How to cook a lamb roast

Perfectly cook a roast lamb every time!

Want to know how to cook a lamb roast?

A perfectly cooked lamb roast must be up there with one of the best comfort foods of all time. Whether you like yours still blush pink in the middle or slow cooked and fall apart tender, here are some useful suggestions for how to cook a lamb roast and other delicious cuts of lamb.

STEP 1: Get yourself a digital meat thermometer and remove the guess work. Honestly, it’s a cooks must have. No ‘how to cook a lamb roast’ guide is going to work perfectly for everyone because unfortunately, all oven temperatures vary. As do the size and internal starting temperature of your roast meat.

Use our times and cooking temperatures as a guide but please… invest in a digital thermometer and know with 100% certainty if your roast is cooked to your exact liking. Cooking with confidence is key.

STEP 2: Choose your type of lamb roast. Check out our list below of your different options and select one that suits your tastes and cooking style.

 

HOW TO ROAST A LEG OF LAMB

The leg of the lamb works fairly hard resulting in a full flavoured cut of meat. The meat on the leg is pretty lean so you need to be careful not to overcook or the meat will dry out and or be a bit tough.

BASIC COOKING GUIDE

1. Remove lamb from fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C.
3. Place lamb in a roasting dish fat side up and season well.
4. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes per 500g basting occasionally or until internal temperature is 55°C for rare, 60°C for medium rare or 65°C for medium. 
5. Remove from oven and cover loosely with foil
6. Leave to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving and add juices to pan to make gravy.

Traditional Lamb Leg (bone in)

Cooking on the bone is great for flavour but there’s a few things to consider. It can be a little tricky to carve around the bone & you’re generally always left with some meat on the bone that you can’t easily remove. However, your meaty left over bone is brilliant for making a stock to use in soups, casseroles etc. Place the bone in a pot, cover with water and throw in some root veges and simmer slowly for a couple of hours. Strain and freeze for later use.

Perfect for oven OR low & slow BBQ. Best cooked to medium, medium rare.

 

 

Easy Carve Lamb Leg (this is our most popular lamb roast option)

It’s a leg of lamb but with the majority of the centre bone removed making it super EASY to carve with no wastage. We leave a little piece of the bone still attached to use as a handle for carving and it just looks nice too. Once the bone has been removed, we then roll and tie with twine so the lamb is perfectly round, even and holds together while cooking.

Perfect for oven OR low & slow BBQ. Best cooked to medium, medium rare.

 

 

HOW TO ROAST A LAMB SHOULDER

Lamb shoulder is also a hard working muscle and therefore gives a beautifully flavoured roast. It requires a longer cooking time but the rewards make it well worth the wait. 

 

BASIC COOKING GUIDE

1. Remove lamb from fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 150°C.
3. Place lamb in a roasting dish that’s big enough to easily fit the lamb shoulder.
4. Pour in 2 cups of water & season lamb with salt & pepper.
5. Cover the tin tightly with foil & bake for 2 hours.
6. Turn the oven temperature down to 110°C and cook for a further 4 hours.
   
7. Remove the foil for the last hour of roasting to crisp up the skin.
8. Pour any liquid from the roasting pan into a glass jug and let sit to allow the fat to rise to the top. Skim off as necessary. Serve as is, or use as the base for a gravy.
9. SERVE WITH A FORK – NO KNIFE REQUIRED

OPTIONAL: 

1. Rub/marinate the lamb shoulder before cooking. There’s so many great flavour options. We love this Greenwood BBQ Tree Bark Rub. It’s insanely good on lamb.
2. Sit the lamb shoulder on thickly cut onion slices while cooking for a sensational jus.

 

Lamb Shoulder (bone in) 

A lamb shoulder on the bone, slow cooked until it is rich and so tender that is just falls away from the bone with a gentle touch, really is a crowd pleaser. It’s so foolproof you’re guaranteed jaw dropping success pretty much every time.

Perfect for oven & slow cooking

 

 

Boneless Rolled Lamb Shoulder

This is the lamb shoulder but with the entire bone removed. It is then rolled and tied with twine to give you a nice and round shape that holds during cooking. A good option if you don’t want to cook on the bone.

Perfect for oven & slow cooking