Persian Style Saffron Braised Lamb Shank
Saffron braised, Persian style, lamb shanks, smothered with onions and tomatoes is one of my favorite dishes to make when entertaining or for a comfort meal at home. Don’t get me wrong. I also love having this dish at a restaurant, served with fava beans and dill herbed rice. So good.
I love this recipe because it’s so easy. It’s low on mess and effort and the oven does all the work. The result is a flavorful succulent hearty meal that you will look for any opportunity to make.
I’ve paired it with fluffy, saffron rice for an easy and festive side dish. I used a rice cooker and toasted it extra long for a crispy and golden tahdig crunchy rice. Accompanied by a tangy bowl of torshi or a nice fresh wedge of raw onion, makes this meal complete.
As you can see I’m pretty happy about how this recipe turned out!
Watch the Video for step by step instructions:
Persian Style Saffron Braised Lamb Shanks
Welcome to your new favorite dish: Persian Style Saffron Braised Lamn Shanks. An unapologeticly easy recipe, resulting in succelent and tender lamb in a saffron and onion broth.
Ingredients
- 8 x lamb shanks
- 8 x teaspoons salt
- 4 x teaspoons ground pepper
- 4 x teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 x large onions (yellow or white)
- 4 x roma tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon ground saffron bloomed in warm water.
Instructions
1. Rinse off shanks and pat dry.
2. Place on a sheet pan and season well with salt, pepper, turmeric, and a dash of cinnamon.
3. Place in 500 degree oven for 25-30 minutes to brown the shanks. Will get smokey.
4.Meanwhile slice up a bunch of onions. Ie: for 4 shanks use at least 2 big onions. For 8 shanks I used 4+ big ones. Place in a deep pan or oven safe pot. I added about 5 Roma tomatoes coarsely chopped on top.
5.Nestle the shanks onto the onions and tomatoes and cover tightly with foil.
6.Turn oven down to 350 and cook for 2 -2.5 hours until shanks are fork tender.
7.About half way through you can flip them.
8.Last 30 minutes you can remove foil, and can add bloomed saffron if you’d like.
9.Onions will give off liquid which will taste amazing drizzled over shanks or sides. If not using enough onions, add water to bottom of pot so it doesn’t dry out.
Notes
Pair with dill and fava bean rice called Bagheleh Polo. For easier option use white or saffron rice.
Serve with Torshi Persian pickled vegetables.
Consider making a full batch as it wont take incremental time to make more.
Let me know if you make this dish! Hope you like it as much as I do!