HAPPY EASTER with Leg of Lamb!

The second half of the Easter from two years ago was the leg of lamb I served for dinner.  When I was a kid, I had a friend named Tricia that we invited over for Easter dinner one year.  Lamb was a tradition at our house on Easter...but my parents served it with BARFY mint jelly.  Not only did they serve it with mint jelly, my dad slathered it ALL OVER the poor lamb while it was cooking so it had a crust of mint jelly on the outside.  UG! 

I wanted to maintain the tradition of lamb for Easter, but I NEEDED to improve the recipe.  I score this SWEET Bobby Flay recipe for leg of lamb marinated in greek yogurt.  HOLY MOLY!  This recipe ROCKS!!!!!!  The first time I made it, I didn't have Greek yogurt...I didn't even know greeks had their own yogurt. :)  Fortunately, Dannon now carrys their own Greek yogurt in regular grocery stores.  If you can't find Greek yogurt, you can use regular plain yogurt by straining it with a paper towl to get rid of the excess moisture.

Bobby Flay Leg of Lamb
1 de-boned (5 pound) leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat
5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups Greek-style yogurt
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 to 5 dashes hot pepper sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Using a paring knife, make several small slits over the entire surface of the lamb, and stuff the slits with the sliced garlic. Add the yogurt, mint, cumin and hot pepper sauce to the work bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Place the lamb on a large baking sheet and rub the entire leg with the yogurt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight.  TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!  Don't marinate it for an hour or two and then throw it in the oven...it isn't necessarily for taste as much as it is for tenderness.

Preheat the grill to high. Remove the lamb from the marinade and season well with salt and pepper. Place the lamb, skin side down, on the grill. Grill until the skin side is golden brown, then turn the lamb over, and reduce the heat of the grill to medium so that the grill maintains a constant temperature of 350 degrees F. Continue grilling until a thermometer inserted deep into the meat reaches a temperature of 145 degrees F for medium-rare doneness, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove lamb from grill, cover with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice the meat on the bias into 1/4-inch thick slices.

Instead of grilling this dish, we cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees F until it was 147 degrees F.  I cooked the potatoes with the roast the entire time it was in the oven.  They turned out PERFECT and caught us some of the juices from the roast.  This recipe makes the most tender lamb I have EVER had!  I'm going to make gyro's out of the left over lamb tonight!  YUM!!!!!