Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine Sauce

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine Sauce, served with a fresh gremolata. The lamb shanks are deliciously tender and the rich, full-flavoured sauce is perfect for serving with mashed potatoes, polenta or pasta.

slow cooked lamb shanks red wine in le creuset pot

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks

It’s no secret that I love slow-cooking. With two young children to entertain, I find it easiest to do the sort of cooking that requires a leave-it-and-forget-it approach.

But I hardly need the children as an excuse; if I happen to be working from home, I find it easiest to organise my day by preparing dinner during my lunch break, and having something simmering away in the oven for a few hours requires little attention on my part.

Lamb Shank Recipe

Lamb shanks are a rare find in Zurich as it is not a cut of meat which the Swiss cook with traditionally, so I was delighted to discover that my favourite butcher at the weekly farmers’ markets usually always has them behind the counter.

And this lamb shank recipe is the one I turn to time and time again, especially in the winter when it is definitely a cold-weather comfort dish.

slow cooked lamb shanks red wine served with risoni

How to Cook Lamb Shanks

As I have mentioned before, cooking with meat on the bone lends so much more flavour to a dish as it helps to add more savouriness and body to the sauce.

The first time I made these slow cooked lamb shanks, loosely following 3 different recipes for what was essentially a stew, I noticed how the flavour and texture of the lamb shank reminded me of osso bucco. And it’s not surprising since osso bucco is simply a cross-section of a veal shank, so the same part of the animal as a lamb shank.

What’s lovely about lamb shanks is that they are a relatively cheap cut of meat (although they are becoming more expensive due to their popularity), yet they look so elegant when served.

Cooking lamb shanks is like making a typical stew, as the lamb shanks need to be cooked for a long time over low heat in order to become tender.

When slow-cooking lamb shanks on the stove, it takes at least 3 hours for them to cook and become tender.

slow cooked lamb shanks red wine with gremolata

What is the Best Wine to Cook with Lamb Shanks?

If you were to cook osso bucco the traditional way, most Italian recipes call for white wine in the sauce, and that is indeed how I make my osso bucco.

But I find lamb to be a stronger-flavoured meat than veal, and which needs something like a gutsy red wine to give the dish more depth.

As my French husband loves his wine, our cellar is constantly stocked with cases of Côte du Rhone red wine which serves as his “table wine”, i.e. fairly cheap wine (about $6 a bottle) which he likes to drink with his dinner each evening. So if I ever have to cook with red wine, I simply reach for his table wine – if it’s good enough for drinking, it’s good enough for cooking!

You should never use in cooking the cheapest wine you can find, unless it also happens to be something you are happy to drink; a bad wine is likely to lend some bitter notes to the dish.

On the other hand, there’s certainly no need to use a very expensive wine either … I won’t tell you about the time we ran out of my husband’s table wine and I randomly selected a 2010 Bordeaux!

slow cooked lamb shanks red wine served on plate

What to Serve with Lamb Shanks

As I had osso bucco on my mind, I pondered over the idea of serving my braised lamb shanks with a gremolata and it worked just beautifully.

A gremolata is simply finely chopped parsley with garlic and lemon zest; these flavours give a freshness to the dish and pair really well with the lamb.

Braised lamb shanks are typically served with mashed potatoes or even soft polenta, but I love to use risoni pasta (also called orzo). This small pasta is shaped just like rice and, when mixed with the sauce, creates a wonderfully thick and comforting dish. The children love this pasta too, not least because it is so easy for them to eat.

How to Serve Lamb Shanks

Speaking of the children, they love this dish served with the meat already shredded and mixed through the sauce with the risoni pasta; it essentially becomes a ragu with pasta. 

For an elegant dinner, I recommend serving one lamb shank per adult. However, this depends on the size of the shanks; when possible, you should buy small lamb shanks which make for a nicer presentation on the plate, plus they are a bit quicker to cook.

Large lamb shanks are likely to be too big for one serving, so you might need to remove some of the meat just before serving.

However you serve it, it’s bound to be a family favourite!

slow cooked lamb shanks red wine with fresh lemon and parsley
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slow cooked lamb shanks red wine

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine Sauce

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5 from 3 reviews

  • Author: eatlittlebird.com
  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 3 hours
  • Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4-6
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Stove Top
  • Cuisine: Australian

Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks with Red Wine Sauce, served with a fresh gremolata. The meat is deliciously tender and the rich, full-flavoured sauce is perfect for serving with mashed potatoes, polenta or pasta.

Ingredients

For the Braised Lamb Shanks

  • 23 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 lamb shanks, about 2 kg or 4 lb
  • 1 large brown onion
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 large carrot
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 cup (250 ml) red wine (please see Notes below)
  • 3 x 400g (14 oz) canned diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups (500 ml) chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 large orange peel
  • sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

For the Gremolata

  • 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • zest of 1 lemon

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) (without fan).
  2. Heat the oil in a large oven-proof pot which will fit all of the ingredients comfortably.
  3. Sear the lamb shanks in batches until they are golden brown on all sides.
  4. While you are searing the lamb shanks, place the onion, celery and garlic into a food processor until finely chopped.
  5. Remove the lamb shanks to a plate.
  6. Turn down the heat. If the pan is really hot, remove it from the stove and let it cool a little.
  7. Add the onion mixture and cook for a few minutes until the vegetables have softenend.
  8. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for a few more minutes.
  9. Add the red wine and let the mixture bubble away for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to cook off.
  10. Add the canned tomatoes, stock, sugar, bay leaves, and orange peel.
  11. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer gently for a few minutes.
  12. Return the lamb shanks to the pan, together with any meat juices on the plate. Make sure the shanks are well-submerged in the sauce.
  13. Place the lid on the pan, and place the pan into the oven for 2 hours to braise. Check the pan every 30 minutes or so to give it a stir.
  14. After 2 hours, place the pan back on the stove on low heat. Remove the lid.
  15. Skim off and discard as much fat as you can from the sauce.
  16. At this stage, the sauce should look quite thin.
  17. Let everything simmer gently, without the lid, for about 1 hour, or until the sauce has thickened nicely and the meat is very tender.
  18. Stir the sauce occasionally to make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
  19. Taste the sauce for seasoning, and add salt and pepper. If it tastes too tart or sour, you might need more sugar.
  20. Make the gremolata by mixing together the parsley, garlic and lemon zest.
  21. Serve the lamb shanks with risoni pasta, mashed potatoes, or polenta.
  22. Sprinkle generously with gremolata just before serving.
  23. If you plan to serve this dish with pasta (whether risoni pasta or another type of pasta), I would recommend warming the pasta through the sauce first. To do so, simply remove a few ladelfuls of sauce (or enough to serve with the pasta) into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cooked and drained pasta, and stir everything together over high heat until the pasta is flavoured with the sauce. Alternatively, you can serve the pasta separately at the table, but this should be done as soon as the pasta is cooked and drained.

Kitchen Notes

There are several ways to serve this dish. If the lamb shanks are quite small, I would serve one lamb shank per person. Alternatively, you could pull the meat from the bones, and either serve the meat in large chunks or roughly shredded and mixed through the sauce. The latter is a good option for leftovers.

WHICH TYPE OF WINE TO USE
I use Côte du Rhone red wine in my cooking (it’s the red wine which my French husband drinks on a daily basis), but any full-bodied red wine should work in this dish. Whilst you don’t need to use an expensive red wine when cooking, you should always use a wine which you would enjoy drinking – don’t cook with something you wouldn’t drink!

OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.

CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 6
  • Calories: 532
  • Sugar: 13g
  • Sodium: 665.3mg
  • Fat: 17.7g
  • Carbohydrates: 23.2g
  • Fiber: 4.7g
  • Protein: 67.7g
  • Cholesterol: 199.4mg

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Update

This recipe was first published on 24 September 2017. It has been updated with more comprehensive recipe notes.

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16 comments

  1. Vicky @ Avocado Pesto 26 September 2017

    I never cook with lamb shanks but I’m absolutely sold on this dish! Slow cooker meals are the best and love the idea of setting them up on your work lunch break! I learned the hard way to use real drinking wine in your recipes (once used a super cheap bad quality wine that ruined the whole dish) – have not had the opposite happen as with your 2010 Bordeaux – hope it wasn’t too expensive!!

    Reply
    • Eat, Little Bird 26 September 2017

      Oh let’s just say that my husband was left speechless when he found out why one of his bottles of Bordeaux was missing!!

      I also once used a really cheap bottle of wine in cooking, and I felt that it completely ruined the dish. But it could have also been my choice in wine? I tend to use relatively cheap wine for cooking, mainly because there is a lot of good-tasting wine on offer which happen to be inexpensive. We don’t keep a lot of white wine in the cellar, so when I need it for cooking, I like to buy half bottles. If my husband happily drinks the leftovers, I know that it was good enough to cook with 😉

      Reply
  2. Sues 26 September 2017

    Oooh I can just imagine working from home on a chilly winter afternoon with this cooking away in the kitchen. That sounds like heaven to me!

    Reply
    • Eat, Little Bird 26 September 2017

      I like to have dinner prepared during the day, as it saves me a bit of stress in the early evening after I have picked up the children 🙂

      Reply
  3. Emily 26 September 2017

    This looks so delicious! I love slow cooked rich dishes like this!

    Reply
  4. Brandi Crawford 26 September 2017

    This looks incredible. It would make the perfect dinner. I love the red wine sauce.






    Reply
  5. Alyssa 26 September 2017

    These look so gourmet! And I totally, agree it’s a nice surprise when you find out your butcher has a specialty hidden away for you to purchase. My lucky butcher find was duck confit leg!

    Reply
    • Eat, Little Bird 26 September 2017

      Oh my butcher also has duck legs regularly on display! I love to confit my own duck legs … similar to these lamb shanks, I just pop them into the oven for a few hours and a delicious dinner awaits 🙂

      Reply
  6. Alex 24 October 2017

    Ah, this looks amazing! Lamb shanks are so under-appreciated. They’re so easy to cook and are incredibly tender when braised like this. Perfect autumn food 🙂

    Reply
  7. Julia 16 April 2018

    Mmm, this sounds so good!!! I can’t WAIT to try this! Thank you for this great recipe!






    Reply
  8. PATSY COTTAM 27 July 2020

    Love this recipe and I have tried many lamb shank ones in the past. Its now our favourite and I have cooked it at least 5 times now. Well done…. and I look forward to cooking more of your recipes. Gday from downunder ?






    Reply
    • Eat, Little Bird 13 August 2020

      Hi Patsy,
      So glad you have enjoyed this recipe! It’s a recipe which reminds me of home 🙂 Hope all is well where you are!

      Reply