Wondering what's the best way to cook your leg of lamb? Well this is it. Our failsafe and foolproof recipe for a roast, and it's absolutely delicious. It uses just a few simple ingredients, including garlic, anchovy fillets and oregano to maximise the flavour.
Perfect for a Sunday roast at any time of year, this recipe is so good you won't want to save it just for Easter! Leftovers make cracking sandwiches too, or mince (or shred) leftover meat to make an amazing Shepherd's Pie.
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Yields:
8 serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
1 hr 20 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 35 mins
Cal/Serv:
601
Ingredients
21/2
kg leg of lamb
4
rosemary sprigs
1/2Tbsp.
oil
4
garlic cloves, cut into slivers
4
anchovy fillets in oil, drained and roughly chopped
4
oregano sprigs
1
large onion, thickly sliced
1
lemon, cut into 6 wedges
Directions
Step 1Take the lamb out of the fridge an hour before roasting. Pat skin dry with kitchen paper.
Step 2Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan) mark 7. Cut the rosemary into smaller sprigs and rub oil over the lamb. Cut small slits all over the meat and insert garlic slivers, rosemary sprigs, bits of anchovy and leaves from two of the oregano sprigs into the gaps. Season well.
Step 3Put onion slices in the base of a roasting tin just large enough to hold the lamb. Top with remaining oregano, then the meat, fat-side up (the onions must be covered to prevent them burning). Tuck lemon wedges around the meat.
Step 4Put lamb into oven and turn down heat to 190°C (170°C fan) mark 5. Roast for 15min per 450g for rare meat, longer if you like it more cooked.
Step 5Transfer lamb to a board (reserving roasting tin and its contents to make gravy if you wish) and cover with foil. Rest for 30min before carving.
Get Ahead: Prepare the lamb to the end of step 3, without adding any seasoning, up to 2hr ahead. Complete recipe to serve, seasoning all over just before roasting.
Why choose leg of lamb? Leg of lamb is a very versatile cut since it can be cooked on the bone, which will impart the most flavour, or it can be deboned and butterflied to cook quicker and be easier to carve, or even cut into lamb steaks, or diced for stews. It’s a fairly lean joint, so can be enjoyed rare, or cook it more if you prefer, as it contains enough surface fat to retain moisture while roasting. A whole leg of lamb will typically serve 8 people, so is a great choice for entertaining lots of guests, especially on Easter Sunday. You can also buy smaller half leg joints if you are catering for fewer guests (remember to cook them for less time!).
How to cook a leg of lamb: A whole leg of lamb, whether on the bone, part-boned, or butterflied, can either be roasted in a hot oven, which is traditional, or slow cooked at a lower temperature. Exact cooking times and temperatures will depend on your chosen recipe, how large your piece of meat is, and whether it’s boned or not. However, it is always important, regardless of the recipe and joint size, to remove the meat from the fridge around 1 hour before cooking in order for it to come up to room temperature. This ensures the meat cooks evenly, which results in a juicy roast. Creating a trivet in the bottom of the roasting tin with vegetables (in this instance onions, although you can use any root veg) helps the heat circulate around the meat, for a more even cook. This veg can then be mashed and used to help impart flavour to a gravy later on. Remember to baste the joint (spooning the juices from the roasting tin over the meat) 2-3 times during cooking. Once cooked, it’s important to allow the meat to rest for at least 30 minutes in order to give time for the juices to redistribute and the meat fibres to relax, which will also result in a succulent joint.
Flavourings: One technique to impart flavour is to make lots of little incisions in the meat with a sharp knife, as we've done in the recipe above, and stuff the incisions with aromats like garlic, anchovies and herbs. Alternatively, you can marinate the lamb overnight in the fridge using lots of different flavours, for example an aromatic spice blend mixed with yogurt, or try a combination of red wine and crushed garlic as a marinade. Remove (drain or scrape off) as much of the marinade as possible from the surface of the lamb before cooking to prevent burning.
What to serve with your leg of lamb: Mint sauce is the traditional condiment to serve with roast lamb. As for sides, you can't go wrong with perfect roast potatoes and an array of veggies.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
