succulent lamb shanks that have been braised and slowly cooked in a red wine, tomato, and basil sauce. Serve with grilled zucchini and mushroom risotto.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 large white onions, chopped
- 4 lamb shanks
- 2 cups dry red wine
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed
- 2 lemons, quartered
- 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
- 1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Place the onions in a layer in the bottom of a Dutch oven or medium roasting pan with a lid. Arrange the lamb shanks on top of the onions. Pour the wine, balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the lamb. Place a clove of pressed garlic next to each shank, and a quarter of a lemon on each side. Pour the tomatoes over everything, then season with salt, pepper and basil.
- Cover and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 3 hours. Use juices from the pan to make a nice flavorful gravy.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 572 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 34 g |
| Cholesterol | 86 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 33 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1851 mg |
| Sugars | 18 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The addition of the quartered lemons did it. Fantastic flavour !!
Easy and delicious meal. Had not made lamb shanks before, but will be doing this one again!
I think next time I might not use quite as much balsamic. I found it a little acidic. Also, I had to use leg of lamb cut into shank sized chunks because I couldn’t find shanks and there was a little more fat so I probably could have used less olive oil. Overall though it was very flavourful and I’d make it again.
Excellent dish. I had 6 shanks, four of them I put in a crock pot and two I did in the oven. I did have trouble with to much liquid in the crock pot as it was really full but both dishes turned out beautifully. Very tender. I did use a bit of corn starch to thicken up the sauce for the crock pot ones. My company raved about them and I’ll definitely use this recipe again.
I made this with a venison shank. Turned out amazing. Used the leftovers as a sauce served over pappardelle. Pasta.
I have made this recipe for several years and it remains one of my favorites. Made it again today and added 8 halved Brussel Sprouts-a tasty addition.
I made the recipe as written. The Lamb was cooked perfectly, but was inedible. Too much acid for anyone in my household or guest’s taste. I wasted all that time and money to order a pizza for company. I tried in vain to Doctor the Lamb, it all went into the trash.
Made this. It did not need the vinegar, should have listed to others and cut way back on it. Otherwise it was OK, meat was tender.
This was really delicious. I’m very grateful for all the reviews as I did reduce the balsamic vinegar and I did add a half teaspoon of brown sugar, both of which added greatly to the flavour. I will definitely make this again
I strongly recommend adding brussel sprouts for the last 20 to 30 minutes; their sweetness was an excellent counter point to the sour sauce. I made a 1/2 recipe with shank pieces; at 2 1/2 hours, most of the meat had fallen off the bone, so I removed it and left bones in sauce for the sprout cooking. Served with polenta. Easy and excellent.
More please! I followed the advice of previous reviews and added 1 Tb. Brown sugar and omitted the Lemmon, I cut the balsamic vinegar to 3/4 cup. I served it with polenta and mixed greens.
Was very yummy!
Bev – good as is. Bob – could use less vinegar.
Not a fan of the shanks, but the sauce was delicious.
Made this twice now. We used sweet red wine the second time and it came out better, much more rounded. Almost like an Italian sweet and sour with the balsamic and lemon. Also put in some fresh rosemary, it grows in our yard and goes with everything in this dish. The shanks come out with almost a BBQ like bark on top, and fall apart into moist tender deliciousness.
This is awesome! Used merlot and then drank the rest with dinner. The only negative is that I don’t have a Dutch over so used my Pyrex casserole dish. The lid is soaking and hopefully will recover from the burnt on sauce. But will definitely make again.
I agree that this is a great recipe for non-lamb lovers. It made a believer out of me. I tweaked it a little since I didn’t have some of the ingredients but had to make it for my husbands birthday meal since he loves lamb. I only added 1/4 cup of vinegar but probably could have omitted it altogether since I also added capers! Also I only had a half a yellow onion so I added green onions with it. Left out the lemon completely and spread minced garlic over the shanks, and added 2 more cloves of roughly chopped garlic to sauce. Used a good sweet red Zin and ONE 14oz. can of stewed Italian tomatoes I chopped in smaller pieces, which was plenty. Sprinkled dry basil on top and would leave out the oil next time as there was plenty of fat from the lamb. I also added some peeled potato pieces to thicken and absorb the sauce during cooking. After dinner, I couldn’t stop picking at it! The sauce was so tasty. Next time I will add mushrooms too. It smelled like lamb, but didn’t taste like it. I will make this again for my husband and will enjoy it with him.
Absolutely delicious. I didn’t change a thing. Plenty of leftover gravy to put on pasta, too. Really great.
I made this recipe to scale, but only added 1 lemon quartered. I found with even this the oil from the peel gave the dish a bitter after-taste. I would either peel the lemon or omit it altogether. After 3 hours meat was very tender and fell off the bone, but couldn’t overcome the lemon-oil after-taste,
I made this as directed with the only change being that I halved the vinegar and also the lemon but I wasn’t too thrilled with the results. It came out much too sweet, oily, and lemony. Also, as written, the instructions for the lemon are confusing. It reads that there should be 2 lemons quartered and if I’m supposed to place a lemon quarter on each side, it doesn’t make much sense unless the pan is 8 sided?? I *think* it should have read 2 lemons halved.
I’m sorry but even with half the balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoon brown sugar, and one lemon I thought liquid was too sour. The meat was delicious. I like that this recipe does not require browning the shanks in oil before baking. I grilled the meet on the bbq for about 8 minutes to burn off some fat and get that smoked flavor. Next time I will omit the lemons and vinegar altogether and just use red wine. Thank you.