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Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

By Nagi Maehashi
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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 in Red Wine Sauce in a cast iron pot, fresh off the stove ready to be served

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:

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce served on creamy mashed potato, ready to be eaten

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!

Preparation steps for Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

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!!

Close up of Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce, showing how tender the meat is

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.

Overhead photo of Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce served over creamy mashed potato with a side of peas, ready to be eaten

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
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Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce served on creamy mashed potato, ready to be eaten

Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

Author: Nagi
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 3 hours 30 minutes
Main
Western
4.95 from 342 votes
Servings4
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Recipe video above. A classic way to prepare shanks, these are slow cooked in a deeply flavoured red wine sauce until they are meltingly tender. You can't taste the red wine at the end, it completely transforms into a rich sauce. Make this in the oven, on your stove or even in a slow cooker – instructions provided for all!
Note: This is my original lamb shanks recipe. There is also a more involved Restaurant-style red wine lamb shanks version in my cookbook which is more "fine-dining" style and involves an overnight marinade. See Note 7 for more information! 

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:

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:

1. Lamb Shanks – sizes vary considerably so make sure you get ones that will fit in your cooking vessel! 4 x 400g/13oz lamb shanks fits snugly in a 26cm/11″ diameter Chasseur dutch oven which is what I use. They don’t need to be completely submerged, just as long as most of the meaty end is mostly submerged, that’s fine. If you don’t have a pot large enough, you can switch to a baking dish for the slow cooking part, and cover with a double layer of foil if you don’t have a lid for it. You can also ask your butcher to cut the shaft so it bends if you are concerned, or to trim it slightly.
Cook time – 350-400g shanks should cook to “fall apart tender” but still holding onto bone in 2.5 hrs at 180°C/350°F. It can take up to 3 hrs, so to err on the side of caution re: dinner timing, give yourself 3 hours oven time. Shanks are the sort of thing that can sit around for ages and stay warm (keep covered in pot) and the flavour just gets even better. In fact, if you are cooking to impress, cook it the day before then reheat to serve – flavour will develop overnight, like with any stew!
2. Onion, carrot and celery is the “holy trinity” of slow cooking, creating a beautiful flavour base for the sauce. It’s not a deal breaker to exclude the carrot and celery, but it does give the sauce an extra edge.
3. Wine – Use a good value full bodied red wine, like cabaret sauvignon or merlot. Shiraz is ok too. No need to use expensive wine for slow cooked recipes like this (and the New York Times agrees). Use discount end of bin specials (I get mine from Dan Murphey’s). Pinots not suitable, too light. 99% of the alcohol in the red wine evaporates during cooking. The sauce does not taste winey at all, it completely transforms.
Non alcoholic sub: 1 1/2 cups beef broth LOW SODIUM, 1 cup water. + 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce. Beef has a stronger deeper flavour than chicken so will be more suited to being the sub for wine.
4. Most of the alcohol in the red wine will evaporate during this step but not completely – it will finish evaporating during the slow cooking. The sauce does not taste winey at all, it completely transforms.
5. Sauce options: The other option is to blitz the sauce using a sick blender. The sauce will be thicker, and you’ll have more of it (leftovers great tossed through pasta). This is what I used to do, but nowadays I prefer to strain the sauce because I like how glossy and rich it is – this is how restaurants serve it. You could also skip straining or blitzing, it just means you get little veg lumps in the sauce. All are tasty options, it mainly comes down to visual.
TIP: If you strain the sauce, keep the veggies etc in the strainer to make a terrific sauce, they are loaded with flavour even though all juice is squeezed out of them. What I do is make a basic tomato sauce with garlic, onion, canned tomato and water. Then I blitz that with the veggies. Use it to make a killer pasta or lasagna!!
Sour sauce? Sounds like there might’ve been issues with your canned tomatoes (poor quality = overly sour, good quality = sweet). Add a touch of honey or sugar, simmer for few minutes. Also, you didn’t rush the carrots/celery sautéing step did you?? Cooking them for 5 minutes sweetens them! 🙂
6. OTHER COOK OPTIONS:
Slow cooker – Follow recipe to step 7. Bring sauce to simmer, scrape bottom of pot to get all brown bits into the liquid. Place shanks in slow cooker, add the sauce. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove shanks, strain and reduce sauce to desired thickness on stove (if you blitz per Note 5, you won’t need to reduce).
Pressure Cooker – Follow Slow Cooker steps, cook for 40 minutes on high. Release pressure according to manufacturer directions. Stove – to cook this on the stove, cook for about 2 hours on low, ensuring that you check it at 1 hour then every 30 minutes thereafter to ensure there is enough braising liquid (because liquid evaporates faster on the stove) and the bottom of the pot isn’t catching. Turn the lamb shanks twice. You won’t get the brown crust, but the flavour is the same!
7. Original recipe vs cookbook version – The original lamb shanks recipe is from 2015 which was improved in 2018. There is also a very elegant red wine lamb shanks recipe in my cookbook which is an elegant fine-dining version.
Nutrition per serving. This is conservative – it doesn’t take into account fat trimmed from shanks or discarded fat. Also assumes all sauce is consumed which it probably won’t be.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 624cal (31%)Carbohydrates: 31g (10%)Protein: 42g (84%)Fat: 25g (38%)Saturated Fat: 5g (31%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 117mg (39%)Sodium: 1260mg (55%)Potassium: 1590mg (45%)Fiber: 6g (25%)Sugar: 16g (18%)Vitamin A: 6022IU (120%)Vitamin C: 26mg (32%)Calcium: 133mg (13%)Iron: 7mg (39%)
Keywords: Lamb Shanks, red wine sauce for lamb shanks
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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!

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1,140 Comments

  1. Hannah says

    I want to make this dinner for two, how long would I need to cook the shanks for if it was for half the ingredients?

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Hi Hannah, if the shanks are the same weight as the recipe, they will take the same amount of time as listed to cook. N x

      Reply

  2. ursula b. says

    I made this in the slow cooker. Added a tablespoon of worchestershire sauce and beef stock instead of chicken broth. It was delicious! Thanks for a great and easy recipe.

    Reply

  3. FRAN says

    Hi. How long do the lamb shanks take in the slow cooker. My daughter is 6 months pregnant and is concerned the meat may not be cooked

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Hi Fran – slow cooker directions are in the recipe notes. I can guarantee you they are cooked through as the meat is super tender and fall off the bone. N x

      Reply

  4. Kte says

    Can you do it in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours?

    Reply

    • Tien says

      Would you recommend less stock in the slow cooker? I found my sauce didn’t thicken up and I had to add some cornstarch. Other than that, this meal was absolutely delish!! We had ours with cauliflower mash.

      Reply

    • Lala says

      I put mine in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours, and that was perfect. The meat was tender and tasteful. I also marinated my meat for 30 hours 🤤🤤🤤🤤 so the flavors are totally savoring

      Reply

  5. Alex Khoshain says

    Hi Nagi, wondering if 180 degrees is for traditional or convection oven?

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      It’s the same for both ovens here Alex 🙂 N x

      Reply

  6. Mitchell says

    Hi There, love your recipe and have impressed friends with it!
    I’m wondering if I can brown the lamb shanks the night before and leave all the sauce ingredients in the pot in the fridge, then cook in the oven the night after? Looking to cut down on the prep time and throw straight in the oven when I get home from work for a Friday night dinner.
    Thanks!!!

    Reply

  7. Nina says

    5 stars
    I forgot to ask you another question…. I am going to sieve the sauce. You mentioned using the vegetables in a pasta sauce do you have a recipe for this and how you make it. Thank you.

    Reply

    • Bianca says

      5 stars
      Yummmmm! I’ve made this a couple of times, but tonight was the first time I tried to use the leftovers. I ended up blitzing half of the sauce, shredding the lamb, removed the bay leaves and bones etc and added some more tomatoes to get it to resemble more of a lamb ragu pasta sauce (taste continually to get the flavour you want). Then cooked up some fettuccine, added some of the pasta water to the ragu before throwing in the cooked pasta. Serve with Parmesan ❤️

      Reply

    • Nagi says

      Hi Nina, yes – I talk about this in note 5. N x

      Reply

  8. Nina says

    5 stars
    Hi Lockdown Greetings from the Uk. I have only just discovered your amazing website. I am cooking these lamb shanks for two today, can you tell me how much onion, celery and carrot is half a cup? One carrot, small onion? One stick celery, I don’t have any American cups. Have you written a cookbook? Many Thanks keep safe

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Hi Nina, it’s hard for me to judge that way as onions & carrots etc. differ in size & the most accurate way is to measure using a cup 🙂 I do have a cookbook on the cards in the near future. N x

      Reply

      • Nina says

        Thanks Nagi x

        Reply

  9. Steve says

    5 stars
    Sorry, keep forgetting to hit the 5 stars.

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Thanks Steve! 🙂

      Reply

  10. Steve says

    Wow just wow. I thought I could cook lamb shanks, until I used this recipe, my lovely wife is in the kitchen looking for a container for that lovely sauce, not wasting that! Thank you Nagi, we now live by your recipes only, thank you so much.

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      I’m so glad you enjoyed it Steve – save that sauce and use over pasta, top with a chunk of burrata and a side of garlic bread & you’ll be in heaven!

      Reply

  11. Antia Geustyn says

    Hi there,

    Just wanted to send out a high five for this recipe and a huge thanks – anniversary dinner was a hit!

    Loving your recipes and the website is fast becoming my “go to” when I’m looking for a new dish.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      WOOT! That’s awesome Anita! N x

      Reply

  12. Melissa Wilson says

    This blew my family away. So fantastic. And as suggested to keep the sauce and reuse. I turned it in to pasta sauce with meatballs… another hit. Thank you

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Sounds fabulous Melissa! N x

      Reply

  13. Jenny Lee says

    5 stars
    Thank you! This was a hit in our household 🙂

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Wahoo, that’s great to hear Jenny! N x

      Reply

  14. Sylvana says

    Wow!! Simply delicious! I usually cook lamb shanks in the slow cooker, but wanted the dish for lunch so used your oven method. It was perfect! The sauce was amazing. So flavourful! I strained the sauce and then blitzed the remaining veggies etc and it added volume to the sauce which was served over the shank. Served with mash potatoes (or course) and some blanched broccolini. It was a perfect meal!

    Reply

  15. Corrie says

    5 stars
    I made this recipe yesterday, easy and so tasty. We used leftovers for a pasta dish today. Highly recommend.

    Reply

  16. Amy says

    Family loved it! I browned off the shanks in a pot and used the pressure cooker on high pressure for 40mins as suggested for that cooking method. Sauce was delicious and the meat cooked beautifully, flaked off the bone. With the left over sauce, which still had lovely tomato and meat chunks throughout, I reduced slowly for about 40mins and plan using this evening with Pappardelle. I should note that I used diced tomatoes rather than crushed as that is what I had on hand, so that may have affected the overall consistency of the sauce in terms of reduction time afterwards, regardless it was delicious. I love a meal that I can stretch into two, great taste and great value! Thank you!

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      Sounds perfect Amy!! N x

      Reply

  17. Andrew says

    Sort of agree with you about the wine. Aving cooked for some 50 years now i have found the rougher the plonk the more magnificent the sauce!!! and trust me 50 years of practice i have a good idea i am right

    Reply

  18. Maria Murphy says

    Made your lamb shank in red wine for Easter Sunday dinner as we could not get a small enough leg of lamb. It was absolutely amazing. Never had lamb shank before but your recipe raised it to another level. Can’t wait to do serve it again. Thank you Maria and family, Belfast N. Ireland.

    Reply

  19. Abbe says

    5 stars
    Amazing!!! I constantly cook with your recipes and they are all amazing (steak sandwhich anyone)! I’ve never eaten lamb shanks before and OH MY GOD so easy and soooo delicous! My partner just polished off his 3rd! Thank you for all the amazing recipes your making iso a lot more interesting!

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      WOOT! Love hearing this Abbe! N x

      Reply

  20. Kat says

    This recipe turned out absolutely perfect! Thank you!!!
    I have lots of leftover sauce, can I reuse it next time I make it and therefore skip the entire part of cooking the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery and just add in my sauce to the browned lamb shank in the slow cooker?

    Reply