Help with Whole Leg Boneless Lamb Shishliki

SaskNortherner

I want to do a Boneless leg of Lamb Shishliki style on Thursday. I am going to marinade it for four days with sliced onion, lemon slices, salt, pepper, olive oil and greek oregano. I want to do it at 225 F and end up with a pulled lamb that can then be served in fresh pitas with grilled vegetables and tzatziki sauce. My plan is to do the pitas while the lamb in resting on my large and do the vegetables on the Mini Max. The lamb I bought is almost six pounds and I plan on tying it once I am finished marinading it. Does anyone have an estimate at how many hours I am looking at and what internal temp I should be pulling this at? Also how long can I rest it after I take it off? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

SGH

Your question is compound and two fold. Hence let's try to decipher it down some. You say you want to cook at 225 degrees until you reach a internal that the lamb will "pull" at. I can certainly tell you at what temp the lamb will fall apart or "pull" at as well as give you a good time estimate as well. However all the shish that I have seen cooked or cooked myself is usually cut into raw cubes from the the meat and cooked until the desire internal temp, usually rare to medium rare at most. I know shish differs from region to region but this is the version that I'm use to. With that said, are you wanting to cook a whole leg until it will pull or fall apart? If that is the case I will give you the numbers but be warned, most folks do not like well done lamb and that is what you will have if you cook it until it will pull. 

Richard Fl

Be eggstremely CAREFUL marinating it for longer than 12-18 hours or overnight as the lemon tends to make a tough meat because like ceviche it cooks the meat.  I once had a rack of lamb that was in the marinade for 48 hours due to some unforseen changes and the meat was great, but tuffer than it should have been.

SaskNortherner

We do marinade pork ribs that way and put them in a zip lock for 4 days, lots of onion and sliced lemon. I want to try a whole boneless leg that way as well. I was just thinking if I could pull it it would be better in a pita. I am familiar with Shishliki as cubes or shank, we eat Terry's Shishliki from Canora all the time.

SGH

With all the above said, any cut from one of the front legs will pull clean at 195 degrees. Any cut from the hind leg will pull clean at 200 degrees  give or take a degree depending on how it's marbled. 

SaskNortherner

Thanks that is what I will shoot for.