Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder

For meat that is cooked to perfection and melts in the mouth, you must try my Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder. For great flavour, we use garlic and fresh oregano to season the lamb, and we cook it with wedges of onion and fennel, slices of lemon and chicken stock. The result is succulent meat that falls off the bone. No carving skills are required for this dish!

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 5

Resting Time 30

Total Time 6

Servings people

Calories 582kcal

Author Alexandra Cook - It's Not Complicated Recipes

Ingredients

2 kg (4.4 lb) lamb shoulder - bone in See Note 1
3 large garlic cloves - cut lengthways into slivers
2 stalks fresh oregano – larger leaves are best here. More if necessary See Note 2
2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil See Note 3
2 medium brown/yellow onions - cut into thick wedges
2 medium fennel bulbs - trim tops and remove outer layers if necessary, then cut into thick wedges
2 large lemons - cut into 1 cm (½" slices)
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup (250 ml) chicken stock - more if necessary during cooking process See Note 4

Instructions

Remove the lamb shoulder from the fridge.
Using a sharp knife, make a deep insert into the skin/fat side of the flesh and insert a large oregano leaf (or several if small) into the flesh along with a garlic sliver. Use the tip of a blunt knife to push them down.
Repeat this procedure, leaving a space of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) between.
Rub the salt and black pepper into the top of the shoulder and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Then, gently pat dry with a paper towel.
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C. (320 F)
In a large, heavy-based Dutch Oven or oven-safe saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, on your stove top, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat.
Add the lamb, skin/fat side down, and brown for 3–5 minutes. Turn over and brown the other side for 3–5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add the onion, fennel wedges and lemon slices around the lamb.
Sprinkle the lamb with the dried oregano and pour the chicken stock around the side of the meat.
Put the lid on the saucepan and place in the preheated oven.
After about 2 ½ hours, carefully remove from the oven and check that there is sufficient liquid - there should be plenty. If there isn't, add a little more stock.
Baste the lamb with the juices and return to the oven with the lid on for another 2 ½ hours.
Carefully remove the lamb from the saucepan onto to a warm serving platter, cover with foil and rest for 20 minutes. (It will be very, very fragile - so ensure it is supported as you lift it out.)
Remove the bone- it will be easy to pull straight out.
Optional: skim some of the fat from the pan and serve the pan juices over the lamb.

Video

Notes

Lamb: most of us love a roast dinner, but many are more familiar with roast leg of lamb than shoulder. However, the shoulder is a great alternative. It has more fat than the leg, making it ideal to roast slowly, allowing the fat to melt and keep the meat juicy and flavoursome. The shoulder is a part of the lamb that gets a lot of exercise, and therefore has a great deal of connective tissue which slowly breaks down during cooking. You can’t cook it quickly like you can a leg - it must be cooked slowly at a lower temperature and then becomes so tender that you do not need a knife to carve it, it easily pulls apart with a fork. For the best flavour, we prefer the shoulder with the bone in. After cooking, you don’t need to cut around it, it is easily pulled out.
Oregano: you could also use fresh rosemary if you prefer.
Tablespoon: we use a standard Australian tablespoon which is 20 ml (4 teaspoons).
Stock: it is unlikely you will need to add more liquid, but if you find at the 2 ½ hour mark that it needs more, add a little additional stock to the pan. We recommend using either chicken or vegetable stock.
Seasoning: adjust the seasoning to your liking – we recommend sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for this recipe.
Storage: cool leftovers as quickly as possible and store them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Reheating: gently reheat the lamb using some of the leftover pan juices in the microwave, oven or frying pan. Alternatively, add a small amount of chicken stock or water to keep the flesh moist. It should be heated to register 75 degrees C/165F throughout.
Freezing: once cool, place in a freezer-safe container for up to 2 months.
Servings: will serve 4-6 people, depending on what it is served with.

Nutrition