Slow Cooker Leg Of Lamb Recipe

This slow cooker leg of lamb recipe comes to Tasting Table from recipe developer and healthy living advisor Susan Olayinka. Olayinka blogs at The Flexible Fridge, a resource intended for busy working parents like herself, who are forever in search of family meal solutions. Generally, she seeks family-friendly meals that are not just delicious and healthy, but also quick. 

Recently though, Olayinka has found herself converted to the ways of the slow cooker because, as she explains, "I just love the fact that you can set and forget it." In other words, what you give up in sheer speed, you get back in the ability to multitask in the kitchen and otherwise. "And you can add so many herbs and spices," she points out, not to mention making the meat super-tender. "I am obsessed with my slow cooker now," Olayinka confesses, and we think you will be obsessed with yours too once you try this recipe for slow cooker leg of lamb. 

Olayinka's recipe for slow cooker leg of lamb calls for, first of all, a leg of lamb. Olayinka used one that weighed 82 ounces, which is a pretty standard size that you should be able to easily find at your supermarket or butcher. You will also need 2 tablespoons of lamb seasoning, which Olayinka explains contains dried onion, dried mint leaves, salt, dried garlic, ground coriander seed, black pepper, rosemary, and oregano. However, she also notes that she feels the most important flavor in lamb seasoning is mint, so if you can't find lamb seasoning, you can improvise with the above-mentioned seasonings, but you'll definitely want to include mint. 

In addition, to infuse the leg of lamb with a deep, satisfying flavor in every bite, you'll need 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 ½ ounces of fresh rosemary, 1 yellow onion, 3 cups of chicken stock, and 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

To get things started, unwrap the meat and pat it dry. Using a knife with a sharp point, jab the meat in multiple places, going about a ½-inch deep. Now, turn to the garlic and rosemary. Cut the garlic into thin slices, then strip the rosemary needles off the stem and roughly chop them. Set the garlic and rosemary aside. Next, slice the onion into ½-inch pieces and set them aside as well. 

Now is the step in which we will be infusing the lamb with all of that deep flavor we were talking about earlier. First, sprinkle the meat across the entire surface with the lamb seasoning (or your mint-centric improvisation, as mentioned above) and the salt. Then, insert one slice of garlic and a bit of rosemary wherever you jabbed the lamb with the knife in the previous step.

Now, turn to the slow cooker and place the onion slices at the bottom of the cooking vessel. Spread the slices around in an even layer. Then, place the garlic and rosemary infused lamb on top of the onion slices. Finally, pour the stock and the melted butter over everything. Set the slow cooker to cook the leg of lamb for eight hours on high. After 8 hours, transfer the meat to a serving dish, remove the garlic and rosemary slices, and serve the lamb. You can also serve the cooked onion slices if you like.