Grilled Lamb Chops with Herb Sauce Look and Taste Fancy — No One Needs to Know How Easy They Are to Cook

At the end of winter, before I start thinking about asparagus and ramps, I think of the real harbinger of spring: lamb. I absolutely love lamb, and my favorite way to enjoy it is in the form of lamb chops. Lamb chops always feel very elegant to me, as if someone took the time to make me a refined dish. But the truth is, lamb chops couldn’t be easier to prepare — especially when tossed on the grill.

With the tiniest bit of extra effort, you can take your grilled lamb from a pretty good main to a show-stopping centerpiece that will wow and impress your loved ones. And with the gorgeous spring weather upon us, who doesn’t love an excuse to cook dinner outside? Here’s how to make my very favorite grilled lamb chops.

Lamb chops need about 10 minutes of cook time. This applies for stove top cooking and grilling. You are aiming for an internal temperature of 125ºF for medium doneness or 145ºF for medium-well doneness. This will take about 2 1/2 minutes per side, 6 to 8 minutes total for rib chops, or 10 minutes total for loin chops.

In addition to the cooking time, plan to let the chops sit at room temperature for 30 minutes after removing them from the refrigerator to cook. And then after cooking your chops will need 5 minutes of resting time before you serve them.

The two most popular types of lamb chops are lamb loin chops (or t-bones) and lamb rib chops — you can use either for this recipe.

Lamb loin chops resemble little T-bone steaks, with both the loin and filet sold as part of the steak.

Lamb rib chops are the individual servings cut from the rack of lamb. They can be found “frenched,” which means the meat and fat along the bone has been removed and cleaned. This is purely for aesthetic purposes — it gives the chop a more elegant appearance and also gives you a nice handle if you want to eat with your hands. But frenched chops are certainly not mandatory to enjoy chops. 

For these grilled chops, you’ll prepare a marinade of parsley stems, mint, rosemary, lemon zest, and garlic. The marinade comes together in minutes and does all the work for you, infusing the chops with bright, herbaceous notes. Or, try any of our other marinade recipes.

Marinate the chops for a minimum of 30 minutes and up to overnight for maximum flavor impact.

Then, before the chops are grilled, I like to make a super-quick blender sauce with the remaining parsley, mint, chives, garlic, and lemon juice. It’s optional, as lamb chops taste great simply grilled with a squeeze of lemon juice, but it adds some really delicious flavors. I highly recommend you make it.

I love this dish because it’s very little effort with great reward. All the preparations and cook times take mere minutes, and frenched lamb chops look gorgeous on the table. This recipe is also easy to scale up or down depending on how many people you’re serving. It’s the perfect dish for any weeknight, but also perfect as the centerpiece on special occasions.