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.
I wish I could deal with lamb shanks. My mother made them when I was a child, with dumplings (yum!), but I always hated the tendon that I inevitably had to deal with. I always thought it was really yucky. Needless to say, I’ve never cooked lamb shanks – and unfortunately for the Persian feast – I likely never will cook them. I do like the spice mix you’ve used, though.
Tendon part! You mean that runs down the length of the bone?? I find the meat just slips right off it!! Hope you’ve had a great week Susan! N x
Nagi, it’s white and flexible, and may run the length of the bone. It’s been so long that I don’t remember that part exactly. Hope you’re having a great time in Vietnam!
Yep that’s the one I’m thinking of 🙂 The meat slides off it in all my slow cooked shanks, I don’t eat that part! N x
Nagi, you say chicken broth!!! Please say what you mean!! If you are catering for an international market say so because if you are doing it for the Australian (your home audience) can you please use our own terminology. I have visions of people going to the supermarket and looking in the soup aisle looking for a can of soup!!! Instead of beef stock!!! Only a suggestion
Hi Cheryl! I DO say broth. That’s what I call liquid stock because actually, it’s very confusing because we also have stock POWDER. So I tend to call liquid stock “broth” and powder “stock powder”. Also I noticed that stores are starting to sell “bone broth” so maybe we are starting to call it that! I will try to remember to do both or link to a page explaining terminology! N x
Huh? Have lived in Australia all my life: surely ‘broth’ is a word used every day 🙂 ? Some use ‘stock’ and ‘broth’ interchangeably, others think of it as faster than ‘stock’ but made with meat as well as bones ! Why buy tinned material full of salt and additives: just takes a couple of hours and keeps in the freezer for months! Didn’t know we spoke differently Down Under . . . . or some of the new pouches are far healthier . . .
Hi Eha! I think unlike us, most Aussies do probably call it “stock” because that’s what is on those cartons. I say “broth” because I also use stock powder, so that’s I distinguish between the two 🙂 I think us Aussies have got it wrong for this one!! 😂 And Interesting you raise bones – have you noticed the trendy “bone broth” starting to appear in stores?
Thank you for clearing that up. Born in Sysney and raised in Queensland, I’ve NEVER heard anyone call stock “broth”. I thought it was an American term for clear soup.
*Sydney
Oh yes! Supposed to ‘cure’ every ailment under the sun! And yet it is but a concentrated stock 🙂 ! Not that I don’t love and make that !! Ron from “lost in the Pot’ who often comments here had quite a lengthy conversation going on just awhile ago . . . I learned much about bones + long cook = stock & bones + meat + shorter cook = broth supposedly ? Pretty knowledgeable cooks talking too . . .
I’m still not educated on the whole bone broth thing! 🙂 You’re ahead of me on this one! M x
Hi Nagi
The lamb looks sooo succulent. The only way I can eat lamb without having my throat feel “cloudy” is when the lamb is lean…no fat. But I will give this recipe a try.
Happy you’re having a blast. OMG! I think I’d cringe in between the traffic and as for riding the scooter …hmmm I believe am too short😂😂
It’s great about Dozer having a crush for Crystal …awwww…that’s so cute.
Have an Awesome Sauce week! Hugs ….😊
I was holding on so tight to the scooter my arms were killing me the next day!! 😂
Hi
Can we add the Saffroon, cardamom, and cinammon right from the start ?
Im afraid the meat will be smelly
Thabk you so much
Love ya
Hi Yasmine! Actually, the reason it is added later is so the flavour of the spices comes through more 🙂 With long cook times, the flavour of spices tends to reduce. This recipe does let the lamb flavour shine through more than most of my Middle Easter recipes so it may not be for you because the spice flavour is supposed to be more subtle. However, if you do want to try it, what you can do is just add more spices during the cook time or even at the end. Spices do not need to be cooked for ages, and there is plenty of cook time while the broth is reducing! N x
Hi Nagi! I *love* Persian cuisine – your series this week is fantastic!! Do you think that I could substitute beef in this dish for the lamb? If so, what cut would you recommend? Many thanks and have an awesome day! 🙂
Hi Michele! I think beef would be wonderful with this! Hmm – to stay in the spirit of slow cooked meat like this, what about beef ribs? Nice and chunky like shanks so the cook time won’t have to change much. Otherwise, make it like a beef pot roast using a large piece of rolled chuck. That would actually work very well in this recipe because there’s so much braising liquid! N x
Thank you so much, Nagi! I tried your tachin a couple of nights ago and it was amazing. Looking forward to trying this with beef, and serving the entire menu when I entertain. 🙂 xo!
How do you cook this in a pressure cooker? How much chicken stock and water for a pressure cooker? Thanks.
Hi Jeannie! I’ve popped directions in the recipe notes pressure cooker, same quantities for stock and water, and do a rapid liquid reduction at the end to reduce the broth down to a sauce 🙂 N x
Many thanks, Nagi, will try this, as well as Lisa’s advice.
I responded above about pressure cooker.
I am persian and I only cook this in a pressure cooker and its amazing. I have cooked it no less than 20 times I think in a pressure cooker. I add only 1/3 cup water and the onions and spices mentioned below. Cook for 1 hour. it’s delicious!
Thank you so much for sharing, Lisa!
Hi Lisa! Thank you so much for sharing that!!! Hearing from a Persian to validate this recipe choice makes me feel GREAT! 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, i have persian dried limes, can I add this to this dish as well. And Dozer, oh my goodness he is gorgeous
Hi Lilly! I think that would be a wonderful addition to this! Try popping 2 or 3 in at the beginning into the braising liquid 🙂 N x