This slow cooked lamb shoulder will be the juiciest, most incredible lamb roast you have ever had! With rosemary and garlic stuffed into incisions, it infuses this lamb roast with the most incredible flavour as well as adding a subtle perfume to the lamb gravy.
Lamb shoulder has more flavour and is easier to cook than lamb leg. Virtually foolproof, minimal effort, and incredible meat that is so tender that you won’t need a knife to carve this! Want to upgrade to the Rolls Royce version? Try the Ultimate 12 Hour Roast Lamb or browse the entire Roast Lamb recipe collection.
Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder is the ultimate lamb roast
Being born into a foodie family, there is always a flurry of emails leading up to a Sunday Night Roast. It usually goes something like this:
My brother (the “serious” foodie): Let’s do a standing rib roast. Dry aged from Victor Churchill (PS A gourmet expensive butcher in Sydney!)
Me: That’s ridiculous. It will cost $100!
Brother: If we’re gonna do a roast, we should do it right. I’m not doing a lamb leg from Coles!
Me: Who said you’re cooking? I’M the Roast Queen, remember?
Brother: Self proclaimed titles carry no weight.
Me: How about a slow cooked lamb shoulder?
Brother: OK. That’ll do. I’ll do the sides.
Sister: I don’t mind. Just tell me what I need to do.
Mum: Send me a shopping list.
And thus the roles and responsibilities for a Sunday Night Roast are set.
Lamb Shoulder
Lamb shoulder is not as popular as lamb leg – and I truly do not understand why. It has more flavour and it’s far juicier. The only “downside” I can think of is that it needs to be slow cooked, it can’t be cooked hard and fast like a classic Roast Lamb Leg that’s cooked until perfectly pink and juicy inside.
On the other hand, because lamb shoulder is a juicier cut, it’s incredibly forgiving so if it’s in the oven for too long, it’s still going to be gloriously juicy.
I love using the technique of stuffing rosemary and garlic into incisions to infuse the meat with flavour. You can really only do this with rosemary because the sprigs are stiff enough to stick into the holes.
And also it works well for this recipe because it is slow roasted – the flavours do not infuse as well into the meat with a traditional roast that only takes 1 1/2 hours or so. So take advantage of it in this recipe!
OK, signing off! Love to hear if this makes it to your Sunday Night family dinner! – Nagi x
My favourite side dishes for roast lamb
More Roast Lamb Recipes
I love a good roast lamb – so I’ve shared a few over the years!
Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Slow Roasted Rosemary Garlic Lamb Shoulder
Ingredients
- 1.8kg / 3.5 lb lamb shoulder (bone in) (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 onion, quartered (no need to peel)
- 1 head garlic , cut in half horizontally
- 3 garlic cloves , cut into slivers
- 8 sprigs rosemary
- 1 cup water
Gravy
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 cups beef broth (or 1 cup red wine + 1 cup water)
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 240°C/465°F (220°C fan forced).
- Rub the lamb with the olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Use a thin, sharp knife to make 12 incisions in the lamb, deep as you can but without piercing through the bottom of the lamb. (See photo in post and video
- Stuff bits of rosemary and garlic slivers into the holes (chopstick helpful!)
- Place the onion, halved garlic bulb and rosemary in the base of a roasting pan. Place the lamb on top. Pour water around.
- Cover with lid or tightly with a double layer of foil. Place in the oven, and TURN DOWN to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan).
- Slow roast, covered: Roast, covered with the foil, for 3 hours. (Note 1 for different sizes).
- Brown it, uncovered: Remove foil, check to ensure there's still liquid in the pan. If not, add 3/4 cup water (otherwise onion/garlic will burn). Turn up the oven to 220°C/425°F and roast for a further 20 to 30 minutes, until the skin is browned and crisp.
- Check if ready: By now, you should be able to part the meat with two forks – if not, just cover and return to oven at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) until you can do so.
- Rest: Remove lamb from the roasting pan and transfer to a plate. Cover loosely with foil then a couple of tea towels and let it rest for at least 20 minutes, up to a couple of hours (after this, you may want to reheat).
- Serve with gravy (below). If you want to go all out, make Duck Fat Potatoes or Super Crispy Roasted Potatoes!
Gravy
- Tilt the pan and use a spoon to remove all but around 2 tbsp of fat (try to avoid scooping out any juices).
- Place the roasting pan on the stove over medium high heat. Add the flour and stir to mix in with the fat. Cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the stock gradually and stir to combine. Use a potato masher to mash the onion and garlic, making sure that all the garlic squeezes out of the skin.
- Allow it to simmer for 1 to 2 minutes until it is just before your desired consistency (it will thicken a bit as it cools), then remove from the stove. Season to taste with salt and pepper, strain into bowl being sure to squeeze all juices out of garlic etc, then transfer into gravy jug.
Recipe Notes:
- Smaller lamb shoulder (around 1 kg) – cut down roasting time while covered by 20 minutes (doesn’t change by much, shoulder meat needs a minimum time to breakdown);
- Boneless lamb shoulder – reduce covered cook time by 20 minutes. A 1.8kg bone in lamb shoulder will weigh about 1.3kg with the bone removed;
- Rolled boneless lamb shoulder (~1.1 – 1.3kg) – cook time per recipe.
- 2 x ~1.5kg/3lb shoulders – fit into one pan (they will shrink, so ok if touching), add 30 minutes to cover slow roast time.
Originally published February 2015, updated with new photos, new commentary and video – AND Life of Dozer added!Nutrition Information:
BEST OF SUNDAY SUPPER ROASTS
Life of Dozer
Hmm. Not surprising he’s interested in what’s going on here….
Hi Nagi
I love all your recipes an d always have great success except for the slow cooked lamb shoulder. The dish itself is delicious but the lamb needs to be carved. Can you please comment.
Thank you
Hi, I have made your slow roast lamb leg many times and it is absolutely perfect. I am making the shoulder today and was wondering why you don’t use a beef broth for this and just water? Many thanks
Hi Tim, because I use the dripping in my gravy and if you’re using broth it will become too salty 🙂 N x
I’m confused. The recipe calls for using beef broth in making the gravy. I’ll take your advice and sub out red wine and water. Thanks again.
Possibly talking about the water that is ahead to the pan when roasted (rather than the gravy making stage)?
Best lamb recipe ever! Thankyou! My whole family love this lamb
Hi, I have only two forequarter chops. I’m guessing this recipe would still work, just cut down on initial roasting time (only 400gms in wt).. any comments?
Thank you Nagi. I followed your recipe exactly as written and my lamb was amazing. There was no need to add extra water as I closed the roasting pan tightly with heavy duty foil.
Hi Nagi!
This has become my very lazy go-to roast recipe now – so simple – yet such a satisfying result!
I usually end up just grabbing a two-pack of boned and rolled shoulders that Coles regularly have. Relatively economical and works perfectly well – tho probably don’t need as much browning time at the end.
The other tweaks are that if I have any to hand, I usually put a cup of leftover white wine in at the start instead of water. Or a mix of water and wine. Tastes great!
And lately – I add half a dozen or so if those small to medium red/russet potatoes to the onion and garlic base.
Obviously you don’t end up with crispy roast potatoes – but you do get the most amazing fondant-style spuds after they’ve slow cooked in wine and lamb juices for three hours.
And on my own plate – I usually smother them with the gravy as well as the lamb 🙂 .
Ridiculously good!
Thanks again!
Thanks for this Recipe Nagi. I love your website! I have a small shoulder bone in (approx 1.3kg). I also have a couple of shanks–do you think I could throw these in with the shoulder using the same recipe/cooking times?
Wow. My husband ate the entire shoulder!
He was ever so happy and said it was the best I’ve ever cooked!
Thank you Nagi.
Woah – the entire shoulder!!!! Lucky man! N x
The lamb cooked perfectly, and was so delicious!! I am loving your slow cook and roast recipes – so easy and each one delivers a high quality result. They are truly restaurant quality!
Looking forward to making Ragu with the leftovers tomorrow night 🙂
I brined my shoulder overnight then followed this recipe and it was one of the most delicious meals ever! Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Jeremy! N x
This recipe is outstanding!!! I made this the other day. It was my first attempt at a lamb roast. I was a little worried, as I had never done anything more with lamb than grill some lamb chops. But it turned out perfectly! Thanks, Nagi for sharing. Really appreciate the notes you include with all your recipes.
Glad to hear you loved this so much Jen! This is definitely our family go-to for lamb roast, it’s so good! N x
Thank you for sharing made this today! What a success I had a boneless shoulder rolled up so still use the same cooking times it’s was sensational! Thank again for sharing
You’re so welcome Nadine! Glad you enjoyed it! N x
Have made this a few times and it has become our traditional feast for the holidays! Always turns out perfect! Thank you so much for the recipe!
My slow-roasted lamb came out beautifully. The only thing is, the garlic and onion I placed at the bottom of the pan were so burnt to a crisp I couldn’t use them for gravy (in fact, it took me a good while to clean them from the pan they were so baked in – I thought I might have to throw it away). Why would that happen? Did I not put enough water in before cooking, perhaps?
The same thing happened to me! Kinda bummed, but I was able to save some of the fat to use to cook root vegetables. Feel like I missed out on the gravy though.
Yup, me too. Nagi, I would suggest removing the lamb to a separate roasting dish before the final blast of heat. But the lamb was great!
Hi Martin/Candace – I’m sorry for the delay getting to this. It might be that the foil wasn’t on tight enough so lots of steam escaped. Regardless, I have now added an extra step to check liquid in pan after removing foil, if there is none, add 3/4 cup water. This should avoid this problem! N xx
This was the best slow roast shoulder we have ever achieved, the gravy was amazing. We have tried Jamie Oliver and Tom kerridge – we will only use this recipe from hereon.
p.s. added the juice of 1 lemon to the water and some anchovies to the incisions in the lamb.
Have you tried this – what do you think?
Thank u for this recipe Nagi 🙂
Appreciate all your attention to detail, eg time diff for bone in/out/rolled, etc.
Tasted Yummy !!
I want to do this lamb shoulder in the slow cooker, how long would you leave it on low around 7hrs? As looks delicious 😋 exactly the same recipe as above tho.
Hi… will this work with boneless lamb shoulder? How long would u cook it for if so?
Sure does! Just popped directions in Note 1 🙂
Hey Nagi,
How would your convert this recipe for a boneless lamb shoulder?
Also how do you adjust the cooking time for different weights? I tried changing the serving size, but the time doesn’t change.
Thanks!
Hi Debby! It would probably only reduce by 20 minutes or so, lamb shoulder is SUCH a tough cut of meat it really needs the time – bone or no bone! I will pop this in the recipe 🙂 The scaler isn’t smart enough to change the cook time I’m afraid, because it’s not directly relative to lamb weight. I will add a guide into the recipe notes! N x
The lamb was AMAZING. Such a good recipe Nagi!
Forgot to rate it. 5 stars. I would give it 100 if I could.