Ingredients

• 4 lamb shanks - 14-oz foreshanks
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 6 springs rosemary
• carrots
• celery
• onions

Instructions

Step 1

Choose Lamb Shanks
We need 4 lamb shanks, which is a delicious cut of lamb, my favorite. Those are the foreshanks meaning they come from the front of the animal. They are about 14-oz each. The hind-shanks are larger.

Step 2

Heat the Lamb Shanks
Put your oven on 450F, a nice hot oven. The first stage here is browning the shanks, so add 2 tbsp of olive oil - give them a good coat. Salt and pepper both sides to taste. We're going to roast those for 20 minutes which will give us a nice brown color. And then we're going to encase them in heavy-duty foil. So here is the plan.

Take a half sheet pan and put a big piece of foil down, make sure you have about 10 inches to overlap each side. Put your lamb shanks down on the pan. Turn the oven down to 325F.

Step 3

Season the Lamb Shanks
Now for the flavorings, very simple. We're going to pierce, which just means poke into the skin, 6 cloves of garlic. So don't peel, poke. Add 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary. And that's it - unbelievable how much flavor we are going to get from that. Take a second piece of foil and wrap that baking dish. Be careful its hot. Once that second piece is down bring up the foil from the pan and that's going to really keep things together. Make sure the bottom is tucked in.

We're not done, we're going to take a third piece, shiny side down, and encase this whole thing. Make sure it nice and tight around the bottom, and run your fingers around the top for a tight seal. That's going to keep in all those flavors and aromas.

Step 4

Roast the Lamb Shanks
We're going to roast that for 2 hours, nice and slow. And 2 hrs later you are going to have the most amazing, aromatic, beautiful, flavorful lamb shanks. Turn up the oven to 400F, remove the rosemary and add 1 cup of chicken stock because we're going to make a natural "jus" or juice. Put it back in the oven for 15 minutes. When it comes out we are almost ready to serve.

Step 5

Serve the Lamb Shanks
Put the lamb on a nice serving tray; pour off the jus or juice into a heatproof container. In a couple minutes all the fat will come to the top and you can skim it all off. I like to garnish with some more rosemary, the garlic cloves, and just spoon over that natural juice. That is an incredible lamb dish. So simple. Sure you can add a bunch of carrots, celery and onions and make it all fancy, but this really is a great and simple recipe. I hope you give it a try. Enjoy.