuum seal them and cook with the sous vide method.
Have you heard of “sous vide”? It’s a French word that literally translates to “under vacuum”. In more detail, sous vide is a cooking method that involves vacuum-sealing food then placing the packet in temperature regulated water bath.
I like rack of lamb to be cooked to medium – 149F. Courtesy of Serious Eats, below is a cooking chart for sous vide rack of lamb.
| Sous Vide Rack of Lamb Temperatures and Timing | ||
|---|---|---|
| Doneness | Temperature Range | Timing Range |
| Very rare to rare | 115°F (46°C) to 124°F (51°C) | 1 to 2 1/2 hours |
| Medium-rare | 125°F (52°C) to 134°F (57°C) | 1 to 4 hours (2 1/2 hours max if under 130°F/54°C) |
| Medium | 135°F (57°C) to 144°F (62°C) | 1 to 4 hours |
| Medium-well | 145°F (63°C) to 154°F (67°C) | 1 to 4 hours |
| Well-done | ||
After the lamb racks are finished in the sous vide, I removed them from the wrap, placed them on a foil-lined baking sheet. I patted-dry the tops and seasoned with more salt.
I placed in the oven and broiled until golden brown and delicious (GBD). Cut the racks into chops, place on a platter and serve with some Tzatziki sauce. Let’s get on with the recipe/details below.
Sous Vide Rack of Lamb
Course: Main, Meat u0026amp; PoultryCuisine: Greek, MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes1
hour10
minutesIngredients
- Marinade
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, grated
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
- For the Lamb
kosher salt and ground better
Directions
- Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Season your racks of lamb with salt and pepper and rub the marinade all over the meat.
- Place the lamb racks in vacuum bags and seal with your food sealing machine,
- Set up your sous-vide instrument to 149F. Place lamb racks in water bath and cook under sous vide for minimum 1 hour – max 2 hours.
- Remove lamb from water bath, take out of plastic and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Set your oven to broil with oven rack at highest position. Place foil around the Frenched bones to protect them.
- Place your lamb racks into the oven and broil for approx 7 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove from the oven, remove/discard the foil and cut the racks into chops.
- Serve on a platter, sprinkle some salt on top and serve some Tzatziki for dipping.
Notes
- I’ve cooked the lamb racks to a perfect medium doneness.