Smoked Leg of Lamb

Take your normal cooked lamb to the next level by coating with breathtakingly tasty seasonings and fire up your smoker for this delicious smoked leg of lamb recipe.

The flavors of the garlic and rosemary combined with the fruit wood smoke creates the perfect and ONLY way you should be making lamb.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Buying Leg of Lamb
• Video - How to Smoke Leg of Lamb
• Prepping the Lamb
• Seasoning the Lamb Roast
• Fire up the smoker
• Cooking the roast
• Carving & Serving
• Old Pro Tips
• Side Dishes
• Try Smoking These Dishes Next
• Smoked Leg of Lamb

Ingredients

• Leg of lamb (boneless or bone in)
• Dijon mustard
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Minced garlic
• Rosemary (finely chopped)

Buying Leg of Lamb

Lamb is eaten all over the world and is the main source of red meat in many countries. The United States eats less lamb than many others, but it can still be easily found in your local butcher or grocery store.

I purchased this boneless lamb leg roast from Wild Fork Foods, an online meat market. I could have gotten it at my local store, but was ordering some other meats and added it on.

Boneless or Bone in

I purchased a boneless leg of lamb over a bone in lamb roast due to the ease of slicing once finished smoking and less intense lamb flavor. This smoked leg of lamb recipe will work great with whatever way you decide to purchase your lamb.

The lamb flavor of the bone in roast will be more intense than the boneless. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. Normal Americans are not used to the "gamey" flavor of lamb, so the boneless is probably the better way to go.

Video - How to Smoke Leg of Lamb

Prepping the Lamb

This lamb recipe is easy to make and does not require a lot of time. The ingredients probably can be found in your fridge and pantry as they are very common. Let's dive into getting it prepped for smoking.

Remove netting

If ordering a boneless leg of lamb, it will more than likely come in a netting that keeps it together. Since the bone has been removed, the roast will want to "unfold" requiring a net to keep it together.

Remove that net, we are NOT going to smoke the lamb with that on. If you leave it on during cooking, the crust we work hard for when cooking will peel off when removing the netting.

We don't want this, so remove it. If using a bone in roast, there will be no netting and you can disregard this part.

Rinse

Rinse the roast under cold fresh water and completely dry with paper towels before moving on to the seasoning stage of the recipe.

Make sure to use cold water, NOT hot. If the roast is frozen, you can defrost in the refrigerator or fill your sink with cold water and submerge until defrosted.

Trim fat (DON'T)

I do not recommend trimming any of the fat cap on the leg of lamb. We want this fat to run down the meat giving it flavor. No need to trim the fat unless you are trying to really count calories.

For my carnivore diet, I love the fat! Leave it on...

Seasoning the Lamb Roast

These seasonings are simple yet packed full of flavor. Lamb has a great taste and it would be a shame to cover it up with too intense or bold flavor.

Binder

Coat the roast in a binder, dijon mustard in this case. This will help the seasoning adhere to the meat better. The dijon mustard will also give it a nice flavor and crust.

Season the lamb

Season the lamb generously with the salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary. Make sure to get ALL of the leg of lamb, every surface of meat you see. Unfolding the roast and getting the part where the bone was removed is also a great way to impart flavor inside the roast.

Once seasoned, set aside and get the smoker ready.

Fire up the smoker

Using a fruit wood such as applewood pellets / wood is a great choice when smoking leg of lamb. Don't pick a wood that is too intense such as mesquite wood.

Pre-heat the smoker to 225°F and clean the cooking grates with a brush.

Cooking the roast

Smoking lamb is the BEST cooking method when it comes to cooking lamb. Let's get this thing going low and slow for best results.

Low and slow

Place the leg of lamb directly on the grill grates fat side up and smoke until an internal temperature of 125°F - 130°F.

A 5lb roast should take around 3.5 to 4 hours to smoke until 135°F internal temperature. Check the temperature using an instant read thermometer for the most accurate readings.

Cooking the roast low and slow will impart a great smoke flavor on the meat, it will NOT however give you that great crust we want.

Turn up the heat

I like using a grill on high heat to sear the outside once the leg of lamb has finished smoking. I'm using my Weber Genesis Grill (affiliate link) to sear this leg of lamb.

Simply remove the lamb from the smoker and place directly on a really hot grill for 1-2 minutes a side to sear the outside. If you finished smoking at an internal temp of 135°F, the searing will bring the IT to 140° for a perfect medium finish.

Once seared, remove from the grill to a cutting board and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Carving & Serving

The leg of lamb looks incredible after searing and the flavor you are going to get from the slow smoking with fruit wood completes this smoked leg of lamb recipe.

After resting, carve the lamb by slicing ½" to 1" pieces across the roast. This should result in roundish short pieces of lamb. Do not slice into long pieces by carving parallel to the length of the roast.

Place on a platter and serve with some great side dishes to complete your perfect meal.

Old Pro Tips

• Use a meat thermometer to cook the roast to desired internal temperature and NOT to a certain cook time.
• Sear over an open flame or in the oven broiler to get that crispy outside.
• Do not trim the fat, it gives the roast a lot of flavor.
• Use a binder such as yellow mustard so to not influence the flavor of the roast.

Side Dishes

• Roasted carrots - Pressure Luck Cooking
• Crispy Roasted Potatoes - Food by Maria
• Bacon Wrapped Asparagus - Jerkyholic
• Oven Roasted Butternut Squash - Running in a Skirt

Try Smoking These Dishes Next