Grilled Saffron Rack of Lamb

I love the flavor that grilling adds to a recipe but I struggle with grilling protein to the correct temperature. This means we sometimes end up with dry, chewy and overcooked food or, even worse, super rare/raw meat.

Luckily, Verizon Wireless’ Philadelphia Tri-State Region team gave me the opportunity to try out an iGrill thermometer that not only displays the temperature, but also uses Verizon’s LTE 4G network to send me an alert when my protein has reached the temperature I want!

I was so excited about this product that I decided to really test it out and used it on a pretty finicky meat: lamb. Lamb is a protein that should be cooked to medium rare and not much more. It gets really tough and chewy if overcooked. It’s pretty easy to overcook as well; lamb continues to cook after being removed from heat so it has to be removed before reaching the ideal internal temperature for medium rare. Plus, it’s a pretty expensive meat so you want it to be perfect!

I found this recipe for Grilled Saffron Rack of Lamb on Bon Appetit. The recipe includes temperature guides to help cook the lamb to a perfect medium-rare.

The iGrill Thermometer takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process. The thermometer comes with two probes so you can track the temperature of two meats at the same time. You just insert the probe into the thickest part of the meat (not touching a bone). The thermometer pairs with your phone through Bluetooth. Using the iGrill app on your smartphone, you can set a temperature or a timer to alert you when your meat is finished cooking. Pretty nifty, right?

Ingredients:

• 2 racks of lamb, rib bones frenched
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup plain 0% Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• the zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, finely crumbled

note: “Frenched rib bones” means that the meat has been cut away from the end of the rib so that part of the bone is exposed

Season the racks of lamb with salt and pepper. Add to a large plate or pan. Combine the garlic, Greek yogurt, olive oil, zest, and saffron in a small bowl and divide evenly between the racks, coating the racks on both sides with the marinade.

Wrap the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate the lamb overnight.

When ready to cook, prepare your grill for medium-high heat with a side that has indirect heat (on a gas grill, only turn on one burner. For a charcoal grill, keep the charcoal on one side of the grill). Remove the lamb from the marinade and wipe off excess marinade. Add the lamb to the grill and cook, turning until browned, about 8-10 minutes.

Move the lamb to indirect heat. Insert the probes into each rack of lamb, turn on the iGrill, pare with your smartphone, and use the app to set the temperature alert to 120 degrees for both pieces of lamb. (Unfortunately, the settings are in 10 degree increments. You actually want to cook your meat to 125-130 degrees so I set it for 120 so that I could be out there to remove it once it hit the actual temperature I wanted —  it would have been nice to program an exact temperature rather than use a predetermined setting, like “beef rare 120 degrees”).

Close the grill and let cook until the lamb reaches an internal temperature of 125 to 130 degrees for medium rare. (Because the thermometer uses Verizon’s 4G LTE network, I was able to walk away from the grill and use this time to set the table and clean up the kitchen, how nice!)

When the meat reaches between 125 and 130 degrees, remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes.

Cut the racks into individual chops, following the curve of the bones to cut into even chops and serve. This would be nice with wild rice or roasted potatoes.

The lamb was so moist and tender, cooked to perfection! The marinade added so much flavor; saffron is a favorite of mine and the lamb was nicely flavored with it. I think this would be really delicious with a touch of fresh lemon juice to really bring out the flavors!

It was really nice to be able to walk away and let the iGrill tell me when my food was done. The iGrill can be pared to a smartphone or tablet, and using the strength of VZW’s 4G LTE Network, it can alert the device up to 200 feet away!

This would be really helpful during a barbecue so that you wouldn’t have to babysit the grill and could instead interact with guests without burning the food. It would also be great for smoking meats that take a long period of time to cook. And you can now grill in the rain without getting too soaked!

The iGrill would also be really helpful with all things poultry. This product would make roasting a chicken in your oven a breeze!

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