Lamb Shoulder (Round Bone) - Grilled Greek Deliciousness!

Never in my life did I think I'd be making homemade tzatziki.  I mean, tzatziki had always been one of those mystery toppings for me.  You go and get a delicious gyro on a warm pita (yum) and you'd get a generous helping of this amazing sauce with unique flavors and you simply love it.  And you get it again the next time.  But make it yourself?  Please!  Well, so goes the Year of Meat for me.  I have made more dressings, sauces, marinades, salads, rubs and sides this year, and that doesn't even include the meat!  But now that I have added this homemade tzatziki to the list, the sky truly is the limit.  Pretty much any time I ever grill lamb again, I'm making this sauce.  And what's better, with the right rub, it would go great on grilled chicken, too!  OK.  I'm getting hungry thinking of it.  Let's talk about this concoction.

So, thanks to Anne Burrell of Food Network Magazine, she hooked me up with a three-part recipe that included the marinade, the tzatziki and the salad/dressing.  In plotting out my strategy, and with a busy work day planned, I made the marinade and tzatziki in advance (the night before the dinner).  Smart move for many reasons, not the least of which was my busy work day ahead of me.  But it paid off in other ways.  In both cases, some of the stronger flavors (e.g. garlic) got tempered with time while getting incorporated with the other flavors.  Brilliant decision, and it wasn't even for that reason!  Great lesson learned.  So, here is how it went down.

The marinade was simple enough.  The juice and zest of a lemon, combined with fresh chopped herbs (oregano, mint, dill) along with garlic, red pepper flakes, extra virgin olive oil and Kosher salt.  All I did was chop and mix it and put it in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight.  My plan was to add it to the lamb shoulder chops in the a.m. to a ziploc bag, and let the marinade work all day.  And that's exactly what I did.  For the tzatziki (no lie, mouth is watering right now), some of the same ingredients for the marinade (garlic, dill, mint, Kosher salt) got added to some finely chopped cucumber, white wine vinegar and Greek Yogurt.  This too I did the night before and kept in the refrigerator.

On the day of, the round bone lamb shoulder chops (trimmed of any and all excess fat) went into the ziploc bag with the marinade.  About 60 minutes before cooking time, I took lamb out of the refrigerator to bring to room temperature, and took the tzatziki out to do the same.  Fired up the Big Green Egg, and cooked the lamb for 6 minutes per side (turning them once in between to get the nice criss cross grill marks).  Took them off, and tented them in foil for 5 minutes.  During the "tenting", I mixed a salad of fresh arugula, squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, Kosher salt and feta cheese.  For presentation, the salad went on the plate first, with the lamb on top of that, and the tzatziki on top of it all.  Great look!  Great taste!  I felt like I was in Chicago's Greek Town and I did it all at home.

Thank you Paulina Market, and Food Network's Anne Burrell.  This was my favorite lamb dish of the year so far.  And it will return again!

46 down, 15 to go!