Sunday Dinner- Oven Baked Lamb Shanks

The first time I made this recipe was several months ago for our South African friends. We had had lamb shanks at their house a few times before and I wanted to learn how to cook them. I looked up several recipes online trying to find one we would all enjoy, but ended up taking a few ingredients from a couple different ones and making my own. Maybe this recipe already exists somewhere out there, but I haven't found it yet. I figured this was a great one to do today because I have really been missing our friends, since they moved back to South Africa recently.

Ingredients:
2-4 Lamb Shanks- I used 2 large ones tonight, since it was just my husband, myself, and two of our daughters eating them. Plan on 1 shank per adult.
1-2 lemons
chicken broth
garlic cloves- to taste. I think I used 4
olive oil
a few sprigs fresh rosemary (mine came from my garden)
Salt and Pepper to taste




Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Rinse the lamb shanks in cool water to rinse off any fluid from the packaging.
2. Place in either a roasting pan or cast iron pot. Pour about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over the shanks. Pour chicken broth over the meat - enough to cover the bottom of the pot or pan, about an inch deep.
3. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon (2 if you use 4 shanks) over the meat, add the lemon pieces to the pot. Add the garlic, rosemary, and sprinkle with freshly ground salt and pepper.


4. Cover and bake at 375F for about an hour.
5. After an hour or so, once the meat has started to brown slightly, take the cover off and continue to cook until the meat is pulling away from the bone. You can also turn the heat up to 400F at this point to help the meat brown.



I served this with oven roasted red skinned potatoes seasoned with fresh rosemary, and sauteed baby carrots.



*Side note- Our CSA delivery starts up this week and we are so excited! Our house is actually going to be a dropoff location, so we don't have to work the once-a- week pick up into our schedule. I do some tech work for our CSA, so I already know what's coming and I can't wait!