Roasted Leg of Lamb - Healthy Recipes Blog (2024)

To make a roasted leg of lamb, simply rub it with olive oil and spices, then cook it to medium-rare (135°F) in a 375°F oven.

The result is tender, juicy, and flavorful. The leftovers are excellent, too, reheated or cold.

Lamb is my favorite meat. I love its distinctive flavor and especially enjoy its fat - I find it more palatable than beef fat. I cook lamb recipes often, including lamb steak, lamb burgers, lamb meatballs, and rack of lamb.

When I want to cook a big piece of meat for a holiday or a large gathering, my most common choices are pork roast, beef tenderloin roast, ribeye roast, or leg of lamb.

Ingredients

You'll only need a few simple ingredients to make this recipe. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below. Here's an overview of what you'll need:

• Olive oil: This is my favorite oil to cook with, and it goes amazingly well with lamb. If you use extra-virgin olive oil, it should be fine at the temperatures we use in this recipe.
• To season: I use kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dried cumin, and dried rosemary.
• Leg of lamb: I typically use a 4-poundsemi-boneless roast imported from Australia. I get it at my local grocery store (Safeway).

Variations

• Instead of olive oil, I sometimes use melted butter or ghee.
• Use fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder, as I do in the video below.
• Vary your spices. I typically use garlic powder, dried cumin, and dried rosemary. But in the video, I use dried thyme instead of cumin and fresh garlic instead of garlic powder. A teaspoon of smoked paprika is also great in this recipe, and so it a teaspoon of ground fennel seeds.

Leg of Lamb Instructions

Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps for making this recipe:

In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and rosemary.

Rub the mixture all over the lamb. Place the lamb in a roasting pan on a greased rack. Let it rest at room temperature for one hour.

Insert the probe of an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the lamb, ensuring it isn't touching the bone. Set the thermometer to 135°F.

Preheat your oven to 425°F. Roast the lamb for 15 minutes in the 425°F oven. This initial high-heat roasting will brown the fat cap.

Lower the oven temperature to 375°F and continue roasting until the thermometer alerts you that the lamb is done. This should take about 1 hour and 20 minutes (20 minutes per pound).

Remove the lamb from the oven, cover it loosely with foil, and allow it to rest for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Expert Tips

• If your lamb is bigger than 4 pounds, it will need to spend more time in the 375°F oven - as mentioned above, about 20 minutes per pound after the first 15 minutes at 425°F. In this case, loosely cover it with foil after it's spent about an hour and a half in the oven. Otherwise, the top could get too dark.
• If the roast is significantly larger than 4 pounds, increase the olive oil and spices accordingly. So, for example, if your lamb is 6 pounds, increase them by 50%.
• As with all roasts, allowing the meat to rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing is important. You want to give the juices a chance to settle and redistribute before you cut into the meat. There's nothing more depressing to a foodie than cutting into a juicy piece of meat and watching all the yummy juices escape to the cutting board.

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Storing Leftovers

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