This Easy Lamb Roast recipe is a cinch to make and delivers a fragrant and flavorful carving meat. The result is a succulent and stunning centerpiece for your holiday feast!
This post is sponsored by, and product was provided by Ohio Sheep and Wool Program. As always, all opinions are my own.
This holiday, you are in charge of cooking the main course. Sure, you could make poultry (though we just had Thanksgiving Turkey).
And you could dive headlong into an elaborate celebrity chef recipe; stressing out every step of the way, hoping beyond hope that your Wellington turns out just right.
Might I suggest an easier recipe alternative? One with all of the pizazz and panache of a standing prime rib, but with a distinct flavor, and that is secretly SUPER easy to put together? Enter this Easy Lamb Roast.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Make Lamb
- Lamb is delicious!
- It’s got the familiar characteristics of beef, but with a tenderness and unique hint of earthy flavor that can only be found in some of the highest quality grass-fed red meat.
- Lamb is naturally nutrient rich!
- A 3 oz. portion of Lamb offers almost half of your daily recommended protein! Read more about Lamb nutritional facts.
- Ounce for ounce, Lamb has fewer calories, less saturated fat, more cancer-fighting CLA, and more Omega-3’s than beef.
- Lamb is ethically and environmentally responsible.
- As foragers, sheep get all the nutrition they need from freely grazing to produce the highest quality meat and fiber that we consume.
- Sheep naturally graze on land that otherwise has very limited agricultural value (hilly terrain) and actually improve their pasture land by cycling vital nutrients back into the soil; encouraging native plant growth, and reducing erosion.
- Lamb is Local!
- With over 80,000 sheep farmers and ranchers in the U.S., (with 3,400 sheep farms in Ohio alone) fresh, local lamb is never far away.
- The meat we used to develop this recipe came from the folks at Blue Heron Farms – winners of the Ohio Livestock Coalition’s Environmental Stewardship Award for its efforts to protect the air, land and water on and near their farm.
Why You Should Make This Easy Lamb Roast Recipe
First off, this Easy Lamb Roast will definitely feed a crowd. We used a 5-6lb bone-in lamb leg roast, and it easily fed 8 people with plenty of leftovers. (More on those in a minute).
Second, you won’t be struggling with difficult ingredients, or elaborate cooking techniques in order to get it made just right.
The seasonings couldn’t be more simple, and as long as you rely on a good meat thermometer to tell you when the meat is done cooking, the lamb itself is such a forgiving and naturally delicious piece of meat, you really can’t go wrong while cooking it.
Finally, this lamb roast will immediately be familiar as a holiday main course. A lamb leg roast looks enough like a beef roast, but has a more premium grass-fed/earthy taste, and it carves up like a bone-in ham. (For carving tips, check out this video)
In fact, if you’ve got picky eaters, don’t even tell them it’s lamb. Just sit back and wait until they start raving about how delicious it is.
The meat is juicy, tender, and it’s natural flavor shines whether you cover it in au jus, or top it with a mint sauce, chimichurri, or serve it with horseradish cream.
Plan For Leftovers
Like any good holiday main course, one of the best parts about a Lamb Leg Roast is the leftovers!
Unless you’re feeding an army, a 5-7lb roast should get you MORE than enough meat to feed everyone and send home some foil wrapped seconds.
Those can be heated up in the oven (still in their foil) at 350°F without risking cooking them more, so you can enjoy that tender meatiness again in sandwiches, potatoes, soup, tacos, or atop a salad.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! You weren’t just gonna chuck that bone in the trash, right? Of course not! That sucker can make a dynamite lamb bone broth.
Definitely a consideration when choosing your leg of lamb cut at the butcher. If you go with “shank on” that just means an extra length of those bones, so if you’ve got plans to make some homemade lamb stock, be sure you choose that option.
Should I Marinate My Lamb Roast?
It doesn’t need it. Lamb is a very tender meat (especially a leg roast), so you’re unlikely to add tenderness through a long marinade process.
Plus, lamb is wonderfully flavorful by itself, so go easy on the added flavors. It doesn’t need much in the way of “soaked in” acids or sauces to add to the taste. Just a little sprinkle of seasoning before cooking goes a long way.
Try my simple lamb roast recipe and YOU be the judge!
How to Make A Lamb Leg Roast
- Remove meat from packaging and set aside to allow it to come up to room temperature for about an hour.
- Chop up some rosemary and sage and slice 5 cloves of garlic (big slices).
- Using a knife, stab 1 inch deep holes all over the less fatty side of the roast (this will be the top), and several shallow long cross slices across the fat on the bottom.
- Rub the roast on all sides with olive oil, then push the slices of garlic into each of the holes in the meat.
- Sprinkle each side of the meat with salt and pepper and the chopped herbs (rosemary and sage), then place the roast fat side down in a roasting pan.
- Roast at 400°F for 20 minutes, then turn heat down to 350°F and continue cooking for about 2 hours for a 5-6 lb. roast.
- Temp with a meat thermometer and remove from oven when you are within about 5°F less than your desired doneness (145°F for medium rare: 160°F for medium).
- Tent with foil and let the roast rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.
Lamb in Your Future
If you’re like me, you will no doubt be dumbfounded by how easy that was, and how stunning a result you end up with.
For better or worse, you will now be asked to prepare this dish every year for the family gathering.
You may also be interested in trying other lamb recipes or learning more about preparing lamb. If so, don’t miss the American Lamb website which will take you to school when it comes to cooking lamb. They’ve even got some sweet merch and an annual event called the Lamb Jam that sounds like my personal gastro-heaven.
I hope this post inspires you to expand your horizons a bit and consider lamb as a protein choice in your cooking (and not just for, the holidays).
Happy Holidays and Enjoy!
Easy Lamb Roast
Yield: 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Additional Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours
This Easy Lamb Roast recipe is a cinch to make and delivers a fragrant and flavorful carving meat. The result is a succulent and stunning centerpiece for your holiday feast!
Ingredients
- 5-6 lb Bone-In Lamb Leg Roast
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 5 Garlic Cloves, sliced
- 1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- 1 heaping Tablespoon chopped Rosemary
- 1 heaping Tablespoon chopped Sage
Instructions
- Remove meat from packaging and set aside to allow it to come up to room temperature for about an hour. Pat dry with a paper towel.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Using a knife, stab 1 inch deep holes into the less fatty side of the roast (this will be the top). Also cut several shallow straight slices across the fat on the bottom.
- Drizzle olive oil over both sides of the roast and rub it in using your hands. Push the garlic slices into the top holes of the roast.
- Sprinkle each side of the roast with salt and pepper and the chopped herbs (rosemary and sage).
- Place the roast fat side down in a roasting pan and roast at 400°F for 20 minutes.
- Turn heat down to 350°F and continue cooking for 1.5-2.25 hours. I usually take the temperature first at 1.5 hours, then recheck in 20 minute intervals.
- Temp a thicker part of the roast with a meat thermometer and remove from oven when you are within about 5°F less than your desired doneness (145°F for medium rare; 160°F for medium).
- Tent with foil and let the roast rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.
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