Sometimes I don’t want to put much thought or energy into preparing dinner, but I still want to have something tasty ready when we want to eat. A slow cooker is fantastic for that as long as you begin with flavorful ingredients. Lamb shank is perfect for the slow cooker because long and slow makes it tender and delicious. The bones make great stock afterwards, so be sure to save them.
Preparing Lamb Shank
I recommend removing excess fat and connective tissue with a sharp knife first. Even if I am doing a no brainer dinner like this, I remind myself to take the time to sharpen my knife because I get very irritated when I must work harder than my tool to accomplish a task. (A knife sharpener is essential equipment, by the way. If you don’t have one, put it on your list.)
After that, I sprinkled with a little salt and garlic powder and put into the slow cooker. A packet of dried onion soup and a couple cups of water are all I need to make these shanks amazing. Four hours on low and you have a fantastic main dish. A couple hours in the oven works just as well.
Accompaniments
What do you want to pair them with? You could do all kinds of things, but as I was doing what I basically considered a zero labor meal, I tossed some green beans and chopped carrots into the slow cooker at the same time that I began to boil some potatoes on the stovetop just before dinner time. I had decided to make mashed potatoes and serve the onion soup as gravy. I could have thickened up the gravy with a little flour in the end, but I didn’t because this was a zero effort meal…hands on time took maybe 15 minutes to remove fat from shanks and scrub and chop potatoes. No work. Delicious, especially when paired with a nice Barbera. Red wine elevates any meat and potatoes dish in my opinion…Hooray for effortlessly simple meals!
New to cooking lamb? Read Be a Lamb and Try for more tips.