Braised Lamb Shanks | Cook like a Chef

Difficulty:
1/5

Serves 6 as a main course

Ingredients

  • 1 cup beef stock
  • Handful of dried porcini mushrooms
  • 6 lamb shanks
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cups good red wine
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 2 carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
  • 6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
  • 2 rosemary stalks
  • 4 thyme stalks

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 325F
  2. Nuke the beef stock for 3 minutes to get it nice and hot. Add the dried mushrooms to the hot stock and cover with plastic wrap to push the mushrooms down into the stock. Let sit to steep for at least 30 minutes
  3. Add half the olive oil to a large skillet over a medium high heat till the oil is hot but not smoking
  4. Season the shanks with salt and pepper. Add three of the shanks to the skillet and brown on all sides, for a total of about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the browned shanks to a large oven-proof casserole dish along with carrots, onion, celery, garlic, rosemary and thyme
  5. Pour off the oil without cleaning the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the oil to the same skillet and repeat the process for the next 3 shanks
  6. Once all the shanks are in the casserole dish, deglaze the skillet with ½ cup of the red wine, scrapping up all the lovely brown bits. After 2 minutes or so, pour the deglazed liquid into the casserole
  7. Add the remaining wine to the casserole along with the stock and the mushrooms
  8. Cover tightly and cook in the middle of the oven for at least 3 hours, or until the meat fairly falls away from the bone at the touch of a fork
  9. Remove the shanks from the casserole and set aside under tin foil
  10. Strain the liquid from the casserole dish into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over a high heat. Reduce heat to medium until the sauce reduces by half. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the lamb