Name: Pot Roasted Lamb Shanks
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 300 min
Total time: 330 min
Ingredients: 4 lamb shanks; 1 onion, finely chopped; 4 carrots, roughly sliced; 2 stick of celery, roughly sliced; 1 cup flour; ½ cup butter (Metric, 150 grams); 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 bay leaf; 2 tbsp tomato puree; 14 oz tinned plum tomatoes (Metric, 400 grams); 4 cups chicken stock (Metric, 900 ml); 1 ½ cups red wine (Metric, 375 ml); 2 cloves of garlic, sliced; 1 sprig of thyme; Seasoning

Table of Contents

This pot roasted lamb shank recipe is one of my all time favourites. I love lamb anyway, but slow roasted over 5 hours in red wine. Wow, what more can you ask for. This is one slow cook that is well worth the wait.

Pot roasted lamb shanks

Just look at that! Mouthwatering right? It was actually quite funny because I cooked 4 of these beauties and only one stayed together. The other 3 were so tender they fell off the bone in the pot. If it had happened to this last one then there would be no photos and no post! Unless I’d made some more…😃

There is another reason why this is such a great recipe, apart from the fantastic taste. That is, with pot roasted lamb shanks you can prepare them and then put in the oven and just leave them. They will be ready at dinner time and, in truth, even if you are a little late they will be fine.

So let’s make them…

1. Get all of the ingredients together

Although this is a “put in the pot and leave” recipe there are still a number of ingredients. The measurements are in the printable recipe below, and, of course, just scale up or down if cooking more or less than 4.

There is a little preparation though. You do need to roughly chop the carrots and celery and finely chop the onion and garlic. Apart from that, for pot roasted lamb shanks, it’s just a bit of stove cooking and bang them in the oven.

Get the ingredients together

2. Brown of the lamb shanks

To start the cooking you need to brown off the lamb shanks. Using a large casserole pot heat the olive oil over medium heat and simply add the shanks. Do this in batches if you need to.

Brown in batches if needed

Add some seasoning and keep turning the lamb shanks until they are browned all over.

Brown off the lamb shanks

Once browned remove from the pot and set aside for now.

3. Prepare the vegetables

Using the same pot (do not clean), add a little more oil and the butter and sweat off the onions and garlic over low-medium heat. Try not to burn them.

Sweat off the onions and garlic

Now, add the celery and carrots and cook through. Keep the heat low-medium and use the pot lid to keep some of the moisture in. Again, you don’t want to burn the onion and garlic or else you may create a bitter taste.

Add the celery and carrots

Now, add the bay leaf and thyme along with the tomato puree. Mix the puree in so that it covers all of the vegetables.

Add the tomato puree

Stir well and cook through for around a minute and then add the flour.

Add the flour

Coat all of the vegetables in the flour.

Stir in the flour

Your dry ingredients are now ready to add the wet ingredients.

4. Add the wet ingredients

The first thing to do is to add the red wine. Pour this into the pot and stir well into the flour. Cook through for 3-4 minutes. You will have what looks like a gooey red paste. Not very attractive at all but don’t worry, the wine will enhance the lamb’s flavor wonderfully.

Add the red wine

Now, add the lamb shanks back into the pot. Make sure you also pour back any juices that have come from the lamb while it rested.

Return the lamb shanks

Finally, and simply, add the tinned plum tomatoes and the chicken stock and mix everything together.

Add the plum tomatoes and chicken stock

Bring this to a simmer and then replace the lid and put in a pre-heated oven at 140C / 120C Fan. Leave for 5 hours checking occasionally just to make sure there is still enough liquid in the pot. If it does start to reduce too much just add some more chicken stock.

5. Finish off the pot roasted lamb shank

After the lamb shanks have been in the oven for 5 hours or more remove them and place them on the stove. They should look something like this.

Pot roasted lamb shanks

The final thing to do is to check the sauce seasoning and consistency. Season to taste by adding sea salt and ground black pepper. Although the consistency should be fine with the recipe below if you do find the gravy a little thin just heat the pot on the stove and add a little cornflour and water mix until the consistency is what you desire.

Finally, leave the lamb shank to rest for 15 minutes.

6. Serve and enjoy

With the lamb shanks rested simply serve with some of the vegetables. I put the lamb on a bed of potato puree, but that was only because we had some other courses with the meal. If just having this as a midweek hearty winter dinner then why not serve with buttered crusty bread. I know, a little unhealthy but when you dip that bread in that gravy…Wow!!

Pot roasted lamb shanks

Ok, my fine food followers. Pot roasted lamb shank. This was such a great meal. I do hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I did eating it! A mouthwatering lamb luxury. If you can get these bad boys from your local butcher I urge you to give them a go. There are really worth it!!

Pot roasted lamb shanks

If you’d like to be kept up to date with all of my new recipes just sign up to my weekly newsletter at the top of the page. Don’t worry, there’s no spam and I only send useful information 😉.

As always, many thanks for reading and until next time… Steve.

7. Nutritional values

8. Printable recipe

Pot Roasted Lamb Shanks

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

5 hrs

Resting time

15 mins

Total Time

5 hrs 30 mins

Pot roasted lamb shanks. Need I say more...? Surely the best cut of lamb there is. Slow roast in red wine and seasonal vegetables. Pure culinary bliss. Yum! | theyumyumclub.com

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: English, French

Keyword: casserole, lamb shank, pot roast, red wine

Ingredients

4 lamb shanks
1 onion, finely chopped
4 carrots, roughly sliced
2 stick of celery, roughly sliced
1 cup flour
½ cup butter Metric, 150 grams
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato puree
14 oz tinned plum tomatoes Metric, 400 grams
4 cups chicken stock Metric, 900 ml
1 ½ cups red wine Metric, 375 ml
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 sprig of thyme
Seasoning

Instructions

First, get all of the ingredients together.
Add the oil to a large casserole pot and add the lamb shanks.
Brown the shanks off. Do this in batches if need be.
Once browned, remove the shanks from the pot and, using the same pot, add the butter and sweat off the onions and garlic.
Once the onions have softened add the celery, carrots thyme and bay leaf and cook through for around 5 minutes. Be careful not to burn the onions.
Next, add the tomato puree to the pot and cover the vegetables with it and cook through.
Now, add the flour and stir well into the pot.
The flour should cover all of the ingredients.
Now, add the wine and mix this into the flour to a paste.
Add back the lamb shanks.
Now, add the plum tomatoes and chicken stock and stir all ingredients together. Bring this to a simmer and then put the lid on the pot and place in pre-heated oven and 140C / 120C Fan.
Pot roast the lamb shanks for 5 hours checking occasionally to ensure there is still adequate liquid. Add more stock if required.
After 5 hours remove from the oven and check for seasoning and consistency. If the sauce is a little thin then heat the pot on the stove and use cornflour and water to thicken. Once happy with the seasoning and consistency leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Serve on a bed of creamed potato, or just serve as is with some buttered crusty bread. Yum!