French Onion-Braised Lamb Shanks With Barley and Greens Recipe (2024)

The lamb shanks I get all give off a great deal of fat as they cook. So I would skim off fat from the top of the liquid before serving, or better yet, remove the lamb from the finished dish, chill the sauce/barley/greens separately from the lamb, and remove excess fat once the sauce is cold. Then recombine the two parts the next day to reheat.

Buy your meat at the butcher and ask to “crack” the shanks. The butcher will slice through the bone, but leave the ligament attached. The result is the marrow now cooks into the stew and develops the rich flavors unique to lamb shanks.

Very nice recipe. Interestingly, India's Parsis prepare lamb/mutton similarly, browning loads of onion at the start, then browning the meat. But they typically follow up with pressure cooking - an Instant Pot will shorten Step 4 to 40 minutes.Not sure about the need for dry red wine. Dry (brut) is a fancy term for "not sweet": cheap wines often use sugar to mask immaturity/impurities. This recipe, however, benefits from mild sweetness, so even a Trader Joe's "3-buck Chuck" would work.

Suzanne F: Great point. Interestingly, the reaction to lamb fat is culture-dependent. Those who eat lamb rarely if at all find its odor repulsive, but folks in lamb-eating cultures find it appetizing, especially when combined with spices/herbs, and save it for cooking (like schmaltz/lard in European cuisines). An Iranian friend told me that kebab vendors there grill the tails of fat-tailed sheep, and use powerful fans to blast the aroma toward the street to attract customers.

"...cook until the wine is reduced by at least half, a minute or two." How do you turn two cups of wine into one cup in a minute or two?

Certain family members object to wrestling with large pieces of bone-in meat, so I typically remove all the meat from the shanks in stews & return it to the pot before serving. In my family we call this “company style.” I’ll do that here as this recipe definitely looks good enough for company.

I grew up in the Middle East where the only red meat we could regularly get was lamb. Yes, it can sometimes have a strong odor and flavor that is off-putting for some people, but that is often because what is sold here as "lamb" is actually often older and therefore more akin to mutton, which can be very "gamey" in odor and taste. The meat from a true lamb is delicious and delicate, and worth trying to find from a reliable butcher or farmer.

@Richard - RE: Instant Pot vs oven* Using the rule of thumb of 1/3 non-pressure cooking time avoids stringy meat. This works even for drying-prone meats (chicken breast, pork loin) where marination+added fat also helps. * Diligently browning meat & veggies in Steps 1-2 pushes caramelization/Maillard reactions as far as they'll go. * Pressure cooking always needs less liquid because the steam has nowhere to go. You can cook off excess liquid later, but you don't need an oven for that

Can this dish be made with farro?

I rarely follow recipes, use mostly for inspiration. Limited free time so went for it. Used farm (New England) raised lamb shanks, homemade no salt chicken stock. Delicious outcome. Many textures (meat, barley spinach), many tastes (herby meat [extra fresh rosemary], sweet from tomato paste & lamb, earthy from barley, plum notes from the wine. Will make again and maybe use short ribs. Maybe use curry, jasmine rice and slight sweetness from a chutney. Definitely a winner as is, thank you.

Most of the time this is in the oven and it only has a slightly longer prep time compared to other braises with these steps because of the caramelized onions. Flavors take a little bit of time and work to build. If some basic cooking work isn't for you (the steps here to caramelize/deglaze/reduce are the same for braises/stews around the world from bolognese to curry to mole), there's a whole industry of people who will do it for a price.

@Jed - Prices were raised a while ago. I guy I know, who drinks this exclusively, was furious when it happened, but he had little choice but to stick with it. (Aldi's has some $2.95 wines as well - the Moscato and Zinfandels, which are intrinsically sweet, are surprisingly decent.)

Quite nice, really hit the spot on a cold winter evening. I used 3” lamb neck chops rather than shanks, as that’s what the butcher had, and added a dab of anchovy paste along with the tomato paste. Red burgundy wine worked well. Had to be away from home for a few hours while this was cooking, so reduced temp to 250 and cooked an additional hour, no problem at all. Served with mashed potatoes rather than barley. A great take on a classic dish, thank you Kenji!

This was easy to prepare and so delicious. We love a good braise and this was a nice alternative to our usual go to’s such as short ribs and coq au vin. We ate heartily with enough leftover to freeze for another day. Loved it!

2 things…1) 3 pounds of onions in an 8qt Dutch oven is not going to caramelize in 40 mins. Split the onions and do them in 2 batches.2) If you’re using store bought stock definitely do the gelatin trick and reduce significantly prior to adding the shanks back in and going to the oven. (Home made stock is definitely best.) Also consider BEEF STOCK instead!

I found this recipe to result in a stew where everything tasted the same and overall the flavor was too heavy. I prefer to be able to taste the subtleties of each major ingredient.

Flour in leeks and onion

I have made this twice, and it is delicious. It does take time, so I save it for vacation time. The first time, there was a lot of fat, but I scooped it off, and it was fine. This time, I put the browned shanks on a baking sheet in the oven, at 275, while the onions caramelized (45 minutes), and a lot of the fat stayed behind on the baking sheet.

This was delicious. I cooked onions for 1 hour, not browned but very soft. Cooked lamb for 4ish hours, then took off the bone. Kept warm and reduced the sauce on the stove as didn't put gelatin in the stock. Served chunks of lamb with sauce spooned on top with polenta. Came out great.

Use american raised lamb. the New Zealand lamb can be quite strong and the meat to bone ratio is much smaller. The american lamb cost more but in my opinion well worth it

How much is “one bunch” of spinach?

Didn’t use the barley. Cut the recipe in 1/2 and had 8+ servings. Very delicious! Leftovers especially! Mashed potatoes the perfect accompaniment.

Excellent!i did not use the barley as mashed potatoes are a perfect pairing. I did add a tablespoon or so of vinegar at the end to sharpen the flavor.

We just picked up our yearly lamb from a wonderful, small herd farmer. Shanks are one of my favorite cuts as there are so many ways to prepare them. And she gave us 4 extra shanks as some others didn’t want the shanks! Made a small batch version and it was very yummy. Next time I would add a germolata at the end to brighten the dish.

Amazing recipe, I used ossobucco cut shanks and they probably could have braised another half hour to be fork tender. As is, they were easily tender and cut with a butter knife. Flavor was great but maybe add a tiny amount of vinegar when finishing to cut some richness. I recommend skimming some fat before adding the grains.

Absolutely delicious! A new favorite. Used rich homemade stock. Carmelized onions about 35 minutes. Made this over a few days: cooked through addition of barley on Day 1, leaving barley a bit underdone (had to leave the house). Refrigerated a few days, then reheated, cooked an hour at 275, then added spinach for just a few minutes. Adding the greens for the last few minutes is the only change I’d suggest - oh, and the dish was all the better for flavors marrying a few days.

I've never made lamb shanks from scratch. I luckily started with this recipe which was absolutely deliciousI got my lamb shanks from the butcher but did not know that I should ask to have them cracked. So they weren't. But that didn't stop the recipe from being terrific! I'd do it again soon!

I finished making and eating short ribs made via this method. I used store-bought chicken stock and added some gelatin to it. The recipe worked as directed. I give the prep four stars. The gravy was excellent. There is a short rib recipe by Alison Roman that I prefer, ‘Tangy Braised Short Ribs.’ PLEASE NOTE, the rate at which the onions carmelize is a function of the diameter of the pot. A larger diameter leads to quicker carmelization.