Slow-Cooker Lamb Shoulder
With very little effort you get very tender, full of flavour lamb that's been cooked low and slow.
Ingredients
- 1.75kg bone-in lamb shoulder (see Notes)
- 2 tsp vegetable or sunflower oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 200ml red wine
- 2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 onions quartered
- 2 sticks celery roughly chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- a few sprigs rosemary
- a few sprigs thyme
- 300ml lamb, chicken or vegetable stock (made using 1 stock cube or pot)
To serve (optional):
- roast potatoes
- mashed potatoes
- seasonal greens
Instructions
- Dry the lamb with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper, rub it all over with the oil, then season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and brown the lamb all over – this will take around 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the lamb from the pan and set aside on a plate. Pour the wine into the frying pan and cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes to cook off the alcohol. Turn off the heat.
- Put the prepared vegetables and herbs into your slow-cooker, then lay the lamb on top. Pour over the wine and stock. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours, turning halfway, if you’re at home to do so.
- Remove the lamb and set aside to rest. Set a sieve or colander over a bowl and capture the liquid (either discard the vegetables or eat them with the meal – they’ll be soft but taste great). You can use the cooking liquid to make a gravy simply by thickening with flour or cornflour. Serve with your choice of potatoes and seasonal greens, if you like.
Notes
- The first time I made this recipe I wasn’t able to get bone-in lamb shoulder from the 2 supermarkets I tried, but I was able to get a half bone-in leg of lamb so I bought it. It was slightly smaller in weight (1.2kg) so I cooked it on low for 7 hours and it was deliciously tender!