Community Pick
Incredible Slow Roasted Shoulder of Lamb
"This is an amazing recipe, very slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver's "Jamie at Home" recipe book and television series. Don't be fooled by the simple ingredients - the flavour in this is amazing! What's more, the shoulder is one of the cheaper cuts of lamb and this recipe will serve 6 generously. I love that you can plonk it in the oven early in the morning, and forget about it for four hours. It emerges moist and so tender it just falls off the bone. No need to slice it, just pull it apart with two forks. I served it with Paris Mash (finely mashed potatoes with lashings of butter, cream and milk), and finely sliced white and red cabbage, English spinach and rocket (arugula) lightly boiled in salted water (I used the potato water) then drained and tossed with a knob of butter. Unbelievably good! You could serve this to anyone!"
- Ready In:
- 4hrs 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
-
Lamb
- 1 (2 kg) lamb shoulder, bone in (ask the butcher to score lightly between the bones for you)
- 1 bunch fresh rosemary (a large bunch, or two small bunches)
- 1 bulb of garlic, unpeeled (use 2 bulbs if you love garlic)
- olive oil
- sea salt, crushed
- black pepper, freshly ground
-
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 500 ml chicken stock (from a can or carton is fine)
- 2 tablespoons capers, soaked, drained and chopped (optional, I hate capers, so I leave them out)
- 1 bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked off and very finely chopped (a large bunch, or 2 small bunches)
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
directions
- First, preheat your oven up as hot as it will go.
- Now, using a sharp knife, slash through the fat layer of the lamb at about 1" (2.5cm) intervals, then do it in the opposite direction to form a diamond pattern.
- Pour a little olive oil into the base of a high-sided (2-3" deep) roasting tin and then add half of the rosemary sprigs - Jamie is quite generous with the amount of rosemary, so don't be shy about it - I guess I used about 12 x 5" sprigs on the bottom, and another 10-12 on top).
- Scatter over half of the unpeeled garlic cloves (a full bulb if you're a garlic freak, half a bulb if you're a little more timid).
- Now place the lamb on top, pour over enough oil to coat the lamb and rub it in with your hands.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper and rub into the lamb.
- Scatter the rest of the rosemary and garlic cloves on top of the lamb.
- Cover the roasting tin tightly with aluminium foil (you may need several layers to make sure it's tightly covered), then place on the centre rack of the pre-heated oven.
- Immediately turn the heat down to 170°C (325°F) or slightly lower if your oven is fan forced - I cooked mine at 160°C in my fan forced oven.
- Cook for four hours.
- When the lamb is cooked, remove from the oven, remove the foil, and you will find the large bone simply pulls away clean.
- Now, use two forks to separate the meat from the smaller bones, and pile the meat onto a plate - being careful to remove any small bones.
- Cover meat and keep warm while you prepare the sauce.
- Remove and discard any sprigs of rosemary in the baking tin - (don't worry about the little leaves that have fallen off the sprigs).
- Remove the roasted garlic cloves to a plate and let them cool a little.
- Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of oil, but try to ensure that you leave the cooking liquor in the pan - this is achieved easily with a separating jug OR you can pour the whole lot into a tall glass and allow the oil to rise to the top, pour off the excess oil, and pour the rest back into the pan.
- Now, pop the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins, add to the roasting pan and smash up with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Place the roasting pan on the stove (I place it over two hobs) over a medium heat.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, then stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, gradually add the chicken stock.
- Boil, stirring, for about 5 minutes (this doesn't make a thick gravy, so don't be concerned if it doesn't thicken much).
- Now add the finely chopped mint and the red wine vinegar and the capers if using.
- Boil briefly and then pour into a jug remember this is more of a sauce than a gravy, so it won't be thick.
- Serve the lamb, giving each person about 3-4 tablespoons of the sauce poured over the top of the meat.
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Reviews
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I love the cooking method, moist and tasty. However I prefer lamb with a bolder sauce. I add 2 or 3 onions, halved with the garilc to the pan. After draining fat deglaze pan with 125ml of port and reduce. add 700ml of mix chicken veal stock and reduce 1/2, strain and add vinegar (dash) and mint, knob of butter to finish. It also goes superbly served atop Provence veg (sauted egg plant, courgettes, bay onions plum tomatoes olives and capers) and sauted spuds or rosti -
I didn't make the sauce, but I followed the cooking method of the lamb to a tee. I am absolutely mind blown. I have never eaten or cooked a lamb roast that has melted in my mouth or fallen completely off the bone like this one did. And there is nothing to it. No pulling it out checking with a skewer if it's cooked, no carving it up at the end making a right mess leaving half the meat still stuck to the bone.. I left it for 4 hours on 160 in my fan forced oven, and when I pulled the foil off the tin, the bone bad basically fallen out of the lamb on its own. Every last bit of meat just fell of every bone in it. I also never leave reviews for anything I cook, but this one deserved it.
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Fabulous recipe. My family raved over it. I added the juice of 2 lemons to the dish just before placing it in the oven. Can't wait to cook it again -
Love this recipe. Have made it quite a few times now and have also made it in a roasting pan on the bbq. Best to use capers in salt rather than brined capers as I find they give a better taste. -
Lamb turned out moist and tender, but the sauce was pretty bland so I have to give it 3 stars for that. Used a 3kg lamb shoulder, so I had to increase the time to 5 hours and also turned up to 400 F without the foil to brown it a bit. I would make the lamb again, but definitely will look elsewhere for the sauce recipe.
see 17 more reviews
Tweaks
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Added 2 glasses of red wine and a sliced onion to meat pan and cooked at 145 fan oven 6 hrs! Absolutely gorgeous! Great recipe.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Above: Slideshow of our garden at Avalon Slideshow of our recent holiday at Woodgate Beach, South-East Queensland, Australia. Hi! I'm Kookaburra, from Australia. First, a promise. I will only post recipes on this site which I've made myself and to which I would personally give a 5 star rating - what you give them is up to you ;-) I look forward to receiving your feedback. If you look at my reviews, they're all 5 stars. That doesn't mean I give 5 stars to every recipe I try. I'm just not interested in giving poor ratings to anyone else's recipe because I accept that different people have different tastes. So, I've decided that I'll only review those recipes which I really love and which I'd make again and recommend to friends. If a recipe meets that criteria - even if it needs a bit of 'tweaking' to match my tastes, I'll give it 5 stars. If not, I'll just delete it from my recipe book and no hard feelings. I'm not advocating this as the 'right' approach. I just decided I needed a consistent strategy for rating and this is mine. I'm passionate about cooking - and eating! What I look for in food is something that 'zings' in the mouth. I like lots of taste - I'm not a big fan of subtlety. I don't often cook recipes exactly as written. I like to experiment and adapt things to my own taste. A retired marketing executive and academic, I live with my elderly (but thoroughly modern) mother in a tiny mountain village at the edge of the rainforest. I'm female, happily single, in my mid-40s and boast the Rubenesque figure of a passionate cook! Avalon, our 'story-book' cottage, overlooks a small lake. As I sit at my computer or work in the kitchen, I'm serenaded by a cacophany of native birds - including a very fat family of kookaburras! We have quite a large property and are lucky to have vegetable gardens and a variety of fruit and nut trees. I look forward to sharing recipes on Recipezaar with family, friends and friends I've yet to meet. last minute flight</p>
