Holiday Braised Lamb Shank with Veggie Gravy
5 colorSTHE WHY BEHIND THIS RECIPE
This recipe was originally featured in a 2024 Holiday Menu collaboration with my friend and professional retreat chef Ali Rose. The full PDF Holiday menu can be found here.
One of my absolute favorite holiday recipes is this elegant and delicious dish that’s surprisingly simple to prepare! Lamb has a special place in my heart as a go-to protein. Unlike much of the beef you find today, most lamb comes from grass-fed and finished farms, raised without hormones or antibiotics, and often with a focus on humane and regenerative practices…and you know I love a well-sourced protein! When I’m entertaining guests, I love to serve meals that look like they took hours to prepare but actually come together with just about 20 minutes of prep time. The rest…It’s pretty much all hands-off, so you actually have a minute to zhuzh yourself!
Yields: 6 servings
Total time: 3-4 hours
WHAT YOU NEED
TOOLS
Dutch oven or oven safe large pot with lid
INGREDIENTS
2 lamb shanks (I usually plan on one shank for every 2-3 people)
4 carrots, roughly chopped
4 ribs celery, roughly chopped
1 sweet onion, roughly chopped
4 sprigs rosemary
6-8 sprigs thyme
2 cups red wine
1 cup beef broth or stock
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
HOW TO DO IT
1. Sear the lamb
In a Dutch oven, heat 1 tbsp avocado or beef tallow (or other high heat oil). Allow the pan to get hot but not smoking.
Season shanks all over generously with salt
Place shanks into the pan, searing 4-6 minutes on all sides until nicely browned.
Remove seared lamb to a plate.
2. Build your braise
Preheat the oven to 325° F.
Turn stovetop heat down to medium-low. Add wine to the Dutch oven and scrape any bits stuck to the pan (this is called deglazing!!)). Add onions, carrots, and celery to wine.
Scatter herbs on top of veggies. Nestle seared shanks into veggies, herbs, and wine.
Pour beef stock into the Dutch oven.
3. Cook it slow and low!
Put the lid on a Dutch oven.
Cook at 325° F for 3 hours. After three hours, remove the lid and check the lamb. Meat should be pulling away from the bone and falling apart.
4. Make the gravy
Remove the bones from the pot and set aside. Pull any herb stems out of the pot and discard.
Empty the contents of the Dutch oven into a Vitamix or food processor. Pulse until it becomes a smooth purée, adding additional beef stock to loosen until it is a gravy like consistency.
Serve the lamb shanks with a side of the pureed ‘gravy’ to make your meal extra saucy! This is the zhuzh!
SWAPS, TIPS & TRICKS
This recipe is super flexible, and there are a bunch of swaps you can make with almost everything.
Lamb swap: if you’re not a fan of lamb or it’s not something you can easily find locally, you can swap this out for any other bone-in cut of meat. Beef chuck roast, short rib, and pork shoulder are all good substitutions.
How much to buy: When purchasing meat for a crowd, I usually recommend buying between ⅓ and ½ pound per guest…. nobody’s ever mad about having some holiday leftovers!
For the braising liquid: I love using red wine because of the amazing flavor it brings, but you can also use other options like hard cider, lambic, or dark beer; or non alcoholic options such as pomegranate juice, dealcoholized red wine, or crushed whole peeled canned tomatoes.
For the veggies and aromatics: I’m keeping it really classic here with a basic mirepoix of onion, carrots, and celery and my favorite hearty herbs; rosemary, thyme, and oregano. You can mix and match the veggies any which way…use just onion, just carrots and celery, you can also add in some garlic or citrus if you like. And as far as the herbs, you can use any hearty herbs that you have on hand. Thyme, marjoram, oregano, bay leaves, rosemary, tarragon, and sage are all delicious options. Just limit yourself to two or three to keep the flavor clean.
If you need a bigger pot: If you’re cooking a very large quantity for a crowd and don’t have a big enough Dutch oven, I would recommend searing your shanks two or three at a time in a large pan on your stove top, and then creating your braise in a large recyclable, aluminum baking pan. These usually come with lids and work very well for low temperature braises, when you need to cook more than three or four shanks or roasts at a time.
Time-saving tip / Instant Pot Version: I do love an old school braise, something about it just feels particularly holiday to me…but you can also easily make this recipe in almost half the time using an Instapot, as long as it’s large enough to hold the amount of your chosen protein that you need to feed your crowd! Here’s how:
Set your Instapot to the sauté setting, and follow the step one instructions under sear the lamb.
Once your shanks are seared all the way around, you can jump back in at step two; build your braise. Deglaze the bottom of your Instapot with the wine, and load in your veggies, aromatics, and lamb shanks in the same way you would a Dutch oven. Finish with the additional beef stock.
Here is where we’re gonna deviate for a little bit, and skip step three completely. To mimic a low and slow braise, set your Instapot to the low pressure setting; I recommend at least two hours at low pressure to make sure your shank gets that gorgeous degree of tender that we’re looking for.
Once your lamb is cooked properly and all your pressure released, you can remove the shanks and any bones and herb stems left behind; then finish the recipe by picking it up in step four, listed above!
Nutritional Info
Per serving, makes about 6 servings
Calories: 298
Carbohydrates: 8g
Fiber: 2g
Net carbs: 6g
Protein: 19g
Fat: 13g
Sodium: 386mg
Sugar:3g
