Easy 48-Hour Sous Vide Lamb Shank

Super easy, Moroccan-inspired sous vide lamb shank, slow-cooked for 48 hours, this gourmet dish only requires 10 minutes of hands-on time.

If you’ve ever had lamb shank, then you know how “fall-off-the-bone tender” and insanely delicious this dish can be when cooked properly—especially when braised—such as this Sous Vide Braised Lamb Shank recipe from ChefSteps, or this Sous Vide Honey-Rosemary Lamb Shank flavored with aromatics like garlic cloves, bay leaves, and olive oil along with an Italian red wine sauce. (Drooling yet?)

Why Cook Lamb Shank with Sous Vide?

Since lamb shanks are usually found on menus at higher-end restaurants, they can seem a little intimidating to make at home. Even if you are determined to try cooking them at home, they usually require extensive preparation time and lots of babysitting. For example, when making braised lamb shanks on the stove, you’ll have to start cooking over high heat and lower the temperature to medium-high heat, and then low heat when the braising process starts. It takes about 2-3 hours to cook lamb shanks on the stove, and you don’t want to walk away from it during that time period.

However, cooking sous vide takes all that hassle out of the way.

The two major benefits to sous vide cooking are: 1) this genius machine allows you to safely walk away from it after the recipe time and temperature are set. The precise temperature makes it pretty much impossible to overcook your food. It turns tough cuts of meat into melt-in-your-mouth goodies without you even lifting a finger. 2) It locks in more juice and flavor into your recipes (by way of the vacuum-sealed sous vide bags).

That said, to make cooking lamb shanks even more enjoyable and easier, I came up with this lamb shank dish with a Moroccan-inspired blend of spices, including cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne, and coriander. All you need to do is to make the dry rub and coat your lamb with it before putting it in a bag to sous vide. The hands-on time is only 10 minutes, and there’s no need to brown the lamb beforehand or sear it after cooking. I’d say that learning to cook sous vide is probably one of the simplest yet best cooking techniques you can pick up.

It does require a bit of a time commitment, though—it’s a 48-hour recipe. But you don’t have to babysit at all and rest assured that when the time is up, your lamb shank will be tender, juicy, flavorful, and cooked to perfection.

This 48-hour sous vide lamb shank is perfect if you’re looking for a big flavorful recipe to share with your guests or something different for a quiet night in with a “gourmet cooking” vibe. You can pour the lamb juice over some mashed potatoes or make a sweet potato puree (like I did) to complete a whole meal. Pair the lamb shanks with a glass of merlot or a cabernet sauvignon, and you’re all set!

Print