This slow-roasted lamb shanks recipe is such a great and easy way to enjoy lamb. This lamb recipe has only a few ingredients, but thanks to the long, slow cooking, the results are incredibly flavorful, succulent, fork-tender meat.
Makes 4 Slow-Roasted Rosemary Garlic Lamb Shanks
Ingredients:
4 lamb shanks
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled, but the skin pierced with the tip of a knife
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup chicken broth
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place the shanks in a roasting pan, just large enough to fit them in one layer, and rub with the olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes to get a nice brown color. Remove the lamb, and turn the oven down to 325 degrees F.
Spoon out any excess fat, and scatter the garlic cloves and rosemary over and around the lamb. Wrap the pan very tightly with several layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil (you want as tight a seal as possible), and return to the oven.
Roast for 2 more hours. Remove the foil, pour in the chicken broth, and turn the heat up to 400 degrees F. Roast for 15 minutes, and remove. Transfer the lamb shanks to a serving platter, and spoon over the juices, garlic cloves, and rosemary.
Note: the soft garlic can be squeezed out of the skins and spread on the lamb.
Lamb shank would be very tough and dry if cooked in a fry pan. If you like rosemary and garlic, these two spices would be fine.
Use a dutch oven, covered pan or oven dish with a cover, rub the shank in a bit of olive oil,salt and pepper, put into pan with your spices ( I like cumin, coriander,nutmeg, cinnamon and thyme in lamb) and some red wine(about 1/2 cup) or stock or water.
If it is a large shank and you like garlic, you can push a long thin knife into it along the bone and then push some cloves of garlic in with a chopstick
Cook in oven at about 300 or 325 for about 2 or 3 hours depending on how big it is. It is better to cook shank a long time at a low temperature. Cooking at 275 for longer would be even better.
It should pretty much fall off the bone when it's done.
1/2 teaspoon of rosemary
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of pure olive oil
1/3 teaspoon of Italian seasonings
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
1/16 teaspoon of crush red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon of seasoning salt
Mix all these ingredients into a bowl until the butter gets soft then stir together. Add a small amount to each lamb shank cover pan with foil paper and bake at 325 degrees until golden brown (I can't tell you how long because I don't know how thick your shanks are) about one hour or until no pink is in the middle no more than two hours. Let me know if you love this recipe. Serve with roasted potatoes and steamed whole string beans. Cherry pie for desert
like a stew with the rich flavor of a "caramelized" sauce. Since I am one singular person, the 1 lb shank is perfect for me, alone. That is the portion I use. The shanks will shrink in cooking. Each person should have one of their own. Keep the meat on the bone !
In a 2 qt. pot with a lid,(perfect for one shank for one person) I boil three liquids together. All three of the following should be used in proportions to make a sum of 1/3 pot of liquid. When boiling, add your lamb shank(s). The idea here is to use a flame that allows a less than full boil for 1 hour. These are the two ingredients I use, plus whatever water is needed to round out the 1/3 pot of liquid :
1. (1) Full can of Swansons Beef Broth. Use the one WITH Salt and I prefer the regular (not the low-fat one) if you can find it on the shelf. (In a larger pot for more shanks for more people, get 2 or 3 cans of this.)
2. (1/2) can of Campbell's Condensed Beef Broth. Enlarge the amount of this also, for more than 1 person and 1 shank.
The idea here is to regulate your flame (this takes experimenting on your own stove) so that at the one-hour mark, the liquid will be evaporated down to a very low level. It should be thicker at this point. A thickened sauce. To make this occur you may need to get the boil boiling faster. To stop it from becoming too low a level in the pot, too early, you may need to lower the flame a bit. Practice makes perfect!
For the final 1/2 hour of cooking time, pour in the other 1/2 of Campbell's Condensed Beef Broth. Perhaps you will need another dash or two of water. At this point, however, the liquid should be thickened and low in the pot. For the last 20 minutes of cooking time, place your peeled and sliced Russet Potatoes into the pot. Make certain the broth is covering them. Place them around the meat. The lamb shank will "shrink" in size. This is normal. You want the meat very tender and boiled for a total of
1 1/2 hours. If the shanks are small and less than 1 lb apiece, you may shorten the total cooking time by 10 minutes or 15. You need to look at them cooking, regularly.
As with all stews you can add all the other elements you like - like mushrooms, green beans, etc. This is the time to add what you want in the Stew. The potatoes must be cooked in the sauce.
At the end of the cooking period, you should have a stew with a rich, thick, almost caramelized sauce over it. It will taste like French cooking. Gads!. . .is it good!
Whatever luck you have with it the first time, it will still be good. You want to learn to use the right amount of broth and water cooking at the right level of flame to make the liquid go down to a thick caramelized-type sauce at the end of 1 1/2 hours cooking
Roast Lamb Shanks.*
(by Dune 7/10/08)
Colour 4 Lamb Shanks in some oil in a frying pan and transfer to an oven dish. (one at a time)
Drain pan and de- glaze using a little water and get all those pieces that remain and add some stock or stock cubes.
Pour stock over shanks and cover, place in a hot oven. (preheated to maximum)
When the oven regains temperature, cut back the heat to 165C. (320F)
Cook for about an hour, turning the shanks a couple of times.
Serve with mashed potatoes, steamed minted green peas and shredded cabbage.
Use bottled mint sauce or make your own, or pan gravy to finish off an easy cook meal.