Herb Crusted Roast Leg of Lamb

Herb Crusted Roast Leg of Lamb – Simple and Easy

This Herb crusted roast leg of lamb is marinated with amazing flavors of rosemary, thyme, oregano, garlic and lemon cooked on a bed vegetables making it a complete meal on it’s own. Serve it with my cilantro mint sauce for that added zing. This makes a perfect meal for any celebration be it Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving.

Lamb is by far the most loved meat in our family!! We love lamb and I mean we really LOVE lamb. Of course, it’s an expensive piece of meat so obviously we save it for special occasions and festive times.

My mom’s favorite recipe

I’m born Indian so my mom made Roast leg of lamb mostly with Indian spices. One of my favorite of her recipes is the one with a combination of cilantro, ginger, garlic and spices paste. She’d rub it all over, place it in the fridge over night, then into the oven slow cooked over a couple of hours and dinner is ready. Some day I’ll make that and share it with you.

This is our family favorite here now especially with the kids.

Can you see the dark roasted rosemary, thyme and garlic. I made this roast leg of lamb on Passover recently. It’s a very simple and easy recipe.

Leg of lamb is very tender and can absorb lots of flavor instantly so if you don’t have time to marinate this is still very flavorful. Often you will get me marinate it for a few hours or even over night, one less thing to do on the day. you know.

Buying Lamb

Leg of lamb is the upper part of the leg without the shank bone. The butcher will usually ask if you want it bone-in or no bone. I usually prefer bone-in but the boneless can give you beautiful slices that look pretty on the dinner table. Something to consider if you want bonelss slices for sandwiches.  If you do choose boneless please note you can use the same recipe but the cooking time will be much different. So watch that thermometer.

 

Cooking with a thermometer.

I personally prefer to use a meat thermometric so I don’t have to calculate and watch the clock ever so often. But you can certainly do without it. In fact if you are new to cooking or roasting meat a thermometer can take a lot of guess work out. The most important point to note is to make sure you insert the thermometer needle in the middle deepest part of the thick meat.

Here is how you would check with or without Thermometer

• Medium rare between 130 F to 135 F   approximately  20 minutes per pound
• or Medium – between 135 F to 140 F  approximately 22 to 23 minutes per pound
• and Medium well between 145 F to 150 F   approximately 25 minutes per pound
• not really my favorite – Well Done between 155 to 165 F   approximately 30 minutes per pound

I would strongly suggest if you going to save some left overs to go as far as medium well. The meat still cooks even after you take if out of the oven.

Cooking with vegetables

If you plan to cook veggies with your meat, it’s always wise to use vegetables that will benefit from the long cooking process. Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnip these are excellent for such roasting but never use veggies like zucchini because they not just cook fast but also render so much liquid during cooking that they tend to seam rather than roast the meat.

I love using small roast potatoes which you can see in the main pictures but often the kids don’t fancy the peals so I have to use chopped potatoes but work the same way and absorb lots of flavor. Personally if I was doing it for dinner with guest? I’d use the roast potato only because they really look elegant on the dinner table

I made this with gravy but if you prefer you can also use my cilantro mint sauce instead. I shared the recipe for that in my Ginger Spiced Lamb Chops with cilantro mint sauce

Herb Crusted Roast Leg of Lamb – Simple Easy and Delicious

Tools 

• Roasting Pan
• Grill pan or heavy based saute pan
• Oven
• Chopping board and Knives

Ingredients 

Leg of lamb (with bone) – 2 Kg / 4 lbs

Marinade

• Garlic – 2 cloves thinly slices.
• Rosemary fresh – 2 sprigs (or dried 1 tbsp)
• Thyme fresh – 4 springs  (or dried – 1 tsp)
• Oregano – 2 springs or (dried 1/2 tsp)
• Coarse salt – 1 tbsp
• Pepper – 1 tsp
• Paprika – 1/2 tsp
• Lemon Juice – 3 tbsp
• Olive Oil – 2 tbsp

Vegetables for roasting

• Potatoes -3 large – diced
• Carrots – 3 large carrots diced.
• Onion – 1 large  diced
• Garlic head – One whole – skin on, cloves separated.
• Salt and Pepper to taste (about 1 tsp each)
• Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
• More fresh herbs – extra sprigs of thyme and rosemary.

Method:

Marinate the Leg of Lamb

• Wash clean and pat dry the leg of lamb.
• Slice a few garlic cloves in half and break the rosemary spring so you have small little bunches.
• Rub the surface of the lamb with salt and pepper.
• Make slits all over the lamb and insert a sliced garlic and rosemary in each slit.
• Place all the remaining marinade ingredients in a bowl.
• Rub the marinade with your hands all over the lamb. Try not to get the garlic you inserted out.
• You can leave this to marinade for a few hours or over night. I left it over night.
• An hour before you want to cook it – leave it out to come to room temperature.

Prepare Vegetables

• Preheat the oven to 425 F or 200 C  while you continue.
• Dice the vegetables for roasting.
• Peel and cut potatoes into large pieces (about 6 pieces of a large potato)
• Peel and cut Carrots and Onion into large pieces too.
• Spread them in a roasting pan.
• Open the garlic head and spread the garlic cloves all over – Leave the skin on so they won’t get burnt.
• Add the extra sprigs of thyme and rosemary with the veggies.
• Season with salt and pepper
• Drizzle the olive oil.

Sear the meat.

• Use a cast iron pan, a grill or a thick heavy based fry pan. Make sure it is really really hot before you start searing the meat.
• Place meat on the pan – sear it on all sides (just as the we did in the lamb shoulder video)

Roast the Leg of Lamb

• When seared transfer the leg of lamb in the roasting pan over the vegetables.
• Reduce oven temperature to 160 C or  325 F
• Insert the meat thermometer in the thickest part of the meat but not touching the bone
• Place in the preheated oven on the middle rack.
• Roast until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 130 F to 135 F for a medium rare – which usually takes between 45 to 50 minutes
• I prefer to cook it at medium about 140 F to 145 F because my kids won’t eat meat rare (red) – which usually take s about 55 to 60 minutes
• NOTE : While roasting If you find the meat is browning too fast on the top. Tent it loosely with foil.
• When the thermometer has reached your desired temperature remove it out of the oven.
• Loosely tent it with foil and let rest for at least 15 minutes before you cut  into it.

Make the gravy

• Remove the meat and veggies to a serving platter/s
• Place the roasting pan on medium low heat
• Add a cup of water and remove all the crusted meat and dripping from the pan.
• Gather as much of the flavor you can – add one tbsp flour and cook well until the gravy is really thick.
• If you want you can add 1/2 cup wine at this point. Cook it for another minute or two
• Strain it through a sieve to remove all the herbs etc.

Progress Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took of a lamb I made previously with the same recipe. I always share tried and tested recipes so often you get to see images of the same recipe made a few times. I believe that’s a good thing right?

Don’t forget to save this tutorial on Pinterest for later.
You can find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest

Now imagine a dinner table with this Roast Leg of Lamb on it? Be it Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving or any day that calls for a celebration!! This is gorgeous! Wouldn’t you agree?

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