Butterflying is a great way to be able to grill meat that would otherwise be too thick and take too long to cook on the barbecue. It is a particularly useful technique for chicken and lamb. Although it is probably feasible to butterfly the meat yourself (I am sure you can find great video tutorials on YouTube), I chose to avoid taking the risk of spoiling my leg of lamb and asked my butcher to butterfly it for me. You end up with a piece of meat that is about one inch thick and takes about 20 minutes (10 minutes on each side) for a perfect medium rare cooking.
As I usually like to do when grilling meat, I marinated the lamb in a mixture of garlic, parsley and olive oil for a few hours. It gave a wonderful flavor and went so well with the vegetable couscous I served with it.
Ingredients (serves 4):
One leg of lamb (about 2 lb), bone removed and butterflied by your butcher
3 garlic cloves, thinly chopped
4 tbsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp olive oil
Rub the leg of lamb with the garlic, parsley, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Heat a grill on high heat and cook the lamb, about 10 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill, let rest for 5 minutes, then cut in 1/2" slices. Adjust seasoning.
