Half Leg Of Lamb Recipe

This half leg of Lamb recipe is a keeper. It's super easy, you have to do almost nothing, and at the end you get the most deliciously tender lamb that falls of the bone.

This Half Leg Of Lamb Recipe is a Treat

Roast lamb feels special.

It feels like a treat and because we don't have it all that often, and there's a lot of "Mmmm's..." that happen as soon as the kids start to smell the lamb roasting. We like to eat this with my smashed potatoes, and a veggie.

Let's be honest, who doesn't love a roast? It's a great comfort food. It's a protein extravaganza. A tender, fall off the bone piece of meat goes a long way and there's not many roasts better than this slow cooked leg of lamb.

And if there's left overs (not really...ever?!) they're eaten the next day by whoever manages to get to them first. It's that good.

Slow Cooked Lamb Roast

Slow cooking a half leg of lamb is pretty much guaranteed to give you tender lamb. It never doesn't work, so I always slow cook lamb if it's a leg I'm cooking.

This half leg of lamb takes no time at all to prepare. In fact it takes far longer to peel the potatoes for roasting (or smashing) to go with it. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating - it does need 4ish hours in the oven so overall it does take a little while to get on the table. So while it's not as if you have to do anything to it while it's cooking, it's not a long-day-at-work-pop-it-in-the oven sort of dinner.

How Do You Cook Lamb So it's Tender?

You can marinate lamb to help make it tender, but I don't do that for this recipe as we love the taste of lamb and lamb alone! A lamb cut like a chop wouldn't work being slow cooked, but for legs, slow cooking is the way to go.

The low heat means the proteins in the meat are less likely to overcook, leaving you with melt-in-the-mouth roast lamb. I wrap the half leg in double layer of foil for this, the juices pool in the foil and keep the lamb moist. You want the moisture to stay in the foil, so no peeking during cooking time. Tempting as it is!

Does Lamb Get More Tender The Longer You Cook It?

Yes and no. A leg of lamb is pretty forgiving and if you leave in the oven for half an hour longer than it needs to be you're still going to have tender lamb. That said, there is a point at which hours of cooking goes the other way and your lamb will dry out.

It's the juices in the foil that keep the lamb moist, and once they dry out your leg of lamb will start to dry out. But...it's hard to go wrong with this recipe, so it's perfect for all non-chefs among us who just love good clean real food that the family will eat. This is one of those recipes 🙂

Do You Have To Brown Lamb Before Slow Cooking?

Yes. You definitely need to brown your leg of lamb before cooking, as it's not going to get direct heat since we wrap it up, and if you don't brown it, it'll end up a (still delicious) beige looking meat that won't be visually tempting to anyone.

I know, browning a leg sounds annoying. Not least because you'll need to get your largest pan out and if you're like me it still won't fit properly, and being a leg, you know, it doesn't fit nicely in the pan while it browns.

The good part of it though is that it only takes a few minutes to brown and then it's good to go in the oven. Don't skip this part, trust me, I did the first time I did this years ago.....it's not something you do twice 🙂

Half Leg Of Lamb Cooking Time

For a half leg of lamb, I put it in the oven for around 4 hours. It's going to depend on the weight of your lamb of course, but for a half leg, I wouldn't go less than 4 hours and would be cautious about going for longer than 5.

You really want your lamb to be fall-off-the-bone-moist, so the lamb mustn't dry out. But as I said, it's very forgiving and won't hold it against you if you're not great at clock watching. And the heats low so it won't dry out easily.

What To Eat With Your Roast Lamb

• Crispy Roast Potatoes (via our friends at Clean Eating with Kids)
• Smashed Potatoes
• Spiralized Sweet Potato Fries
• Air Fryer Zucchini Chips

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How To Cook A Half Leg Of Lamb

Ingredients

• ½ Leg of fresh Organic Lamb
• 3 tbsp Olive oil For browning
• Rosemary
• Garlic
• Seasoning As preferred

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 270F
• Heat your olive oil in a large pan on the stove top and brown your lamb. It can be tricky to make sure it's all browned as it doesn't sit neatly in a pan and the 'leg' shape means you won't be able to brown the whole thing. This is okay. Brown it as best you can, the aim is to give it some color when it comes out of the oven
• Season your browned lamb well and make some slits in it. If you want to include garlic, push the cloves into each slit. This will allow the garlic to roast into the lamb
• Get 2 pieces of aluminum foil (to make sure the lamb juices stay contained as foil can tear easily!) and put the foil into an oven tray
• Put your lamb leg in the foil. I throw some Rosemary into the foil. The rosemary will cook in the lamb juices and gives a lovely subtle taste to the lamb. Feel free to leave this out if you don't like rosemary
• Do the foil 'up' and create a sealed package for your lamb. You want to let the juices stay in the foil, so make sure it can't escape!
• Cook for 4 to 5 hours
• Let the lamb rest in the foil for half an hour before opening

Leg of Lamb Printable Recipe