Recipes & How-To's
Braised Leg of Lamb in Red Wine Sauce

Braised Leg of Lamb in Red Wine Sauce

This delicious leg of lamb is marinated for up to 24 hours in a combination of savoury spices and red wine and then is braised in this marinade until tender. Serve this lamb dish at your next fall or winter gathering.

Cook time

1 hr 45 mins

Recipe Difficulty

Medium

Yield

Serves 5

Ingredients

  • 2 cups chopped red onion*
  • 2 cups red wine
  • 2/3 cup chopped carrot*
  • 1 cup chopped celery*
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme, crumbled*
  • 2 bay leaves*
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary or ½ tsp dried rosemary, crumbled*
  • 2 1/2 lb (1.25 kg) boneless leg of lamb
  • 1 tbsp canola oil

Directions

  1. To prepare marinade, combine all ingredients except lamb and oil in a large heavy zip-lock plastic bag.
  2. Add lamb and squeeze bag to coat lamb with marinade. Seal bag and place on a tray. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.
  3. Preheat oven to 300ºF.
  4. Remove lamb from marinade; reserve marinade, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary.
  5. Heat oil in a large deep non-stick frypan over medium heat. Add lamb and brown on all sides. Transfer lamb to a roasting pan; set aside.
  6. Add marinade, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary to same frypan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
  7. Pour hot marinade over lamb in roasting pan.
  8. Bake, covered, until a meat thermometer registers 135ºF, about 1 1/4 hours.
  9. Transfer lamb to a platter and cover with foil; reserve drippings. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving. The internal temperature will continue to rise during standing. The final temperature should be 145ºF for medium-rare lamb.
  10. Meanwhile, to prepare sauce, place drippings in a large deep non-stick frypan over medium heat; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 10 – 15 minutes.
  11. Strain sauce through a large strainer into a large heatproof bowl; discard solids.
  12. Pour sauce into a serving dish and serve immediately with lamb.

Nutritional analysis per serving

*Ingredient not included in nutritional analysis.

543 calories, 30 g fat, 42.4 g protein, 7.2 g carbohydrate, 0.2 g fibre, 119 mg sodium