Slow Roasted Leg Of Lamb (Greek)

This slow-roasted leg of lamb has all the flavors of a Greek Easter lamb (the one cooked on the spit). And I'm talking about delicious seasonal Spring flavors like plenty of garlic, fennel fronds, and spring onions. It's so tender and succulent and super easy to make!

What's best about this Greek leg of lamb recipe is the combination of fresh spring flavors (fennel fronds/greens + spring onions) with the strong yet sweet, garlic flavor. All these ingredients are inserted into the meat by making incisions to it. So they flavor the meat on the inside. Imagine a piece of succulent slow-roasted lamb with whole mellow garlic cloves inside.

Table Of Contents

• Greek Lamb For Easter
• Bone-In Leg Of Lamb Or...
• Preparing The Meat
• How To Cook Leg Of Lamb
• How Long To Roast
• Serve With
• Recipe

This oven lamb leg roast, I can say for a fact, is as flavorful as a lamb cooked on the spit. Because the best way to cook a leg of lamb, or any big piece of lamb actually, is to slow-roast it!

Greek Lamb For Easter

Greek roast lamb on the spit is what's traditionally served on the Greek Easter table. A whole young-aged lamb is put on a large spit and then slowly roasted for many hours as the spit turns. Resulting in very juicy and tender meat, with deliciously crispy skin.

The Greek Easter lamb contains the same flavors as this slow-roasted leg of lamb recipe. Sea salt, plenty of ground pepper, garlic, spring onions, and fennel.

However, some people prefer to add mint instead of fennel fronds. That is definitely an option, though not one I prefer. Fennel gives such a characteristic flavor to lamb meat. And it's one of the Eastery flavors (the other one is Mahlep used in Greek Easter Cookies and Greek Easter Bread). Wild fennel grows in the wild right at this time of the year.

Bone-In Leg Of Lamb Or...

This leg of lamb roast, you can make it using either a bone-in leg of lamb or a boneless leg of lamb. The bone helps to keep the meat juicy. But if you prefer to use a boneless leg of lamb, instead of making incisions to the meat stuff it, adding all the ingredients you would add to each incision. Then fold the meat and tie it with twine.

Preparing The Meat

To make this Greek roast leg of lamb, make deep incisions into the thickest, meaty parts of the leg. Then with a teaspoon add salt, pepper, minced fennel greens, and minced spring onion tips to each one. Then with your fingers insert a whole garlic clove to each incision. The incision should be deep enough to fit the garlic clove inside.

Then rub some olive oil on top and season with salt and pepper. You can leave the meat to marinade like this for a couple of hours or overnight.

How To Cook Leg Of Lamb

To cook whole lamb leg roast, place in a roasting pan on top of sliced onions, and chopped spring onions. Toss a few fennel fronds in as well. Next, add some white wine to the pan which helps carry all the aromas into the meat.

Roast at a high temperature for a few moments to give it some color on top, and then drop the temperature and slow roast for a couple of hours.

How Long To Roast

How long to roast a lamb depends on its size, if it's boneless or not, and how strong your oven is. The bigger its size the more time it needs to cook. Also if it's bone-in it requires more cooking time. As for oven types and temperature, a convection oven usually cooks faster and produces more dry results than a conventional oven.

When the temperature is low though, the meat won't dry out easily. So you don't need to follow cooking times to a T. A couple of minutes more won't make much difference. And here's a timetable for slow-cooking leg of lamb in oven:

Size:	Temperature:	Time:
1,5 - 2 Kg (3,3 to 4,4 pounds)	140°C / 285°F	2½ - 3 hours
2-3 Kg (4,4 to 6,6 pounds)	140°C / 285°F	3 - 4½ hours
3-4 Kg (6,6 to 8,8 pounds)	140°C / 285°F	4½ - 5 hours

Serve With

Serve slow-roast Greek Lamb with Authentic Greek Lemon Potatoes, some Tzatziki (a must!), some Greek salad, or my personal favorite with roast lamb, Maroulosalata Lettuce Salad.

Recipe