Lamb shanks are the king of all lamb cuts!! Slow cooked until meltingly tender in a rich, deeply flavoured red wine sauce, this recipe is worthy of fine dining restaurants yet is completely straightforward to make. Serve it over creamy mashed potato with a side of peas or sautéed spinach, with crusty bread to mop your bowl clean!
* Here for the cookbook version? Find it here -> the elegant Restaurant Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce.
Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks
I have a real soft spot for slow cooked lamb shanks. I just love the look of a hunk of meltingly tender meat wrapped around the bone. Hits my carnivore sweet-spot, every time.
Honestly, if you put this and a towering frosted cake in front of me, this would win every day of the week and twice on Sunday:
Cooking lamb shanks is easy!
Being a tough cut of meat that needs slow cooking to make it fall-off-the-bone tender, lamb shanks are actually very forgiving so it’s a real easy cut to cook with.
You literally cannot overcook lamb shanks.Leave it in for an hour too long, and the meat is still succulent and juicy. The worst that will happen is that the meat falls off the bone when you go to serve it.
And if you pull it out too early and the meat isn’t fork tender, just add more liquid and keep cooking!
The only key tip I have is to brown that shank as well as you can. It is a hard shape to brown evenly, but do what you can. Browning is the key flavour base for any protein that’s slow cooked in a braising liquid, like Beef Stew, Pot Roast, Chicken Stew. If you ever see a slow cooked stew recipe that doesn’t call for browning the meat before slow cooking, proceed with caution!
I love slow cooking meat on the bone. Lamb Shanks, Beef Short Ribs and Osso Buco – better flavour more succulent!
What are lamb shanks?
If you’re new to lamb shanks, here’s a rundown: lamb shanks are from the lower leg of lambs, and they are an inexpensive, tough cut of meat.
Because of this, lamb shanks need to be slow cooked – either braised or roasted – to break down the tough meat to soften into succulent tenderness.
The meat itself is full of flavour which adds to the flavour of the sauce.
BONUS: The marrow in the bone melts into the sauce, deepening the flavour and richness. We love freebies around here!!
Classic Red Wine Sauce for Lamb Shanks
Red wine sauce is a classic braising liquid for lamb shanks, with the rich deep flavours a natural pairing with the strong flavour of lamb.
The red wine sauce is super simple to make but after hours of slow cooking, it transforms into an incredible rich, deeply flavoured sauce that’s silky and glossy, and looks totally posh-restauranty.
Just a quick note on the wine – I do not use expensive wines for slow cooking. I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that even the snobbiest of all food snobs would not be able to tell the difference if you made this with a discount end-of-bin $5 bottle or a $50 bottle. (And the New York Times agrees….)
Maybe you could tell the difference using a $100 bottle. But that’s not within my budget….
Non alcoholic sub for wine?
The wine is a key flavour for the broth in this recipe. So if you cannot consume alcohol, it is best to substitute with non-alcoholic red wine.
Please do not use more beef or chicken stock/broth, even if it’s low sodium. This sauce has amazing flavour in it because it is massively concentrated down (essentially into a jus). So if you use more stock then it will end up too salty.
This is one of those recipes that truly is terrific to make in the oven, stove, slow cooker or pressure cooker, as long as its started on the stove to brown the shanks and saute the onion etc. Right now, being winter here in Sydney, I choose the oven so it keeps my house nice and warm! – Nagi x
Slow cooked lamb shanks
Watch how to make it
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 lamb shanks , around 13 oz / 400g each (Note 1)
- 1 tsp EACH cooking/kosher salt and pepper
- 2 – 3 tbsp olive oil , separated
- 1 onion , finely diced (brown, yellow or white)
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 cup carrot , peeled, finely diced (Note 2)
- 1 cup celery , finely diced (Note 2)
- 2 1/2 cups red wine (full bodied (good value wine, not expensive! Note 3)
- 800 g / 28oz can crushed tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups chicken stock , low sodium (or water)
- 5 sprigs of thyme (preferably tied together), or 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 dried bay leaves (or 4 fresh)
To Serve:
- Mashed potato , polenta or pureed cauliflower
- Fresh thyme leaves , optional garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types – fan and standard).
- Season shanks – Pat the lamb shanks dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Brown – Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Sear the lamb shanks in 2 batches until brown all over, about 5 minutes. Remove lamb onto a plate and drain excess fat (if any) from the pot.
- Sauté aromatics – Turn the heat down to medium low. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same pot. Add the onion and garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add carrot and celery. Cook for 5 minutes until onion is translucent and sweet.
- Braising liquid – Add the red wine, chicken stock, crushed tomato, tomato paste, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to combine.
- Add shanks – Place the lamb shanks into the pot, squeezing them in to fit so they are mostly submerged. (Note 1)
- Oven 2 hours covered – Turn stove up, bring liquid to a simmer. Cover, then transfer to the oven for 2 hours (see notes for other cook methods).
- Uncovered 30 minutes – Remove lid, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes (so 2 1/2 hours in total). Check to ensure lamb meat is ultra tender – if not, cover and keep cooking. Ideal is tender meat but still just holding onto bone.
- Remove lamb onto plate and keep warm. Pick out and discard bay leaves and thyme.
- Sauce – Strain the sauce into a bowl, pressing to extract all sauce out of the veggies (Note 5 for repurposing the veggies). Pour strained sauce back into pot. If needed, bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce slightly to a syrupy consistency (see video) – I rarely need to. Taste then add salt and pepper to taste (Note 5 on sauce taste).
- Serve the lamb shanks on mashed potato or cauliflower puree with plenty of sauce! Garnish with thyme leaves if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published August 2015, updated with new photos, video and a slightly refined recipe in 2018. Previously the base recipe said to blitz the sauce at the end. It looks much posher (ie fine dining style) and actually does taste nicer just to strain it because the sauce stays glossy – if you blitz, sauce becomes more matte and is not as smooth. 🙂 Recipe then further improved when it was decided to include this lamb shanks in my debut cookbook Dinner – that “restaurant” version is exclusive to my cookbook!
Life of Dozer
And I stuck my tongue right back at him….
This is the perfect wine shank recipe. Rich in flavour and gloss. I added a little extra garlic and Rosemary and Parsley to the sauce. And as garnish.
“A recipe without wine is breakfast.” 5 Star Cuisine NAGI…!
Hi Nagi,
Making this today for a dinner party tomorrow night, my microwave isn’t big enough to reheat the shanks…. Any other suggestions for reheating on the stove please.
Caroline
Well made it at it turned out AMAZING….my guests loved it and it was super easy! Served it with your restaurant mash another winner ❤️
If reheating the next day how would you do it so the shanks don’t get tough?
Hi Georgina, reheat gently in the microwave, the shanks won’t go tough as they have been slow cooked and should be fall apart tender. N x
This was delicious. I made it in the slow cooker, was this the reason despite 20 minutes bubbling the sauce still wasn’t syrupy?
Hi Robyn, if you’re doing it in the slow cooker, the sauce won’t reach a high enough temperature to reduce. Best to transfer the sauce to the stove and simmer afterwards if you use a slow cooker. N x
Hi Nagi! I love your videos and recipes! I appreciate your videos are short and succinct whereas your actual recipes are detailed with notations.
Per chance, in place of red wine, would this work with Guinness? I was thinking of making this for my upcoming hunnyversary with my sweetie and wanted to do an Irish-like theme feast.
If Nagi doesn’t recommend using Guinness in this recipe and you still fancy doing an Irish theme…I cannot recommend highly enough Nagis Guinness stew, I make it all the time and serve it with Irish soda bread….it reminds be of home 💚
Hi Caroline…thanks for the feedback. I did see that recipe but going to try the Guinness stew when it gets really cold here.
It was delicious, I have a lot of sauce leftover, any ideas?
I did try to follow the reciepe, but luckily used a thermometer to check the meat temperature. at 160 degrC oven temp. After 1 hour it was on 40 degC but my second check after 1 1/2 hours did show 75degC. Lucky I did stop the cooking process. The meat was already a little bit well done. However the sauce with an add on of some 100 ml fresh cream was finger licking good
Oooooh, I love this recipe SO much! Perfect on a rainy Melbourne day/any other day. We only eat two of the shanks and save the rest of the meat and sauce for a pasta sauce! *drool face* It is the gift that keeps on giving.. just like you Nagi!! Love ALL your recipes, thanks for sharing! X
Hi Nagi, quick question with the oven temperature at 180C, is this conventional or fan forced? Thank you.
Hi Dan, that’s the same temp for all oven types, where it matters, I will specify two different temperatures. N x
Fan-forced and non fan-forced – differs by 20 degrees – so fan-forced or non – for shanks in red wine..
Deliciously rich but balanced flavours, slow cooked over a campfire, heaven in a pot, thanks Nagi 😊
Hi Nagi,
Recipe looks great and I’d like to try it. I can’t use wine in the recipe and wanted to check your meaning in relation to the wine substitute.
Do you mean swap out only the red wine component with beef broth + worcestershire sauce, which means that the recipe has both beef broth + chicken stock, or…
completely take chicken stock out of the recipe and replace it with beef broth?
Many thanks
Cameron
Hi Cameron, you are replacing the wine component only with the beef stock and Worcestershire. The recipe will still have chicken stock in it 🙂 N x
Thanks Nagi, that’s very clear 🙂
I’ll make it now, most likely tomorrow. Thanks for responding so quickly!
Cameron would love to know how you got on with the wine free version? Is it tasty?
Thanks
Could you add mint to this to make a red wine and mint gravy? Thanks x
Hi Cheryl, you could although the sauce is very rich it may overpower the mint! N x
Thanks for sharing this unique and very tasty recipe with as this is an ideal food item for my upcoming dinner party on the weekend and hope my guest will like this lamb shanks recipe so much.
Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with red wine sauce
Update: I had too much sauce left over, so tonight I made a soup with the sauce as base. Add vegies, canned beans. Serve with chiabatta. Another yum event!
Once again Nagi thank you for another sensational recipe. I also agree whole-heartedly about the wine comment 🙂
Hi! I’d like to make this for a belated Father’s Day when my hubby gets back from work – this might sound silly but can I prep the meat the night before? I want to use the slow cooker method but won’t have time to do all the prep including the searing in the morning. I was hoping I could do it the night before and then pop it in the fridge overnight and put it in the slow cooker in the morning?
Hi Heidi, yes you sure can!! I hope you love it! N x
Another awesome recipe! I put mine in the oven around noon at 160. Didn’t have chicken broth but used both wine and beef broth. Didn’t have thyme so used Italian herbs. Yummy, fall off the bone deliciousness! I have put remaining sauce in the freezer and will make pasta sauce as you recommend.
Hi!
When you say 1 cup for onions, carrots and celery, how many do you approx mean or use- or how much would it be in gr? Thank you!
Loved following this recipe, Nagi. Great tone. Your writing works! Thank you. Ruth Whetsel
Thanks so much Ruth! N x
One of the best recipes I have tried for a long time. Full flavour and so easy to make. Will definitely be using again!😊
Thanks so much Dreda, I’m so glad you love it!! N x