Like many families, my family typically has turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc for Thanksgiving dinner. However, this year we decided to switch things up a little bit. Some of this was due to the fact that my freezer was full of way too much stuff and I needed to make room. However, it was also a bit because we won’t be responsible for making Christmas dinner this year and therefore can’t make any of the things I’d typically make.
You might be a little confused at this point. Let me explain. My maternal grandfather was Greek and via his family came many of the holiday traditions from my childhood. One of these is/was roasted leg of lamb for Xmas dinner.
When I got married what seems like an eternity ago, I brought this particular tradition with me. So we’d often have roasted leg of lamb for either Xmas or Easter. In exchange my husband is in charge of Thanksgiving dinner – turkey and the trimmings. I’ve never really been big on the “traditional” Thanksgiving meal so this worked out perfect.
But this year there won’t be lamb for Xmas. So I convinced my husband to have roasted lamb with potatoes and brussels sprouts for our Thanksgiving feast. The only downside of this plan was for the first time in 20 years I had to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
Luckily roasted lamb is pretty old hat for me at this point.
- Step one preheat oven to 325.
- Step two stuff lamb with two heads of garlic. This is done by poking holes into the lamb leg and inserting whole or pieces of garlic cloves.
- Insert leg of lamb into oven and cook about 2 hours.
- While the lamb is cooking, cut up into quarters unpeeled potatoes. Preferably yukon gold or red. Russet works too but I recommend peeling those. Set in cold water to soak so they don’t brown
- Remove lamb from oven. Take leg out of pan and place on to foil. Tent foil over the cooked leg
- Drain potatoes and dump into drippings generated by roasting lamb. Stir until potatoes are COMPLETELY covered in lamb drippings
- Put potatoes into oven at 350 and convection bake for 20-30 minutes
- Pull out potatoes when they are cooked and have crust on exterior
- Carve slices of lamb and serve