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
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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….
Love it! I was out of Thyme so picked Rosemary from my yard. 10 hrs of slow cooking . Served with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Lemon adds so much to this & the lentil soup, awesome! Thank you.
I made this. I followed the recipe to a T. I had to cook it longer than 2-1/2 hours to make the meat fall-off-the bone tender. I think because of that, the sauce became dry.
I have a large leg of lamb – planning to cook it this way for 3-4 hours. Pray for me!
Did this work well with lamb leg? I’m hoping to try with leg too! The recipe looks delish!! Hoping yours came out as delicious as the pictures look!
Did it come out well? I have a leg as well
Amazing recipe!!!! I blitz the veges and the herbs with the sauce after cooking the shank and omg out of this world! My toddler such a fussy eater and she smashed a full shank and said “mummy such a great cook”. Thank you 🥰😍
I made this today. It is SO good.
I served it with your mashed cauliflower, which is also delicious.
Thank you so much.
Bahhh! Love note 5. Blitz the sauce using a sick blender. Awesome recipe by the way, made it tonight in slow cooker.
I’m cooking mine in a crockpot on high for 5 to 6 hrs so hope it’s tender
Excellent recipe.
Delicious!!!!!
Thanks Nagi. Easy recipe to follow and end result was delicious. I didn’t strain the vegies at the end, just poured over the shanks and they added texture to the mash. Yum.
Thanks Nagi. Easy recipe to follow and end result was delicious. I didn’t strain the vegies at the end, just poured over the shanks and they added texture to the mash. Yum.
I recently had (Guinness) braised lamb shanks for the first time and fell in love. I didn’t know there were 2 types of shanks so I bought a package of the foreleg shanks. They are in the oven now and my kitchen smells all winey and amazing. I reduced the overall liquid so they braise rather than boil and I’m happily enjoying some of the “leftover” wine whilst I anticipate the succulent bites to come. Your recipes never fail me, so I’m excited!
Hi Nagi,
How can I adjust this recipe to use 4 deboned shanks?
Please help! I need to make a shopping list! 😅🙈
Just Delish so pleased I cooked 4 shanks and only 3 of us for dinner.extras for lunch tomorrow
So flavourful and very simple to follow. It is a restaurant quality recipe. Will definitely be making this again!
Shanks were lovely and tender but the sauce was oily I wonder if this was because I used sun dried tomato paste ( which has oil in it) instead of tomato purée ? I’m in the uk so wondering if it’s a terminology thing ? Or maybe mine was just oily. Anyone else find this?
OMG. I made this yesterday but miscalculated the time it would take me to prep, so we had it tonight instead. The flavour is absolutely amazing – rich, full of flavour, and not a trace of the wine (I don’t like red wine, so was sceptical!).
Following your suggestions I strained the sauce and made a pasta sauce with the leftovers, adding a tin of crushed tomatoes, some water, stock paste and Italian herbs. It’s soooooo good!
My whole family loved this – another winner from you Nagi! Thank you for what you do! ❤️❤️❤️
THANK YOU NAGI +!
Delicious !!
I would love to have your recipe for Turkey Legs ++
Am sure many others would also ~~~
Hi Navi, would only doing 2 lamb shanks in the slow cooker mean you would put it on for less time or would it still take the same amount of time?
These were amazing!! I followed the oven recipe but left out the celery and only had one can of diced tomatoes so I added a cup of passata and splash of water instead. Still worked out beautifully.
I also only had 2 shanks but made the full amount of sauce so I can use it with pasta as suggested (if anyone has any recipes for this please let me know before I wing it lol).
Nagi’s recipes have made me love cooking and she is a household name in my extended family… my husband thinks it’s a cult! Thank you for another showstopper recipe.
Just made this with venison shanks. Outstanding!