Looking for a tender lamb shoulder roast recipe that’s full of flavour, nutrients, and incredibly easy to cook? Although the lamb shoulder is an under-rated cut — slightly tougher than the leg, it is far juicier and richer in taste. It is also packed with minerals, healthy fats, and protein, making it both nourishing and satisfying. In fact, and best of all, it’s a forgiving cut, so you really can’t go wrong. This dish is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser — definitely one to add to your regular cooking repertoire!
Ingredients you’ll need for this lamb shoulder roast
- 1-2 large onions chopped into thick 1.5 cm slices
- 1 large 3.5kg lamb shoulder roast
- 2 cups spring water
- ¼ cup organic olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves, chopped finely
- 2tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped finely
- 1 tbsp organic dried mixed herbs or other fresh herbs
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- extra garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs
Gravy ingredients
- Roast lamb roasting juices
- 6 tbsp arrowroot
How to cook a tender lamb shoulder roast perfectly
- Firstly, preheat oven to 230 C (220C fan-forced).
- Next mix the marinade ingredients together: olive oil, garlic, herbs and seasoning.
- Rub all that lovely marinade into the lamb- get into all the crevices for delicious flavour.
- Optional extra: Make small sharp incisions into the lamb, piercing a couple of centimeters each time. Squish in the extra garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary into the incisions.
- Optionally, you can marinade the lamb for 2-24 hours, but I never do. Regardless, the flavour is delicious without the marinade time, but I suppose proper chefs would marinade ahead of time!
- Place the thickly sliced onions onto the bottom of your large stainless steel oven deep roasting dish. Next place some extra rosemary sprigs on the bottom of the pan also.
- Place the lamb shoulder on top of the onions.
- Now, pour the water around the lamb, not over it.
- Place in the oven and roast it at 220C for 45 minutes uncovered.
- Place a stainless steel lid on the lamb roast, or cover the lamb with baking paper followed by double layer of foil to keep the liquid from evaporating.
- Next, turn the oven down to 100C and slow roast for seven hours.
- Following the first few hours of cooking, whenever you feel like it, open it up and use the liquid at the bottom of the baking dish to pour over the top of the lamb. I suggest you do this a couple of times during the slow roasting process.
- Lastly, for a lovely brown crisp roast, cook it uncovered for another 30 minutes at 220C. Make sure there is enough water on the bottom- you might have to top it up; otherwise, the onions will burn.
- Test the roast by inserting a fork. It should be so tender it falls apart!
You won’t need a knife to carve this roast! You can pull it apart with a fork and tongs. Sooooo good!!
Surprisingly, it won’t matter if you slow roast your shoulder lamb for up to 12 hours- it is so forgiving… Enjoy your tender lamb shoulder roast recipe!
Gravy method
Make gravy with the leftover juices at the bottom for flavours you can’t beat.
- Firstly, remove the lamb and let it rest whilst you make the gravy and serve your vegetable sides.
- Now leave the meat juice in the bottom of your stainless steel roasting dish and place it on the stove over medium heat.
- Put the arrowroot flour into a mug. Add a small amount of COLD water and mix to form a thick slurry.
- Slowly add the slurry to the heating meat juices on the stovetop and whisk to avoid lumps forming.
- You do not need to use the whole amount of slurry- just use as much as you need for the thickness you require. You can add more veggie juices from your side dishes to your gravy to make it thinner/ increase the quantity. Accordingly, add more slurry if you want it thicker.
- Once mixed and the desired thickness, take it off the heat and pour over the served meat.
Finally, I hope you love this tender lamb shoulder roast recipe as much as we do. As an added bonus, if you’re not having guests, and you have left overs, it is delicious cold in all sorts of different recipes. Further more, it is perfect for either Fast Oxidisers or Slow oxidisers on a Nutritional Balancing program.
Enjoy!