Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Salsa Verde

A crowd pleasing hero dish for your Friendsmas or upcoming dinner parties. A slow roasted lamb shoulder is one of my favourite dishes to cook for a big group of friends. You just need to marinade it the night before and then give yourself 5 hours on the day for it to slow roast in the oven until the meat falls off the bone. I’ve done a zingy salsa verde which goes really nicely with the rich lamb shoulder that you can drizzle onto the lamb before serving and have on the table for guests to add more as they wish.

Serves: 8
Ingredients: 15
Cooking Time: 25 minutes for the marinade and salsa, up to 5 hours for the roasting
Skill Level: Easy

Ingredients

Lamb Shoulder

• 2.5kg of lamb shoulder
• 3 brown onions, peeled and halved. Optional for a makeshift roasting rack.
• 1.5 cups of beef or vegetable stock

Marinade ingredients

• 8 garlic cloves, peeled
• 4 sprigs of rosemary
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• zest of 2 lemons
• 3 tablespoons of fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of chilli flakes, optional. I personally pour out some of the flakes at the bottom of my chilli oil jar to use them up as they’re perfect in a marinade.

Salsa Verde

• 1 bunch of flat leaf parsley. Keep a few sprigs for garnishing at the end.
• 5 sprigs of mint, optional
• 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 teaspoons of salt
• Juice of 2 lemons

Watch the process

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Method

1. Marinate your lamb shoulder the day before serving. To make the marinade, combine all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and blend until you get a chunky paste. 
2. Then rub the marinade all over the lamb shoulder. Place into a dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.
3.  Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius. Meanwhile prepare the lamb by grabbing a cast iron pot big enough to fit the lamb. Place down a bed of half onions on the bottom and place the lamb shoulder on top. The onions are an optional step but they help elevate the lamb and allow it to cook more evenly. Plus once you’ve slow cooked the lamb for 4 hours, the onions will become caramelised and jammy.
4. Pour the stock into the pot, cover and place in the oven at 150 degrees celicus to slow cook for 4-5 hours. Check the meat at the 4 hour mark and if the meat easily falls off the bones, it’s ready. Otherwise keep it in for another 30 minute interval and check again until it is.
5. Whilst the lamb is cooking, make your salsa verde, by combining all ingredients except for the lemon juice into a food processor. Slowly add the lemon juice and continue to blitz until you get a bright green but still a bit chunky. Taste and add more lemon juice or salt as necessary. The sauce should be tangy and zingy which will be perfect served with the rich lamb shoulder. Place into a jug or bowl to serve alongside the lamb later.
6. Remove the lamb shoulder from the oven and place into a casserole dish for serving. Pull and shred the meat with two forks and remove the bones from the meat. Pour any of the roasting juices over the lamb. Cover the dish with a lid to keep warm.
7. To serve, drizzle the salsa verde onto the lamb before serving and keep the rest on the table for your guests to pour more if they wish. If you have any leftover parsley, finely chop and sprinkle that over the lamb.