Slow cooked lamb shoulder | Jamie Oliver lamb recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to slow cook lamb shoulder jamie oliver? ›

Cover the tray tightly with a double layer of tin foil and place in the oven. Turn down the oven temperature to 170ºC/325ºF/gas 3 and cook for 3½ to 4 hours, or until the lamb is soft, melting and sticky and you can pull it apart with a fork. Gently break up the meat, pull out the bones, and extract any herb stalks.

Season your lamb shoulder with rosemary and garlic, or even just a little salt and pepper. Sear the lamb shoulder in a hot pan to seal in the flavours if you wish, this is not compulsory however, slow cooking it as is works just as well.

Each slow cooker meal's cooking time differs depending on the meat and its weight. The low setting is important so you don't overcook it, potentially leaving you with a dry or tough meal.

Cuts of lamb that are popular for slow cooking include the shoulder, leg, forequarter, shanks, neck chops, lamb ribs, and some sausages. These cuts are usually tougher because they have lots of connective tissue and fats, but this makes them perfect for slow and low methods of cooking.

Place the lamb shoulder on top and roast for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the tray from the oven and cover tightly with a double layer of tin foil, then return to the oven, turn the heat down to 160ºC/315ºF/gas 2½, and cook for 4 hours, or until the meat pulls easily away from the bone.

Slow cooking in liquid transforms tougher cuts of lamb into fork-tender meat. Neck, shoulder and belly, either diced or as whole joints, are the best cuts for slow cooking and need to be cooked for at least 2 hrs at 150C to soften the meat.

Slow-cooking lamb requires patience. While cooking, resist the urge to keep checking on the lamb and refrain from opening the oven or slow cooker. Opening the lid or foil too often will lower the temperature and extend the cooking time, making the meat less juicy and tender.

Cuts like the shoulder, shanks and forequarter are much more forgiving than a leg of lamb, and they can stay in the slow cooker for a couple more hours than the recommended cooking time. However, if you leave lamb in the slow cooker for too long it will become stringy and dry.

If it is not tender the collagen has not broken down fully. Make sure the temp is low on your crockpot not medium or higher. After you cooked it there's not a lot you can do, but learn from your mistakes, next time lower the temperature and cook for longer. Any meat, the slower you cook it the more tender it will be.

The trick is to add liquid (stock) into the tray and keep the lamb covered with foil throughout the majority of the cooking. This helps retain moisture & stop the leg of lamb from drying out.

Does slow cooked lamb need to rest? ›

To some people, the idea of resting your lamb after cooking makes them think that they're just going to let it get cold, but that's actually not the case. Allowing meat to stand away from the heat helps to redistribute the juices throughout your cut – giving you juicer, tastier meat.

Baking soda / bi-carb and cornflour/cornstarch are the secret ingredients that tenderise the lamb meat. It's a technique called “velveting” that is used by Chinese restaurants, and it's the reason why the meat in your favourite Chinese dishes are always so soft.

The lamb in the slow-cooker was juicier than that from the oven, but lacked the oven lamb's exterior crispy bits (we love crispy bits). The solution was to take the vegetables and lamb from the slow cooker and run them under the broiler to crisp things up a bit. We'd eat either version again in a heartbeat.

Once the meat thermometer is reading 80° – 85°C for sliced and 90° – 95°C for pulled, take your lamb off the kettle grill, wrap in an aluminum foil and allow the lamb to rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Carve the meat off the bone with a slicing knife.

OVERCOOKING THE LAMB.

When the temperatures reach a certain point, that water starts to boil and eventually evaporates. The gelatin can keep the meat juicy and moist until a certain degree, but eventually, it will burst and leave your meat without any protection—the result: dry, chewy Lamb.

This part of the animal works hard, so the meat from a lamb's shoulder is full of flavour. It takes a while to become tender, but this means it's a great choice for stewing and slow-roasting. To maximise the flavour, cook lamb shoulder on the bone so the meat simply falls apart when pulled with a fork.

It depends on the cut. If you cook a lamb shank low and slow, it will become more tender as long as you don't let it dry out. A lamb chop, on the other hand, will reach optimum tenderness at medium rare. After that it will become tougher as it cooks.