These simple Broiled Lamb Chops are topped with a creamy and delicious lemon, thyme and mustard butter. Lamb has a distinctively rich and savory flavor. It’s a restaurant-quality meal, but it’s actually a quick and easy dinner to make for a weeknight dinner too!
If you order lamb chops in a restaurant, they take advantage of the fact that lamb is a lovely and rarely-cooked-at-home protein, and it’s priced ridiculously! It’s much more inexpensive to make lamb chops at home. With a minimal prep time of about 15 minutes, you’ll have these broiled lamb chops on the table in less than 30 minutes. They will turn out super tender on the inside, with a light crust on the outside. And the lamb chops will soak up the flavorful, buttery sauce, making it melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
Ingredients Needed for making Broiled Lamb Chops:
- Butter: I like to use unsalted butter so you are in control of how much salt is added to the recipe. It should be at room temperature for easy mashing.
- Mustard: Whole grain Dijon mustard is what you need for this recipe. It’s going to give the butter sauce a ton of flavor.
- Thyme: Don’t even think of using dried thyme. Fresh thyme will make a lot of difference in the flavor.
- Lemon: You’ll be using lemon zest for this recipe. Finely grate it. And then you can juice your lemon and use the juice for something else. I think making a caesar salad with the lemon juice is a great choice, since that would be a good pairing with these broiled lamb chops!
- Kosher Salt and Pepper: Add to taste!
- Lamb Chops: Lamb loin chops are like miniature bone-in steaks. Rib chops are individual chops sliced from a rack of lamb. You can use either for this recipe, but I’ve used the rib chops in my example below.
How to make Broiled Lamb Chops:
The first thing you’ll do is mash together the butter, mustard, thyme, salt and pepper to create the buttery sauce that you’ll be adding to the top of the lamb chops after broiling.
Slide your rack into the oven about 6 inches from the broiler. Arrange your chops on a grill pan, and season them generously with salt and pepper. You don’t need much seasoning to make lamb chops flavorful!
Broil the first side for about 8 minutes, then flip them about broil about 3 minutes longer. This should get the chops to medium (145 degrees F.). Once they rest, the temperature will go up a bit. If you like your lamb more on the medium-rare side, then broil them for about 5 minutes per side (and pull them out at 135 degrees F). An instant-read thermometer can help you out a bit if you’re trying to pinpoint a certain temperature. If using loin chops instead of the rib chops, you’ll need to broil them for a little bit longer.
After resting for about 5 minutes, transfer the broiled lamb chops to a platter and top each with a small spoonful of the lemon, thyme, mustard butter.
Where can you buy lamb chops?
Believe it or not, you should be able to buy lamb chops (or a rack of lamb) at your local market. Lamb won’t have an extensive section of choices like your chicken and beef will have. But at a minimum, there should be some basic lamb choices. Of course, a stand-alone butcher shop will probably have some amazing lamb chop and rack of lamb choices. And I really love to buy my rack of lamb at Costco for a great price.
Recipe Tips
- For some extra-tender lamb chops, soak your chops in milk or buttermilk for 1 to 4 hours. Drain before broiling your lamb chops.
- Another option for broiled lamb chops: Marinate them in a mixture of 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 large cloves of minced garlic and 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary. Drain and broil the chops (no sauce). They’ll be flavorful enough without the need for a sauce!
- More methods of cooking lamb chops: You can grill them or pan-fry them in the same manner. Or you can bake them at 400 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Overcooking lamb can make it tough and dry. Undercooking lamb can make it chewy. My advice: use an instant read thermometer so you get it just right!
- Store any leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
What does it mean to “French” lamb chops?
To “French” lamb chops is to trim the meat and fat away from the bone, exposing a clean portion of the rib bone. This gives the lamb chops a cleaner presentation, which is what you’ll see in a restaurant when you order lamb chops or rack of lamb. The exposed bones can also serve as a “handle” for easy eating.
It’s a nice (but not necessary) process to apply to your home-cooked lamb chops. You’ll need a sharp knife to carefully trim away the excess fat, connective tissue, and meat between the bones. If you buy your lamb chops at a butcher shop, you can ask the butcher to French the lamb chops for you, if you’d like.
Serving Suggestions:
Serving size for these broiled lamb chops is 2 to 3 ribs per person. Lamb is delicious served with mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes and steamed green beans or roasted carrots. A side salad would be lovely as well.
Broiled Lamb Chops
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon whole grain Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, lightly chopped
- ¾ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (more as needed)
- Eight 1½ to 2-inch (about 3 pounds) lamb chops, trimmed
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mash together the butter, mustard, thyme, zest, salt and pepper until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Position an oven rack 5 to 6 inches from broiler. Preheat the broiler.
- Line the bottom of a broiler pan with foil and replace the top part of the pan. Arrange the chops on the pan. Season both sides of the chops generously with salt and pepper. Broil until the first side is well-browned, about 8 minutes. Turn the chops over with tongs and continue to broil until they're well-browned and the center is cooked to your liking, 3 to 5 minutes longer for medium rare.
- Transfer the chops to serving plates and top each with a dollop of flavored butter. Serve hot.
Notes
- If preparing this recipe as gluten-free, just be sure to use a Dijon mustard that is known to be GF.
- Check for doneness of chop by cutting into a chop near the bone. Serve with haricot verts and boiled potatoes. The melted butter on the chops will drizzle off the sides and be the perfect mop-up for the beans and potatoes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
