Pan Roasted Lamb Chops in Less Than 15 Minutes

Pan Roasted: Seared on the stove top then finished off in the oven. Gives food a tasty golden outside and a juicy inside. You can pan roast anything - chops, steaks, fish, chicken. Heck, I pan roasted a turkey breast on Thanksgiving once. Yummy.

Okay, so remember the lamb chops I bought on sale on Wednesday? They were yesterday's lunch. If you're not a super chef, don't get intimidated by lamb chops or any chop for that matter, I'm a regular person just like you. I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen creating culinary masterpieces.

I want to eat.

So here's a step by step on how to make Pan Roasted Lamb Chops and Spinach Sauteed with Garlic in less than 15 minutes:

Pre-step: 10 minutes ahead of time, chop one clove of garlic and let it sit. Crushing or chopping garlic and letting it sit 10-15 minutes ahead of cooking it activates its cancer fighting components.

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Coat your chops with olive oil. Then sprinkle with salt (preferably kosher or sea salt) and pepper.

3. On the stove top, heat a non-stick pan with a metal handle over medium high heat. NOTE: This is going in the oven, so you must use a metal handled pan.

4. Sprinkle some kosher salt on the bottom of the pan. (Prevents any sticking.)

5. When it's hot, place the chops in the pan and let them sear on one side. It should look like this:

6. Next, pour olive oil into another pan (with any kind of handle since it's not going in the oven) and heat the garlic in it.

7. Once the garlic is soft (make sure it doesn't brown - it doesn't taste good) add your spinach to the pan. Sprinkle it with salt, pepper and cover it.

8. After two or three minutes, when your lamb chops are nicely browned on the bottom, flip them and turn off the stove. Then sprinkle some fresh rosemary on top, like this:


9. Then pop the chops in the oven for three minutes. Unless you have double cut chops, these are single cut (meaning just one bone). If yours are double cut (two bones), roast them for about six or seven minutes for medium rare.

10. Check on your spinach. It should look like this:

If your spinach is wilted, like in the picture, turn off the heat.

11. Use an oven mitt to remove your chops from the oven. To test for doneness, poke your chop. If it feels mushy, it's not ready. If it feels firm, yet gives a little bit, it's done.

Plate them immediately. If you let them sit in the pan they will continue to cook. Let them rest on a plate, loosely tented with tin foil, for five minutes.

NOTE: If you cut into meat immediately, all the juices will run everywhere. Let juices redistribute after cooking any cut of meat.

12. Enjoy!

See how easy that is?

I'm excited to explain away your kitchen fears. I've already got requests for fish and chicken info. I'll cover them over the next few days. What else do you want to know?

Suzie