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recipes: The Basics

The Basics: How to Make Boneless Leg of Lamb

Roasted, with a lemon-herb rub

From the store to the kitchen to the table: We outline the steps that get you from something raw to something cooked using simple ingredients, free of measurements and complicated techniques. A method that you can have in your back pocket and whip out whenever you like. We call it recipe-free cooking.

You'll need:

Go to Step 1

  • a vegetable peeler or zester
  • a knife
  • a bowl
  • a spoon
  • kitchen twine
  • a baking dish or roasting pan
  • a timer
  • a meat thermometer
  • two lemons
  • four to five garlic cloves
  • parsley
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • a four-pound boneless leg of lamb

Illustrations by Bill Russell

Published November 04, 2008

Comments

As I reminded myself last night, a roast can be the centerpiece for a delicious, stress-free, recipe-free dinner. Roast the lamb. Throw in some potatoes and/or other root veggies. Salad. Dessert (I made my go-to fruit crisp, which is incredibly easy and goes in the hot oven when you take the roast out, but you can do something even simpler or buy dessert).

Yum Ruth, can you share the fruit crisp recipe???

I use the same basic recipe, except I don't roll the lamb after it's been butterflied. I just throw the whole thing on the grill. The unneveness of the butterfly cut means there's always some rare parts, some medium parts, and some well done, and it's always very juicy. Maybe 8-12 minutes per side.

how is this recipe free?

It is not recipe free, it lacks some precise measurements and uses pictographs instead of complex written instructions..

Yay I have one of these sitting in my fridge so I'm glad to have some inspiration. Worchestershire and pomegranate sauce with garlic makes another great roast lamb.

I'm going to make this tonight. I was thinking about it and isn't 400 degrees too high? Shouldn't it be roasted slower at a lower temperature?

Most of what I've read sides with your view - 400 seems very high, and with a roasting time of +35 minutes? I'd think the roast would still be cold in the middle with that short of a roasting time. 325 seems to be the standard and 20-25 minutes per pound for medium-rare (20min) to medium (25min).

Four hundred degrees is a nice temperature for getting a good brown crust on a roast. Since a four-pound boneless leg of lamb is by no means a large roasting joint, I think that 35 minutes at 400 just might do the trick. That said, until someone on here tries this exact 'recipe' and reports back, we'll have little way of knowing.

What do you think?

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