A truly decadent and love filled feast, Lamb Raan is one of those epic meals that would only make for a really really good reason. Making this dish is a true labour of love, but one that is so absolutely worth it.

In all honesty I was not planning on sharing this recipe at all! It was an experiment after combining multiple different recipes I had found that worked so incredibly well and so many of you have requested it via Instagram – so you know I had to give in and share this one right away.

My recipe takes notes from the wonderful recipes Chef Naved Nasir (Dishoom in London) from his cookbook Dishoom, Meera Sodha’s version from her book Made in India, Maunika Gowardhan’s version which I found online, but I absolutely love her cookbook Thali and finally the version by Asma Khan which she shared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen Live.

What is Lamb Raan?

Lamb Raan or Raan Mussallam literally means spiced, roasted leg of lamb. Raan actually translates to Leg in Punjabi and Urdu. Whilst traditionally made using goat in Punjab, lamb has now become the more popular meat of choice to make this epic dish.

The origin of Raan in India is quite interesting. There is one story that says that after Alexander the Great dethrones King Paurava, they formed a strong friendship and for a banquet the Raan recipe was created. Other stories say that Raan actually has more nomadic origins and probably originated in Central Asia.

Either way, Raan is made with a real labour of love. The lamb is first marinated in a spice blend for 24 hours – you read that correctly! This process helps to tenderise the meat and soften down the otherwise tough leg meat. The leg is then cooked in yet another spice blend, some vinegar and water in the oven under tender and the meat literally falls off of the bone.

But wait!

There is more!

Then we sprinkle a bit of fresh spice, and lime over the top. Then we add just a hint of yogurt and bring it all together.

It sounds pretty simple right?

What do you need to make Lamb Raan?

There isn’t all that much in terms of utensils and essential items in this recipe, apart from the critical cooking vessel. You want to invest in a casserole with a lid that can be used in the oven.

This is an important point to note here.

I own a few Correlle casseroles, however the lids cannot be safely used in the oven at higher temperature. So please do check your casseroles and the brands you have before using any of them for this recipe.

Personally, I recommend investing in a Dutch Oven (not just to make Raan, but to also make my amazing Boule bread!). I decided to purchase a cheaper Dutch Oven purely because I wanted to see what I could do and create with it before buying a really heavy duty and expensive one. In saying that though, I absolutely LOVE my Dutch Oven! I’m so happy with my purchase.

I have the olive green version from Kmart, Australia (Not sponsored!)

For folks in the Unites States, Target has their own selection.

You can also find plenty of options on Amazon

If you want to splurge a little, or add something to your gift registry you can go ahead and indulge in the hallmark Le Creuset Dutch Oven. Expensive, but oh my goodness beautiful! The Volcanic range is just stunning!

Now a Dutch Oven is simple a cast iron casserole, and to roast out Lamb we still need an oven!

If you cannot find yourself a Dutch Oven or a casserole with a suitable lid, you can go ahead and using a baking tray and tightly cover the lamb in a double layer of aluminum foil. Make sure it is sealed nice and tightly to replicate a lid!

What cut of Lamb should I use?

I spent a lot of time researching this.

A LOT!

A half leg of lamb was already over 1 kilo in weight, and considering there are 2 people in my home (myself and my vegetarian husband), this was just far too much meat to cook for an experiment.

So when I first made this recipe, I tried to find a way to use a similar cut of meat, that was a lot more manageable.

For this recipe you can use a whole leg, half a leg, or even lamb shanks. Just take note of the weight of the lamb in this recipe – typically lamb shanks are between 200g to 400g, so if you choose to use one lamb shank (like I did for my experiment) make sure you divide the recipe by at least 3.

How to Make Lamb Raan?

Ok.

Let’s do this.

Start by cleaning the lamb and patting it completely dry. I set the lamb into a baking dish or baking tray that can comfortably fit the lamb leg or shanks.

Now in a separate bowl we prepare the first marinade. The first part to this is to make a paste of the ginger and garlic. You can do this in a grinder, mortar and pestle, micro-plane or even store purchased paste. To this paste we add the salt, ground almonds (which are optional) and chilli powder and combine until smooth. This spice paste is then rubbed all over the lamb (make sure you cover it completely!). Now we tightly cover the lamb in some cling film or a lid (if there is one that fits!) and place in the fridge for at least 12 hours, but preferably for 24 hours.

In terms of timing this recipe, you want to remove the lamb from the fridge roughly 5-6 hours before you intend on serving this recipe (I got this tip from Dishoom!). The lamb needs to rest for 30-45 minutes to reach room temperature before we move onto cooking the Raan. With about 20 minutes to spare, it’s time to pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius / 320 degrees Fahrenheit using a conventional oven, or 180 degrees Celcius / 356 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now we create a bed of the onion or shallots (depending on what you choose to use) in the casserole/Dutch Oven. Then we add in the whole spiced which include a bay leaf, cinnamon sticks, green cardamom pods, start anise, cloves, black peppercorns and saffron strands. Place the lamb into the Dutch Oven/casserole/baking dish and then add in the vinegar and fill the pot with water until it is at least halfway around the meat.

Depending on the size of your casserole/baking dish, the quantity of water will vary. This goes into the oven to roast for 3.5 to 4 hours until the meat is tender and falling off of the bone – every hour however you need to take the baking dish out and give the cooking liquid a mix, turn the lamb leg over and then spoon over the cooking liquid directly over the meat. Make sure you top up the water maintaining the level throughout the cook!

After cooking for the hours your home should be smelling absolutely incredible! Now it’s time to remove the the dish from the oven and rest the lamb for 30 minutes. In the meantime, turn on the grill to its highest setting and prepare a separate baking tray lined with foil or baking paper. Strain the lamb cooking liquid – now I keep the shallot/onion for serving, but this is completely optional.

Once the meat has rested, use forks to shred the meat of of the bone. Save the bones for serving, then arrange the shredded meat onto the baking tray along with roughly 100 – 150mL of the cooking liquid, some butter or ghee, a squeeze of lime juice and the spice mix. This is where you can taste test and add some more of any of these ingredients.

If the lamb here tastes a little too spicy, feel free to add just a hint of honey to sweeten it up and tone down some of the heat.

Now the baking tray goes under the grill to develop some lovely crispy bits and char. This step seems a bit unnecessary, and technically it is complete optional but when I tried this I found it resulted in something totally unbelievable. The crispy bits add beautiful texture to the melt-in-you-mouth meat – this extra step is SO worth it!

After about 5-10 minutes the lamb should have developed nice colour. Now we arrange the lamb into the serving dish. Every recipe arranges the lamb to resemble the lamb on the bone, so do your best here. I dollop just a hint of yogurt and mix it through the lamb to add some creaminess (this is important if you want to make the flavours a little milder). To serve I scatter some toasted almond, coriander leaves, pomegranate leaves, fried shallots and some red or green chilli.

And that, is Lamb Raan.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much I absolutely loved it. Trust me your home is going to smell absolutely incredible while making this. If you do, please do share your attempt with me @theminiaturelife on Instagram and leave me a comment below!