Roasted boneless leg of lamb is a flavorful and easy-to-prepare cut that makes a great meal for a holiday dinner or other special occasion. When baking a boneless leg of lamb, the meat naturally has a slightly different degree of doneness—perfect when feeding a crowd with different tastes! Use my homemade lamb seasoning to flavor the roast.
Roasted Leg of Lamb
A roasted leg of lamb has been a traditional centerpiece of a meal, especially on holidays for many different religions and cultures, for centuries. Lamb is nutritious, versatile, and uses fewer resources than some other meats, such as beef. It is comparable to beef in that you can cook lamb to medium rare for those of us who enjoy a slightly rare flavor profile.
Bone in or Boneless Leg of Lamb
This recipe works for either type of lamb leg. The cooking time is fairly similar for both, and both should be cooked to the same medium-rare temperature. Boneless lamb takes slightly less time to cook than bone-in lamb.
Cooking Temperatures for Lamb
Cooking times and internal finishing temperatures are critical when roasting lamb. The FDA recommends cooking lamb to 145°F for safety reasons. If you cook your lamb to rare temperatures (120°F) then that is against safety recommendations and completely up to you! The best results are medium rare for tender meat that is safe to eat.
Medium Rare – Pull it out of the oven at 135 °F. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. The internal temperature will rise to 145°F.
Medium – Pull it out of the oven at 150°F. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. The internal temperature will rise to around 160°F.
Well – Pull it out of the oven at 160 °F. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. The internal temperature will rise to around 170°F.
Leave the Netting on the Lamb Roast
If you have a cut of meat wrapped in butcher’s twine or netting, like the one I used in this recipe, leave it on the meat to cook. String or netting is used on the meat because it is a cut that must be held together to cook correctly. This boneless leg of lamb has the bone removed and thus needs to be held together with netting to roast properly. Cut the netting or string off after it’s cooked, and slice the roast to serve.
Ingredients Needed
Basic, easy ingredients are used for a wonderful meal all in one pan. See the recipe at the bottom of this post for exact measurements.
- one 4-pound leg of lamb boneless
- butter
- lamb seasoning
- Russet potatoes
- large carrots
- medium yellow onions
- smoked paprika
- paprika
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
Seasoning the Vegetables
I chose to use two different paprikas to flavor my vegetables, but you can choose to use any seasonings you like, from seasoned salt to Italian seasoning. You can even simply use salt and pepper if you desire!
The drippings from the butter/lamb seasoning mixture will mix into the vegetables, so I used mild seasonings in my vegetables to account for that.
How to Store Leftovers
This dish is easily kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Just separate the vegetables and the meat into two containers and pour any extra liquid onto the meat so it can stay nice and juicy. Eat the leftovers by simply reheating them.
Happy Cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
More Lamb Recipes
Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
- one 4 pound leg of lamb boneless
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tablespoons lamb seasoning
Vegetables
- 8 medium Russet potatoes washed, peeled, and cut into large wedges
- 3 large carrots washed, peeled, and cut into large chunks on the bias
- 2 medium yellow onions peeled and cut into wedges
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Remove the leg of lamb from all packaging and pat dry with paper towels. If there is netting or strings, leave them on for cooking.
- Prepare the lamb seasoning.
- Mix the lamb seasoning with the butter until well combined.
- Place the lamb on a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Cover the top and sides of the leg of lamb with the spiced butter mixture, on top of the netting is fine as you will cook this with the netting on.
- Preheat the oven to 450 °F.
- In a large bowl, add the vegetables. Toss with the olive oil, then sprinkle the paprikas on top evenly. Place the vegetables around the leg of lamb on the baking sheet.
- Place the leg of lamb in the oven and cook at high heat until the leg of lamb is nicely seared on the outside. Turn the oven down to 325 °F.
- Roast until the leg of lamb has reached at least 135°F. Lamb takes approximately 15-20 minutes per pound to cook.
- Remove the pan from the oven, cover the entire pan with foil and let the leg of lamb rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. The lamb will continue to cook, and its internal temperature will continue to rise to around 145°F. Slice the lamb into pieces against the grain.
- Place the roast lamb and vegetables on a large serving platter and serve.
Notes
- Play around with the vegetables on the baking sheet, just make sure that they are cut small enough to roast along with the lamb and be done the same time.
Nutrition
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