Five hours in a low oven until the lamb pulls apart with a spoon, with potatoes cooking underneath in the juices.
Prep
25 mins
Cook
5h
Servings
6
Per serving
£4.33
Difficulty
easy
This is the single best thing to cook for a table of people who are not in a hurry. It needs almost no attention - the only work is at the start - and the potatoes underneath, which soak up lamb fat, lemon and oregano for five hours, get eaten faster than the meat.
Heat the oven to 220C fan. Make deep slits all over the lamb with a small sharp knife and push a sliver of garlic into each one.
Rub the shoulder with 2 tbsp of the oil, 2 tbsp of the oregano, the zest of one lemon, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Get right into the slits.
Scatter the potatoes, onion wedges, whole garlic cloves and rosemary in a deep roasting tin. Toss with the remaining oil, oregano, salt and pepper and the juice of one lemon.
Sit the lamb directly on the vegetables. Pour the stock and wine around, not over, the meat. Roast at 220C for 25 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 140C fan, cover the tin tightly with two layers of foil and cook for 4 hours 30 minutes.
Tight foil matters more than anything else here. Any steam that escapes is moisture the lamb does not get.
Remove the foil, baste the lamb with the pan juices and roast uncovered at 190C fan for a final 25 minutes to brown the top and crisp the potatoes.
Rest the lamb loosely covered for 20 minutes, then pull it apart with two forks. Squeeze over the last lemon and serve with the potatoes and the pan juices.