Lamb Shanks braised in a well seasoned, lightly spiced broth until meltingly tender. This slow cooked Persian Lamb Shank recipe is a traditional Persian recipe and it’s the main dish of this weeks’ Persian Feast!
Cooking meat on the bone is always the best way to slow cook meats, like with slow cooked Beef Short Ribs and Osso Bucco. The meat is juicier and I’m 100% convinced it’s more flavourful too!
Welcome back to PERSIAN WEEK! This week it’s all about the aromatic smells and flavours of Persian food, the bright colours and the chest puffing as you airily tell your family and friends “oh, we’re just having a Persian Feast tonight.”
(Their eyes boggle, they clap their hands with glee, they think you are the most amazing cook ever and we tell no one that all the recipes are actually quite straightforward to make.
So here’s what’s on the menu for your Persian Feast:
Today’s Persian Lamb Shank recipe – the main event! Braised until fall apart tender in a beautiful aromatic broth. Incredibly easy with every day spices you’ll find at any supermarket!
Persian Saffron Rice – that golden, crispy beauty… and it tastes as amazing as it looks!!!
Persian Cucumber Tomato Salad (see notes of this Lamb Shanks recipe)- lovely and fresh, with a little sprinkle of Sumac for a touch of Persian exoticness; and
Persian L♥ve Cake – made with semolina and almond meal, it’s soaked with a lemon-rosewater syrup with a hint of citrus and spice flavours. Officially in loooove with the Persian Looooove cake!
EASY BRAISED LAMB SHANKS
I promised easy, and easy you shall get. There’s nothing tricky in the steps and nor are there any hard to find ingredients in this, you’ll find everything at everyday supermarkets.
The only step below you might be wondering about is step 5 where the liquid is covered with parchment/baking paper. This is called a cartouche and it’s a cheffy technique of using paper as a lid for slow cooked recipes.
Like a lid, it slows down the rate of liquid evaporation but in addition to this, it encourages the even distribution of heat and stops a skin forming on the surface. It’s used commonly in some cuisines – including Japanese cooking!
It’s an optional step in this recipe that I recommend only if the liquid level doesn’t cover the lamb shanks.
AND I PROMISED FALL APART
I promised easy and I promised fall apart, because that’s the only way lamb shanks should be. They are a tough cut of meat so they have to be cooked slowly to break down all those fibres!
The sauce for these lamb shanks is the braising liquid that is reduced down for quite some time once the lamb shanks are removed so the flavour is intensified. I love the golden hue of the sauce from the saffron!
And in case you are wondering (because I was), the sauce is not thickened in anyway and that’s the way it is supposed to be. 🙂
I love a good lamb shank, and I have to say, this Persian Lamb Shank recipe is definitely a shank worthy. Persians know good food!!! – Nagi x
A PERSIAN FEAST
Persian Lamb Shanks (this recipe) | Tachin – Saffron Baked Rice | Persian Chopped Salad (in this Lamb Shanks recipe) | Persian L♥ve Cake (coming Friday)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a visual, so watch me make this Persian Lamb Shank recipe!
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Persian Lamb Shanks
Ingredients
- 4 lamb shanks , about 300g/10oz each (Note 1)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 – 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola)
- 1 large onion , sliced (yellow, brown)
- 6 cloves garlic , chopped
- 1 litre / 4 cups water
- 500 ml / 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 medium tomatoes , chopped
Spices:
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp extra cinnamon , extra for later
- 1/4 tsp saffron threads (Note 2)
Instructions
- Sprinkle shanks with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy based pot over medium high heat. Brown shanks all over, 2 at a time. Remove from pot.
- Discard excess oil, clean pot if it’s very dirty.
- Add 1 tbsp oil. Cook onion and garlic for 2 minutes until translucent.
- Stir in the turmeric, cinnamon, tomatoes, and salt.
- Add chicken broth and stir well.
- Place shanks in pot, then add water as needed so the shanks are 3/4 or fully covered, but no more than 1L/4 cups water. (Note 2)
- If shanks not fully submerged, make a cartouche (baking paper lid, Note 3).
- Bring up to the boil. Place the cartouche snugly on surface (if using), cover pot leaving a little crack (to ensure it doesn’t boil over).
- Turn heat down so simmering very gently. Cook 1.5 hours, turning every 30 minutes.
- Add cardamom and nutmeg into liquid.
- Cook for another 1 hour until meat is very tender and falling off the bone.
- Carefully remove meat from liquid into a bowl and cover with foil.
Reduce broth:
- Simmer broth rapidly 30 – 45 min until reduced by half.
- Add saffron and remaining 1/8 tsp cinnamon.
- Simmer further 10 – 15 min until reduced to 500 ml / 2 cups. Should taste like a very well seasoned, intensely savoury but lightly spiced broth.
Finishing:
- Return meat to pot to gently reheat for a few minutes, turning and basting the meat with the liquid to keep it moist.
- Serve shanks with the braising liquid as a sauce. Pictured garnished with pomegranate seeds (leftover from salad, see Notes) or mint leaves, for visual only.
Recipe Notes:
Slow Cooker – Do up to step 6 in a pot or skillet (including broth part, to dissolve flavour on base of pot into liquid), then cook 8 hours on low in slow cooker, no cartouche, no turning. Add cardamom and nutmeg after removing shanks (so you can “set and forget” all day). Simmer to reduce in large pot or even skillet (wider surface area = faster reduction), don’t forget the extra saffron and cinnamon!
Pressure Cooker – steps per slow cooker, 40 minutes on high. No cartouche.
Instant Pot – Browning of shanks and cooking onion can be done in Instant Pot, then cook it using slow cooker or pressure cooker function using above steps. We don’t have IP’s in Australia yet but we’ve had a version of IP for decades called the Breville Fast-Slow Cooker which works the same as IP’s for the saute-slow-pressure cooker multi functions. 6. Nutrition per serving. Calories higher than reality because it assumes all the broth will be consumed which it will not be. Shanks are actually mostly bone, and while it’s an incredibly tender cut of meat once slowly cooked, it’s not that fatty. Use leftover broth as stock for extra flavour in a soup like this Lentil Soup or Lamb Shawarma Chickpea Soup.
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Photo from the golden retriever dog boarder. Apparently Dozer is crushing on a curvy lab called Crystal. He likes her so much, she makes his ears flap like Dumbo.
Greetings Nagi and Dozer from The UK…. wow such an Amazing Recipe 👏👏👏when I was cooking this my kitchen was filled with intoxicating gentle comforting rounded spices…. I purchased some smallish organic lamb shanks (working on quality rather than quantity) I will be making this again…I also made the Persian rice… I downsized the recipe for 2 people and even after a cupboard rummage couldn’t find a glass dish small enough 🙄 I baked the rice in a copper Oven proof pan/dish but sadly didn’t work and didn’t get get the crispy edges… but tasted delicious.. not a recipe fault. The rice with the barberries a winner. I also made the Persian side salad (see notes of Nagi’s recipe) this meal was restaurant standard and down to one person for sharing the delight… such a talented girl thank you Nagi x💕
Delicious again – 2nd time just as good as the first 🙂
I don’t know why this broth tasted so salty, maybe I measured the salt wrongly, but I am always so careful. Is it supposed to be intensely salty? 🙁
Hi Caoimhe, no it shouldn’t be overly salty – can I ask what type of salt you used? N x
A hit with the household tonight! Thanks again Nagi!
Hi! Is green or black cardamom used for this recipe?
Hi Hazel, green cardamom here – N x
Cooked this exactly to spec with saffron rice and it was perfect – restaurant quality
Could you use either a shoulder or leg of lamb in this recipe.
Thanks Jenny
Hi Jenny, I haven’t tried with a large piece of lamb sorry – I’m sure you could but the cook time would be a lot longer. N x
Looking best and tasty recipes is my hobby and I like this shared recipe so much specially on event and title dinner made memorable.
I made these for a hot New years eve in the slow cooker, along with your recipe for Middle eastern rice – mejadra and a Persian salad.
They are fantastic recipes,as
all of your recipes are!!!
Thanks Nagi for great receipe. Work up very early to cook for lunch in slow cooked. My guests & hubby loved it! I add sumac powder, tomatos paste & two mashed boiled potato to thicken the sauce. Another great cooking day with your receipe.👍👩🍳
Hi Nagi! I really love your recipes and they have never let me down. I’m going to make this dish (Persian lamb shanks) for 20 people on Thursday night but I’m working all day so I don’t have time to cook them just before serving on the day so my strategy was to brown and sear the lamb shanks then cover them overnight In the fridge; also, do the next step of making the sauce with the onions and spices etc with chicken stock in the pan but leave that overnight in the fridge; then before I go to work the next day, just pop it into the oven at 120c covered for 8 hours to slow cook during the day. Do you think this will work? Shall I just put everything together in the fridge overnight (ie the lamb shanks in the braising liquid) or leave the shanks seperate until the next morning before I go to work?
We found this to be so yummy from a delicious flavour and gravy enjoyed with mash potato.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Frances!
We made this with pork shanks as lamb shanks are so expensive here. We can get 4 pork shanks for the price of one lamb shank. This was absolutely crummy. Will do this again. Thanks Nagi.
Oh great stuff!
Thanks so much Nagi. My son is one of those “chain them to the fridge” kind of eaters, so the Persian lamb shank recipe with saffron rice and chopped salad was a total winner for us both! Loved the flavours as well as the tips on what to do with the left over sauce.
Awesome Shona, thanks so much for letting me know what you think!
HI Nagi – is there any way I could do this in the slow cooker? Keen to do it for Christmas Day for something a little different, but have to be at church early….
Hi Nina, yes all the directions are in the recipe notes – number 5! I hope you love it!
This was very good and even got my daughter to take a couple bites of lamb. She likes shoulder but not usually shanks. It was all very good, now I wish I had made the cake. My friend and I fought over the last of the chopped salad. Thanks for the great recipes. I have loved all that I have tried.
That’s great Jody! So pleased this was enjoyed – N x
OK, just made this last night. It was AMAZING. Two things turned out differently for me: after the first hour cooking, the lamb shanks were pretty much falling off the bone, so I left it just another half hour with the extra spices. And after that, the broth had really thickened and reduced on its own, so separately reducing it wasn’t even necessary!
I realised later that I made this on the double burner, so that may have contributed to the quicker cook time. Also the butcher at the market also cut the shanks for me so they’d all fit in the pot, so maybe that helped too. Anyway, I don’t care what happened, it was so so good. The rice came out perfectly as well, and I served both with little ramekins of yoghurt.
That’s SO GREAT to hear!!! I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this 🙂 And yes a double would have sped up the cook time!!! 🙂 N x
I’m making your Persian saffron rice and these lamb shanks over the weekend…my mouth is watering! I’ll report back on how I go, but I’ve yet to be disappointed with one of your recipes! (Still in awe at how well my pad Thai turned out from this website)
Hi Nagi,
Thanks for such great recipe- my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I will definitely be making this again!
Oh, Nagi! I know how this dish tastes and I’m craving it so bad after scanning your images. I love Persian lamb shanks, the flavor reaches the bone and the meat just melts in your mouth. You made this dish look super yummy and made me super hungry.
It’s really amazing isn’t it! that braising liquid is just DA BOMB!