This roast leg of lamb recipe, dear readers, is something you want to save for when you track down a lamb whose taste and texture make your soul sing. Seriously. There’s not a lot to this recipe aside from just enough garlic and lemon to accentuate the meat itself. Plain and perfect, that’s what we consider this.–Renee Schettler Rossi
Roast Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
- A 4- to 5-pound bone-in leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper,, plus more for seasoning
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon, preferably organic, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Remove the lamb from the refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature for up to 1 1/2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C). [Editor’s Note: You’re going to want to scrub that oven if you’ve got even the tiniest burnt-on spillover from last fall’s apple pie, otherwise your oven is going to smoke like crazy when it gets this hot.]
- In a small bowl, combine the garlic, salt, pepper, and oil and mix well. Using a small, sharp knife, cut 10 slits about 1 1/2 inches (4 centimeters) deep in the lamb. Push some of the garlic mixture into the slits and rub the rest all over the outside of the lamb, turning to coat all sides.
- Place a sheet of aluminum foil in a large roasting pan, shiny side down. Distribute the lemon slices evenly along the center of the foil. (It may be necessary to overlap some lemon slices.) Place the lamb on the lemon slices.
- Roast the lamb, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F (150°C) and continue roasting, still uncovered, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the lamb, away from the bone, registers 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare, 30 to 50 minutes more.
- Transfer the lamb to a carving board and tent with aluminum foil. Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Carve the lamb against the grain into thin slices. Serve right away.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This roast leg of lamb is definitely a recipe that I’ll use again and again. The lamb turned out to be easy to cook and the meat came out juicy and tender. The leftovers were even better the next day.
We enjoyed this roast leg of lamb recipe and its flavors. We used locally raised lamb of quite good quality, which the recipe enhanced. I would have liked some lemon juice in the rub, though, in addition to the slices tucked beneath the lamb in the pan. The lemon didn’t seem to penetrate the meat very much. Also, when the meat was sliced after resting, it was a little more rare than medium rare. I’d let the internal temperature get closer to 140°F next time to let it cook a bit more. The timing was accurate for the most part, but it took 58 minutes at 300°F for the lamb to reach an internal temperature of 130°F, not 30 to 45.
The place I intended to buy the lamb, which had bone-in legs on several previous visits, had a supply issue and did not have any. I wanted to make this before the session ended, so I went to a butcher shop, where all they had available in the 4- to 5-pound range was semi-boneless leg of lamb. Their bone-in legs were about 8 pounds, so I went with one that was 4.25 pounds, with only part of the femur bone intact. This difference would have affected my cooking time, and it might have also affected the internal temperature readings I was getting, due to the shape of the meat. I started the oven at 500°F and had no problems with that temperature. I sliced the lemon about an 1/8 inch thick.
I ended up using a whole boneless leg of lamb since my grocery store didn’t carry the bone-in version. I’m not sure if this is why but the cooking time was off by about 30 minutes, bringing the cooking time to about 80 minutes for perfectly medium-rare lamb.
Very nice especially the rub of garlic and the lemon
Wonderful, Michael.
This was my first time cooking lamb. WOW. It turned out great. The lemon slices surprisingly added a nice flavor. This was our Easter meal and we will use this recipe again.
Excellent to hear, Friedman, thank you for sharing this with us!
Excellent! And My first leg of lamb! Simple ingredients and roasting method. Garlic and pepper gave this amazing flavor. I added fresh chopped rosemary but could use thyme, oregano or do without if you prefer. Will do this again
John, we love hearing that you trusted us enough to be your first leg of lamb recipe! Thrilled to hear you’ll be making it again. And again. And again.