Roasted Leg of Lamb Recipe

Special holiday or Sunday dinners are a wonderful time to serve roast leg of lamb. There are so many ways one can prepare this delicious meat, and for this recipe, I chose to first marinate the leg in a garlic based marinade.

Early in the day or the night before, prepare a marinade mix for the leg of lamb. You will want to marinate it for at least three hours before cooking it in the oven.

• Cooking time listed here is only the actual time that the lamb was in the oven.
• Prep time for the marinade: 15 minutes
• Marinate for at least 3 hours.

• 2 large garlic cloves grated or pressed
• 3 Tbs. of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs. of lemon juice (I used concentrate)
• 1 Tbs. of Dijon mustard
• 1 Tsp. of dried rosemary
• 1 Tsp. of dried thyme
• 1/4 Tsp. of fresh ground pepper

1. Grate the garlic cloves into a paste, and put into a small bowl.
2. Add the extra virgin olive oil to the garlic paste.
3. Add the lemon juice and Dijon mustard.
4. Grind the rosemary and thyme together then add this to the marinade mix.
5. Ground fresh pepper goes into the mix next, whisking all the ingredients together really well.
6. If you have little bits of garlic left from the grating, chop them up small and whisk into the mix as well.
7. Rinse the leg of lamb under cold water and put it either into a marinating dish or a plate.
8. With a pairing or small knife make small incisions all over the lamb.
9. Brush the marinade mixture over one side of the lamb.
10. Flip the leg over and brush the other side.
11. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator until ready to cook.

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F or 204°C.
2. Prepare the roasting pan. I always put either carrots or celery underneath the meat that I'm cooking to make clean up a bit easier. A roasting pan with a rack can also be used.
3. Place the leg of lamb into the roasting pan and add enough water to the bottom of the pan to almost cover the celery or carrots. If using a rack water should almost hit the rack.
4. Cook at 400°F for approximately 15 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350°F or 177°C.
5. Continue to cook until your leg of lamb is; rare, medium or well done following the oven roasting chart to the right.
6. Remove from the oven and place the lamb on a serving plate covering with foil for ten minutes before carving.
7. Slice, serve, and ENJOY!

To go along with this dinner I made roasted potatoes, which I added to the roasting pan after lowering the oven temperature to 350°F, steamed fresh asparagus, glazed carrots and a spring mix salad.

I don't happen to enjoy mint sauce with my lamb, but for those of you that do it is quite easy to make a homemade mint sauce or it can be found at your grocery store.

To make your own simply bring 1 cup of white wine vinegar to a simmer in a saucepan. Add eight tablespoons of sugar along with eight tablespoons of dried mint leaves. Take it off the heat and let it sit for ten minutes. Put it back on the stove, stir and heat again for a minute. Remove from the stove and let it sit for ten minutes before serving.

Mint sauce can be stored in a glass jar or container for up to 8 months in the refrigerator.

Thank you for visiting and I do hope that you'll try this recipe. If you'd like to read other articles by Just Ask Susan or view more recipes, please view my profile page. Have a great day!