Caramelized Roast Leg of Lamb

Sunday roast time for the holiday season! Let’s make the caramelized roast leg of lamb at home. It is a roast leg of lamb with sweet soy sauce glaze, so it looks caramelized on the leg lamb. Making caramelized roast leg of lamb can make your Sunday roast more special. Don’t worry for those who haven’t cooked a leg of lamb! This recipe is easy even for first-timer.

Roast Leg of Lamb for the Sunday Roast

Until now, most families still carry out the Sunday Roast tradition. In fact, Sunday Roast menus also are peoples’ favorite food in the restaurant or cafe. The banquet menu is also increasingly varied and still retains some of the traditional side dishes. In the Sunday Roast dinner, the menu served consists of grilled meats, grilled vegetables, and other side dishes.

There are more and more variations of this Sunday roast food. Moreover, people also feel that banquets on Sundays are among the best. If you’re on a diet, usually a Sunday roast will be your revenge after eating healthy food or low calorie for a week.

You can choose a kind of meat you like such as beef, chicken, lamb, and others. This time, I try to make a caramelized roast leg of lamb. I choose a leg of lamb because the bone leg produces a flavorful aroma.

This menu has a unique taste because of using sweet soy sauce as gravy. Besides, the meat is moist and tender. With a spread of sweet soy sauce, it becomes caramel on the surface with a savory and sweet taste.

Are you mouthwatering? Just imagining and seeing the photos, I can’t wait to eat more.

On the other hand, I’ll give some tips for you to process and make a good leg of lamb. Firstly, for you who want to know how to get rid of a unique smell from a leg of lamb, you can see some tips that I tried below.

How to Get Rid a Unique Leg of Lamb Smell

It takes tricky steps to get rid of the bad leg of the lamb smell and taste good. Here’s how to process lamb leg so that the results are delicious and don’t smell bad.

1. Choose lamb over mutton

Lamb has two different meat names; lamb and mutton. What is the difference? Lamb is a sheep that is less than one year old. Because lamb usually cooks when it’s less than 1 year old, the meat is tender. The lamb digests the grass well. So, the grass taste in lamb is limited. Also, because of the young age, lamb is easier to eat.

2. Remove as much fat as possible

The cause of the unique smell is phytol in lamb fat. Besides, lamb contains more unsaturated fat than beef and pork. It makes the latter easily oxidized. Hence, an oxidized odor can cause a bad smell. Therefore, when preparing lamb chops, it’s best to either remove the fat or add a few slices between the fat to make it easier to melt when cooking.

3. Use herbs effectively

Herbs have many beneficial effects, such as relaxation and aroma, but also play a role in eliminating food odors. Because of the unique smell of lamb, it’s best to use herbs with a stronger odor (such as rosemary) to get rid of the unique odor. When processing meat, apply rosemary to the meat so that it smells good. This way, you can enjoy lamb chops with a little rosemary. Next, I will introduce a simple and delicious leg of lamb recipe.

Not only the lamb meat, but you can also cook other parts of lamb like the leg of lamb. Therefore, I will introduce a simple method of cooking lamb leg. A general tip for cook the lamb is not to overcook. Because the lamb itself is very tender, the meat fibers will shrink and become tough if overcooked.

When preparing lamb chops, I recommend not to season the lamb too much. It’s rather to cook the lamb and then dip it in the sauce. For the lamb, you should soak it to get rid of the unique odor of the lamb.

About This Recipe

Indonesian has a unique sauce for roasting. They add sweet soy sauce to the roasting spread. Therefore, I add sweet soy sauce to this dish. It will give caramel flavor to the meat.

Besides, every person has a preference level of mellowness. You yourself can adjust it to your taste. I’m going to list the roasting time and temperature that affects the roasting result:

• Rare: 125 ° F (about 15 minutes per pound)
• Medium-Rare: 130 ° F to 135 ° F (about 20 minutes per pound)
• Medium: 135 ° F to 140 ° F (about 25 minutes per pound)
• Well-Done: 155 ° F to 165 ° F (about 30 minutes per pound)

What do you need to make it?

Here’s what you need to make Roast Leg of Lamb:

• 4.4 lbs Leg of Lamb 2 kg, bone-in & room temperature
• 3 big Russet Potatoes
• 6 sprigs Rosemary
• 10 cloves Garlic
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce kecap manis
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper coarsely crush
• 250 ml Beef Stock or water
• 1 tbsp Cornstarch

The Steps of Making Caramelized Roast a Leg of Lamb

In the beginning, the temperature is really high, 425 ° F for 20 minutes. This method is to seal the outside so that not too much water in the meat comes out. The result will be moist & tender. So, preheat oven to 450°F or 220°C.

Then, remove the potato skins and cut the potatoes into 4 pieces each.

Using a sharp-pointed knife, make about 16 small incisions all over the leg of the lamb. Divide each garlic into 2 pieces. Dip in the sea salt and insert it into the incisions. Insert ¼ of rosemary sprig into the incisions.

Next step, rub the lamb with 1 tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper all over.

Place the potatoes in a baking tray. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, the rest of the garlic, and 1 tbsp olive oil. I put the potatoes under the leg of lamb so that heat flows through the inside and bottom as well.

Place the leg of lamb on above the potatoes.

Roast the leg of lamb for 20 minutes on the middle shelf. Then lower the temperature to 350°F or 175°C for 50 minutes. After 50 minutes, open the oven and rub the top of the leg of lamb with 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce with a brush. Roast again for 15 minutes until caramelized and the temperature inside the leg is 135°F or 58°C (medium-rare to medium).

Remove from the oven and transfer the leg of lamb and potatoes to a different plate. Cover the leg of lamb with aluminum foil and let rest for at least 15 minutes.

Transfer the rest of the lamb bits and stock from the baking tray to a pot (rosemary removed). Add 250ml beef stock or water with 1 tbsp cornstarch. Stir to combine.

Turn on the stove on medium heat and keep stirring until the gravy thickens. Turn off the heat. Add salt and pepper if necessary.

Also, if you want the condition of the meat according to what you want, whether it’s medium-rare or medium, you can use a meat thermometer. The more well-done the meat is, the red color of the meat will fade. Besides, it will be chewier.

Recipe Notes:

• The leg of lamb will keep warm for about several hours. If you have guests, slice the leg of lamb on the table after the guests have arrived and serve immediately.
• Just before serving, you may remove the rosemary in the incisions for visual purpose.

You may like others recipe for your main dish:

• Classic and Juicy Roast Chicken
• Pressure Cooked Mutton Biryani
• Beef Teriyaki