Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce

from recipetineats.com
Main
230 min
624 kcal / serving

Recipe video above. A classic way to prepare shanks, these are slow cooked in a deeply flavoured red wine sauce until they are meltingly tender. You can't taste the red wine at the end, it completely transforms into a rich sauce. Make this in the oven, on your stove or even in a slow cooker - instructions provided for all!Note: This is my original lamb shanks recipe. There is also a more involved Restaurant-style red wine lamb shanks version in my cookbook which is more "fine-dining" style and involves an overnight marinade. See Note 7 for more information! 

Ingredients

  • 4lamb shanks (, around 13 oz / 400g each (note 1))
  • 1 tspeach cooking/kosher salt and pepper
  • 2 tbspolive oil (, separated)
  • 1onion (, finely diced (brown, yellow or white))
  • 3garlic cloves (, minced)
  • 1 cupcarrot (, peeled, finely diced (note 2))
  • 1 cupcelery (, finely diced (note 2))
  • 2 ½ cupsred wine ((full bodied (good value wine, not expensive! note 3))
  • 800 g28oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tbsptomato paste
  • 2 cupschicken stock (, low sodium (or water))
  • 5 sprigsthyme ((preferably tied together), or 2 tsp dried thyme)
  • 2dried bay leaves ((or 4 fresh))
  • mashed potato (, polenta or pureed cauliflower)
  • fresh thyme leaves (, optional garnish)

Directions

  1. 1

    Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types - fan and standard).

  2. 2

    Season shanks - Pat the lamb shanks dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. 3

    Brown - Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy based pot over high heat. Sear the lamb shanks in 2 batches until brown all over, about 5 minutes. Remove lamb onto a plate and drain excess fat (if any) from the pot.

  4. 4

    Sauté aromatics - Turn the heat down to medium low. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same pot. Add the onion and garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add carrot and celery. Cook for 5 minutes until onion is translucent and sweet.

  5. 5

    Braising liquid - Add the red wine, chicken stock, crushed tomato, tomato paste, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to combine.

  6. 6

    Add shanks - Place the lamb shanks into the pot, squeezing them in to fit so they are mostly submerged. (Note 1)

  7. 7

    Oven 2 hours covered - Turn stove up, bring liquid to a simmer. Cover, then transfer to the oven for 2 hours (see notes for other cook methods).

  8. 8

    Uncovered 30 minutes - Remove lid, then return to the oven for another 30 minutes (so 2 1/2 hours in total). Check to ensure lamb meat is ultra tender - if not, cover and keep cooking. Ideal is tender meat but still just holding onto bone.

  9. 9

    Remove lamb onto plate and keep warm. Pick out and discard bay leaves and thyme.

  10. 10

    Sauce - Strain the sauce into a bowl, pressing to extract all sauce out of the veggies (Note 5 for repurposing the veggies). Pour strained sauce back into pot. If needed, bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce slightly to a syrupy consistency (see video) - I rarely need to. Taste then add salt and pepper to taste (Note 5 on sauce taste).

  11. 11

    Serve the lamb shanks on mashed potato or cauliflower puree with plenty of sauce! Garnish with thyme leaves if desired.