Chef Thomas
Anglesey Eggs
Eggs bedded into leek-flecked mash under a blanket of sharp cheese sauce, baked until golden and bubbling. A Welsh supper dish that proves the simplest things are usually the best.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Lamb Chops with Mint Sauce
Created by Chef Thomas
Lamb loin chops, seared fast in a smoking pan until charred outside and blushing within, with a sharp mint sauce made properly from the garden and buttered new potatoes that need nothing else.
Main Dishes
British
Weeknight
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
15 min cook•30 min total
Yield2 servings
The first proper spring lamb arrives at the market sometime in April, and you know it when you see it. The chops are smaller than you expect, pale pink, with a clean white fat that hasn't had time to yellow. That's the one you want. The butcher will tell you the same thing if you ask, which you should.
Mint sauce is not a condiment. It's a counterpoint. The lamb is rich and sweet and wants something sharp alongside it, something that cuts through and wakes you up between bites. A handful of mint from the garden, chopped until the board turns green, a splash of vinegar, a pinch of sugar. It should sting slightly. If it's polite, you haven't made it right.
The new potatoes go on first. Small ones, the kind that don't need peeling, just a scrub and twenty minutes in salted water until a knife slides through without resistance. Drain them, toss them in butter while they're still hot, and leave them in the warm pot with the lid on. They'll look after themselves.
I cook this at least twice in spring, once when the mint is just coming up and once more when I've bought too many chops at the market because the lamb looked good and I couldn't help myself. I wrote it down in the notebook: lamb, mint, new potatoes, Tuesday. Some meals don't need more description than that.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
lamb loin chops
Quantity
4-6, depending on size and appetite
olive oil
Quantity
a good glug
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
rosemary
Quantity
1 sprig
garlic
Quantity
1 clove
halved
unsalted butter
Quantity
a knob
for finishing the chops
fresh mint leaves
Quantity
large handful, about 20g
finely chopped
caster sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
boiling water
Quantity
2 tablespoons
white wine vinegar
Quantity
2-3 tablespoons
small new potatoes
Quantity
400g
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
for the potatoes
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| lamb loin chops | 4-6, depending on size and appetite |
| olive oil | a good glug |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| rosemary | 1 sprig |
| garlichalved | 1 clove |
| unsalted butterfor finishing the chops | a knob |
| fresh mint leavesfinely chopped | large handful, about 20g |
| caster sugar | 1 tablespoon |
| boiling water | 2 tablespoons |
| white wine vinegar | 2-3 tablespoons |
| small new potatoes | 400g |
| unsalted butterfor the potatoes | 30g |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy cast iron or carbon steel frying pan
- •Tongs for turning the chops
- •Medium saucepan for the potatoes
Instructions
- 1
Make the mint sauce
Strip the mint leaves from their stalks and pile them on a board with a pinch of salt and the sugar. Chop finely, then keep chopping until the leaves break down and the board is stained green and wet. Scrape it all into a small bowl or jug. Pour over the boiling water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the vinegar, starting with two tablespoons and tasting before you add the third. It should be sharp and bright, not sweet. The mint will soften as it sits. Make this first and leave it alone.
The salt on the board helps break the mint down as you chop. It draws out the oils and turns the leaves into something closer to a paste. Don't skip it. - 2
Cook the potatoes
Scrub the new potatoes but don't peel them. The skin is half the point. Put them in a pan of well-salted cold water, bring to a boil, then simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes until a knife slips through the centre without catching. Drain well, return to the warm pan, add the butter and a pinch of salt, and put the lid on. Give them a gentle shake so the butter coats everything. They'll sit happily while you deal with the lamb.
- 3
Prepare the chops
Take the chops out of the fridge twenty minutes before you cook them. Cold meat in a hot pan doesn't sear, it steams. Rub them with a little olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper on both sides. Press the seasoning in with your fingers. You want to feel the salt under your thumb.
- 4
Sear the lamb
Get a heavy pan properly hot over a high heat. Not warm. Hot. When you hold your hand above the pan and pull it away quickly, that's right. Lay the chops in, pressing them flat against the metal, and leave them alone. Two to three minutes on the first side. You'll hear a hard, confident sizzle that doesn't fade. When the edges have gone brown and the fat has started to render and crisp, turn them. Another two minutes for pink. Three if you want them more cooked through, but I'd ask you not to.
If you have a thick fat edge on the chops, hold them upright with tongs and press that fat against the pan for thirty seconds. Rendered, crisp lamb fat is one of the finest things in cooking. - 5
Finish with butter and aromatics
In the last minute, add the knob of butter, the rosemary sprig, and the halved garlic clove to the pan. When the butter foams and starts to smell of herbs, tilt the pan and baste the chops with the hot butter using a spoon. Three or four spoonfuls over each chop. The kitchen will smell like the kind of evening you want to stay in for.
- 6
Rest and serve
Move the chops to a warm plate and let them rest for five minutes. Not optional. A rested chop is juicy and relaxed. A chop cut straight from the pan bleeds out onto the plate and tightens up. While they rest, spoon the buttered potatoes alongside. Pour any resting juices back over the lamb. Serve the mint sauce in a small jug or bowl at the table. Let people help themselves. There are few better feelings than putting this plate in front of someone on a spring evening.
Chef Tips
- •Spring lamb is worth waiting for. The meat is paler, sweeter, and more tender than what you'll find the rest of the year. If you can get it from a butcher who knows the farm, so much the better. Ask for loin chops, cut about two centimetres thick. Thin chops overcook before they brown.
- •Mint sauce improves if you make it twenty minutes before you need it. The vinegar softens the raw edge of the mint and everything settles into itself. But don't make it hours ahead or it goes dull and brown. You want it green and sharp.
- •A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. If you prefer your lamb with redcurrant jelly instead of mint sauce, that's your kitchen and your rules. But try the mint sauce once, made properly, from fresh leaves. It's a different thing entirely from the bottled sort.
- •The potatoes don't need anything beyond butter and salt. If you've got some fresh mint left over, you could tear a few leaves through them, but honestly, plain is perfect. Let the mint sauce do its job on the plate.
Advance Preparation
- •The mint sauce can be made up to twenty minutes ahead and left at room temperature. Any longer and it loses its colour and sharpness.
- •The potatoes can be boiled an hour ahead and kept warm in their pan with the lid on. Add the butter just before serving.
- •Bring the lamb to room temperature for twenty minutes before cooking. This makes the difference between a sear and a steam.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 400g)
Calories
825 calories
Total Fat
51 g
Saturated Fat
22 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
28 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
970 mg
Total Carbohydrates
41 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
44 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Weeknight Suppers & Simple Fish
Browse the full collection
Chef Thomas
Bacon Carbonara
A cold evening carbonara made with good smoked back bacon, eggs, Parmesan, and more black pepper than seems reasonable, tossed together in the time it takes to boil the pasta.
Chef Thomas
Bacon Chops with Mustard Glaze
Thick bacon chops, bronzed in butter and slicked with a mustard and honey glaze that catches and caramelises under a hot grill. Twenty minutes, two plates, a very good Tuesday.
Chef Thomas
Cheesy Pasta Bake with Vegetables
Pasta shells folded through a leek-flecked cheese sauce with broccoli, baked until the top blisters gold and the whole kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to sit down to.