Need inspiration for Sunday lunch or holiday dinner? This recipe for slow-roasted leg of lamb is wonderfully simple. All you need for this lamb dish is garlic, rosemary, and your favorite beer.
If you are not a fan of lamb meat, this juicy roast is sure to win you over. It's the best slow-roasted leg of lamb recipe with only four ingredients!
The prep for this oven-baked dish is simple and easy, but the leg takes some time to cook. However, the longer it stays in the oven, the more tender it becomes.
📃 Why it Works
- Simple ingredients: With only four ingredients, this dish is chock-full of flavor!
- No-fuss prep: Preparing this festive dinner is very easy and stress-free. You don't even need to mess with making gravy. The beer and meat juices take care of it on their own.
- Versatile: This recipe goes with any side dish, from mashed potatoes to rice to pasta, and your favorite vegetables.
- Abundant: It feeds a crowd, so it's perfect for dinner parties and holidays. Lamb is a tasty harbinger of spring and one of the most common dishes on the Easter holiday table. But think outside the box and swap your usual ham or turkey with this roast for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I debated whether I should share this recipe with you as there are tons of delicious lamb leg roast recipes by big-name bloggers and celebrity chefs.
So I'm not reinventing the wheel by any means. But I wanted to share this classic recipe you will always find at celebrations and holidays in my homeland Bosnia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia regions, which is why it is so special to me.
We love our lamb, whether it's a leg baked in the oven or spit-roasted whole, chops that are grilled, or chunks cooked in a stew.
Without roast lamb, it’s hard to imagine any major celebration in the circle of family and closest friends. Best of all, this piece of meat is not difficult to prepare in your own home.
🛒 Ingredients and Notes
- Lamb leg - You can also use the shoulder. The best meat is the one that feeds on organic pastures and grazes near the seashore. Good luck finding it.
Keep in mind that the older the animal, the more intense the meat tastes. This strong taste comes through the fat.
Lamb is the meat from sheep not older than three months, which has tender pink flesh and white fat. Mutton is sheep meat between 1 and 3 years old. It is an intense red color and contains lots of fat. I feel our stores are selling mutton as lamb, but I don't mind its robust flavor, so it's OK.
- Rosemary - Don't overdo it with rosemary! This Mediterranean herb has a strong aroma and could dominate the whole dish if you cover the meat with it. Two-three sprigs of rosemary will be enough. If you must, you could replace it with thyme or oregano.
- Beer - It's best to use light, pale color beer with a clear body. I always use Pilsner-type beer, but Blonde Ale might work too.
🔪 Instructions
*Find the full recipe and instructions in the recipe card below.
- Make slits all over the surface of the meat and insert a sliver of garlic and a rosemary leaf cluster into each.
- Rub the leg with olive oil, then generously season with salt on all sides.
- Bake in a large, heavy-bottomed roasting or baking pan; cover and roast for 30 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 3-3.5 hours.
- Remove cover, pour over with beer and bake for additional 30 minutes or until the top is browned.
- Cut most of the fat off from the lamb so that the sauce doesn't get too greasy.
- Lamb has a gamey aroma, but it's partially neutralized with garlic and rosemary. You can prep the meat the night before baking so that it marinates in the fridge. Beer helps even further, making it less robust.
- Remove the leg from the refrigerator at least an hour before roasting and allow it to reach room temperature. This way, you will avoid the "shock" that the meat experiences when you transfer it from the cold to a hot environment, and the roasted meat will have a nicer color.
- During roasting, cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil to concentrate all the flavors into the meat.
- If necessary, pour a cup of water around the meat to prevent it from burning.
- Add beer only during the last 30 minutes of baking the leg. Otherwise, the beer sauce will taste bitter. The alcohol will cook down, so this dish is safe for kids to consume.
- Lamb is best cooked either short for a rare, pink, and juicy meat, or long and slow, so it's fork-tender. Anything in between can leave the meat tough and unappealing.
- For medium-rare, cook until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part, not touching the bone, reads between 135-145 F.
🍽 How To Serve It
- We often toss cooked spaghetti with juices from the beer-roasted lamb and serve with a side of green salad and some crusty bread to sop it all up for a simple family Sunday roast dinner. It is by far our favorite!
- Serve with potatoes baked in the roast juices or with other root vegetables, such as roasted carrots. It goes well with spring onions, peas, and green beans, as well as a red wine-based sauce or yogurt mint sauce.
- Of course, you can get creative and try your spice blends for unique flavor variations.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Whether using a boneless leg or removing the bones is a matter of taste and availability. The bone gives it extra flavor.
Depending on its size, the preparation time may vary slightly.
The general rule is to roast for about 30 minutes per pound of meat (for well done), but it is better to process it at a lower temperature for longer than to shorten the process, which will dry it out.
Also, check out this nifty chart for cooking lamb.
You can most definitely cook a leg of lamb in a slow cooker! If you want it nicely browned, you might give it 15-30 minutes in the hot oven at the end. At this point, also pour the beer over it.
This dish is freezer-friendly. You can use up leftovers in this delicious cheesy casserole (instead of turkey) or freeze individual servings for up to three months.
You should definitely try these delicious recipes with lamb:
- Turkish Hummus Pita with Ground Lamb
- Roasted Eggplant and Lamb
- Greek Lamb Meatball Pita Sandwich
- Okra Stew with Beef and Lamb
Liked this recipe? Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and/or a review in the comments section. Your feedback is always appreciated! Stay in touch through Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook! Don't forget to sign up for my email list below too!
Roasted Leg of Lamb with Beer
EQUIPMENT
- Roasting pan
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Rub the leg with olive oil, then generously season with salt on all sides.
- Place the leg in a large, heavy-bottomed roasting or baking pan; cover and roast for 30 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 3-3.5 hours. (Check it to ensure the meat is tender. If not, cover and return to the oven.)
- Remove cover, pour over with beer and bake for additional 30 minutes or until the top is browned.
- Remove the roast and let it rest for about 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Keep in mind the temperature will increase a few degrees once it rests.
Notes
- Cut most of the fat off from the meat so that the sauce doesn't get too greasy.
- Lamb has a gamey aroma, but it's partially neutralized with garlic and rosemary. You can prep it the night before baking so that it marinates in the fridge. Beer helps even further, making the meat less robust.
- Remove from the refrigerator at least an hour before roasting and allow it to reach room temperature. This way, you will avoid the "shock" that the meat experiences when you transfer it from the cold to a hot environment, and the roasted meat will have a nicer color.
- During roasting, cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil to concentrate all the flavors into the meat.
- If necessary, pour a cup of water around the meat to prevent it from burning.
- Add beer only during the last 30 minutes of baking the leg. Otherwise, the beer sauce will taste bitter. The alcohol will cook down, so this dish is safe for kids to consume.
- Lamb is best cooked either short for a rare, pink, and juicy inside, or long and slow, so it's fork-tender. Anything in between can leave the meat tough and unappealing.
- For the medium-rare, cook until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part, not touching the bone, reads between 135-145 F.
- Check out additional information in the Ingredients Notes and FAQ section in the post.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used and serving size.
Shab says
Thank you for sharing this delicious looking dish that I can’t wait to try. Also, love your creativity.
Wanted to ask if there’s a substitute for beer! Thank you
Jas says
So happy you like it! Beer gives the roast a specific taste and takes away some of the gamines, but you could try dry white wine instead. In both cases, the alcohol evaporates and it's safe for consumption. However, you can use non-alcoholic beer and if that's not an option, then replace it with beef broth.
Natasha M. Pfeiffer says
I love lamb with garlic and like to do the cuts to insert the garlic. I thank you for the advice about slow cooking and covering for the first, slow cook part. I do that with a beef bottom round, too, which then comes out tender and flavored. I wanted more information about the sliced potatoes and how long they can bake with the lamb.
Jas says
Hi, Natasha! I baked the potatoes separately. First, because they would rather cook in lamb juices instead of getting nice and crispy. Second, I bake them at 450F for about 50-60 minutes, but lamb is roasted at a lower temperature. Of course, you can experiment and add them to your oven (on the lower rack) during the last 60-90 minutes of roasting the lamb. Good luck! 🙂