Braised Lamb Shoulder

A cooked roast topped with green herb sauce sits on a plate garnished with lemon slices, with a person in a blue shirt in the background.

Braised Lamb Shoulder

This braised lamb shoulder is slow cooked until fall-apart tender in a rich, aromatic sauce with garlic, herbs, lemon, and wine. It’s an easy, impressive lamb dinner that’s mostly hands-off and perfect for feeding a crowd.

Course Main

Cuisine Greek-Inspired

Keyword lamb

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3 30

Total Time 4

Servings -8

Calories 672kcal

Author Maria Koutsogiannis

Ingredients

For the lamb shoulder

2.2 kg (4.8-5 lbs) boneless lamb shoulder
Kosher salt and ground pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, quartered
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme, each sprig cut into 3 smaller pieces
¼ cup white wine
2 ½ cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 large lemon, sliced (about 10 slices)

For the gremolata

¼ cup toasted pistachios, finely chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley (about 1 bunch of fresh parsley)
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
¼ cup finely chopped kalamata olives
1 large lemon, zested (about 1 tsp lemon zest)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice (optional)
Salt to taste

For the white bean puree

2 (14- or 15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
¼ cup chicken broth or water
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

For the lamb -

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Pat the lamb dry with a paper towel. Place the lamb shoulder on a cutting board. Season both sides generously with salt and pepper.
To an oven-safe dutch oven, add 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, sear the lamb until golden brown on all sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove the lamb to a plate and set aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the pot.
Deglaze the pot with wine and let most of it cook off, scraping off any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Then, add the chicken broth and bay leaves and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
While you wait for the liquid in the pot to simmer, pierce the lamb about 8-12 times on the top side with a sharp knife and then insert a quarter garlic clove and small piece of a thyme sprig into each cut.
When the liquid in the pot is simmering, turn off the heat and add the garlic & thyme stuffed lamb back to the pot. Nestle in 5 lemon slices around the lamb shoulder (set the rest of the lemon slices aside for garnish).
Cover the lamb leg with a piece of parchment paper and then cover the entire dutch own with foil, place the lid on and then put into the preheated oven.
Bake for about 3-3.5 hours, basting with the sauce every hour, until the lamb is very tender and the meat starts to pull away from bone with a fork. At this point, remove the lamb from the oven and turn the heat up to 425F. While the oven heats up a bit, use a ladle to skim some of the fat from the liquid in the pan to a safe vessel and discard later.
Before placing back in the oven, make sure there is still liquid in the pan, if not add another ½ cup chicken broth.
Place the lamb back in the oven uncovered (even if the oven isn’t preheated yet to 425F, that's ok) for about 30 minutes, until the top of the lamb is nicely browned / crispy.

Make the gremolata -

While the lamb roasts, make the gremolata - toast the pistachios in a small pan until fragrant over low heat. Pour the toasted pistachios onto a plate and let cool.
Once the pistachios are cooled, finely chop the pistachios (you can use a food processor for this as well - pulse until finely chopped).
In a small bowl mix together the finely chopped toasted pistachios, finely chopped fresh mint, finely chopped parsley, thyme leaves, finely chopped oregano, finely chopped kalamata olives and lemon zest. Then, stir in the olive oil and lemon juice if desired. Taste and adjust seasoning with kosher salt.
Store in the fridge until ready to use.

Make the white bean puree -

When the lamb is in the last 30 minutes of cook time, make the white bean puree.
To a medium pot add 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is warmed, add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.
Stir in the drained and rinsed cannellini beans, chicken broth (½ cup), salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium high, cooking for about 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken stock has reduced by about half.
Remove from the heat and add everything from the pot plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a food processor or high-speed blender. Pulse / blend until you get a mostly smooth consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed - add a squeeze of lemon juice from a quarter of a lemon if desired.

Assemble the final dish -

Once the lamb is done cooking, remove the bay leaves from the pot before pulling / cutting the lamb into smaller pieces.
Spread a portion of the bean puree on a plate and serve pieces of the lamb on top. Top the lamb with the gremolata, garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Notes

If you're using a smaller boneless lamb shoulder, start with 2.5 - 3 hours.
If you can only find a bone-in lamb shoulder, you can still use that within this recipe, however, it may require more cook / braising time.
If you don’t want to use wine, you can use a non-alcoholic wine or more chicken broth instead.

Nutrition