Grilled Leg of Lamb Mechoui Recipe
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Mechoui means "roasted on an open fire." Lamb is the most common animal used for mechoui, although the term can be used for other animals and even vegetables.
Serve with: Zinfandel or Rhone-style red.
Course: , ,
Dinner
Lunch
Main Course
Cuisine:
Moroccan
Makes:
Servings: servings
Takes:
Ingredients
- 1 leg of lamb (about 4 pounds per leg)
- 4 tablespoons ras el hanout spice mix
- 1 ½ cups charmoula herb paste
- ½ cup harissa hot pepper paste
Notes:
Shortcut. If you don't want to make charmoula, you can use something close like chimichurri sauce, or an oil and vinegar salad dressing such as My Wife's Italian Vinaigrette, or you can use my sheep dip, my favorite lamb marinade.
Metric conversion:
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Prep. Have your butcher remove the bone from the leg and cut off about 6-8" (15 - 20 cm) of the shank. Freeze the shank for later use. If you get the leg bone still in, you can cut off the shank with a saw and remove the bone with a filleting knife. Remove the thick fat cap, the thin silverskin membrane, and any tendons, sinew, and cartilage while you take the meat apart. I try to remove muscles intact and cut them up into large chunks. Inevitably you will end up with chunks of varying sizes. Group them according to size so you can cook each size for a different lenght of time. Or you can freeze one group for later. Put the meat in a nonreactive pan and cover all surfaces with charmoula. Marinate up to 24 hours if possible. An hour will do, but longer is better.
- Fire up. Preheat the grill as hot as you can get it. Sprinkle the ras el hanout on the meat generously, but not thick.
- Cook. Grill on one side until it releases from the grate easily and gets good grill marks. Roll it onto the opposite side and take the temp of several pieces immediately. Small pieces will cook fast, and grills have hotspots, so test many pieces. Use this Food Temperature Guide to decide when to take it off. I usually pull it at 125-130°F (52-54°C) for rare meat.
- Serve. Serve with couscous and harissa sauce on the side.