Meat Dishes
Roast Lamb
Recipe No. 0660
A roast leg of lamb the Chef Col way: garlic and rosemary are tucked into the joint, it roasts at a lively 220°C until pink or well done, then rests so the temperature finishes in the meat, while the tin becomes a simple red-wine gravy.
- Serves 6
- Cooking time about 1¼ hrs for a 2 kg leg, pink, plus 15–30 min resting
- British
- 2 kg leg of lamb
- Probe thermometer essential
The portions control scales the gravy and flavourings, not the joint’s cooking time. Use the actual weight of the leg and the probe; the timing guide does not change with portions.
Method
Take the lamb (2 kg) out of the fridge about 1 hour before cooking so the heat goes through more evenly. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7].
Make small incisions in the lamb, at a slight angle, and push a sliver of garlic (4 cloves) and a short sprig of rosemary into each one. If you are using the anchovies (4), add a small piece to some of the holes as well. Season the joint all over with sea salt flakes and black pepper, then rub it with the olive oil (2 tbsp).
Scatter the onions (2), carrot (1 carrot) and the remaining rosemary in a roasting tin and sit the lamb on top, so it roasts rather than sitting in its juices. Roast at 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] for about 1¼ hours for pink (medium-rare), or about 15 minutes longer if you want it well done. These times are for a 2 kg leg and are a guide only — see the timing table. Start probing 10–15 minutes before the low end of the time.
Push a clean probe into the thickest part of the meat, away from bone and fat. Take the joint out at 47°C [117°F] for rare, 50°C [122°F] for medium-rare (pink right across once it has rested), 55°C [131°F] for medium, or 64°C [147°F] for well done. The temperature rises about 6°C [11°F] as it rests, so the take-out figure is not the temperature it ends up at — see the doneness table.
Lift the lamb onto a warm board, cover it loosely with foil and rest for 15–30 minutes (20 minutes is a good middle course). It keeps cooking in this time, and the juices settle so they stay in the meat when you carve.
For the gravy, tilt the tin and skim off most of the fat, leaving about 1–2 tbsp and all the browned juices and soft vegetables. Set the tin over a medium heat, stir in the flour (1 tbsp) and cook for a minute. Pour in the red wine (150 ml) and scrape up the browned, not burnt, bits. Let it bubble until reduced by about half, then add the hot stock (400 ml) and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain into a jug, pressing the vegetables. Taste, season, and whisk in the redcurrant jelly (1 tsp) if you are using it.
Carve the lamb across the grain, fairly thinly, and serve with the gravy. Mint sauce sits well alongside — see our mint sauce.
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Chef’s notes
- Oven and time: a 2 kg leg takes about 1¼ hours at 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] for pink, or about 15 minutes more for well done. That is the figure on our Roasting Know How page, from Jamie Oliver’s roasting guide. Other weights in the table are planning estimates; start checking early and finish by the probe.
- Probe temperatures follow the same chart as our roast beef, as set out on the roasting page. Take the joint out at 47°C [117°F] for rare (53°C [127°F] after resting), 50°C [122°F] for medium-rare (56°C [133°F] after resting), 55°C [131°F] for medium (61°C [142°F] after resting), or 64°C [147°F] for well done (70°C [158°F] after resting). The temperature rises about 6°C [11°F] as it rests; see the doneness table.
- Pink lamb is safe in a whole joint: the Food Standards Agency advises that whole beef and lamb joints only need the outside well sealed, so they can be served pink. Rolled or boned-and-tied joints should be cooked through.
- Welsh lamb, when you can get it, is a fine choice for a joint like this — the flavour is there already, so the garlic and rosemary are just a helping hand. English, Scottish or Irish lamb works the same way. Hogget (a year-old animal) has a deeper flavour if your butcher has it.
- The anchovies are optional. They melt into the meat and season it, rather than tasting fishy. Leave them out if you prefer.
- If the outside is browning too fast, lay a loose piece of foil over the top without sealing the tin. If the vegetables in the tin start to catch, add a splash of water or stock.
- Leftovers (UK FSA): carve remaining meat into small portions promptly; cool quickly and refrigerate within 2 hours, counting resting and serving time too. Eat within 48 hours, or freeze in labelled portions. Reheat only once, until steaming hot all the way through. Cold lamb also makes a very good sandwich with mint sauce.
Safety guidance: FSA cooking food safely and FSA cooking and leftovers.
Weight and timing guide
These times are for a bone-in leg at 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7]. The 2 kg figures follow our roasting page and Jamie Oliver’s guide. The other weights are editorial planning estimates, not a tested extension of those timings. The clock is for planning only: the shape of the joint, the bone and your oven all change them, so start checking early and finish by the probe.
| Weight | Serves (guide) | Oven | Pink (medium-rare) | Well done | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 kg | 4–5 | 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] | about 1 hr | about 1 hr 10 min | 15–30 min |
| 2 kg | 6 | 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] | about 1¼ hrs | about 1 hr 25 min | 15–30 min |
| 2.5 kg | 7–8 | 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] | about 1 hr 30 min | about 1 hr 45 min | 15–30 min |
| 3 kg | 8–10 | 220°C (200°C fan) [425°F / gas 7] | about 1 hr 45 min | about 2 hrs | 15–30 min |
Times per kilo are a guide only. Finish by the probe, using the doneness table below.
| Doneness | Take out / pull | Rise while resting | After resting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare | 47°C [117°F] | 6°C [11°F] | 53°C [127°F] |
| Medium-rare | 50°C [122°F] | 6°C [11°F] | 56°C [133°F] |
| Medium | 55°C [131°F] | 6°C [11°F] | 61°C [142°F] |
| Well done | 64°C [147°F] | 6°C [11°F] | 70°C [158°F] |
Smaller joints rise a little less, and very large joints or very hot ovens rise more. A low, slow roast barely rises at all. Check with a thermometer before and after resting.
A Sunday favourite
A roast leg of lamb has long been a British Sunday and Easter centrepiece, served pink or well done according to the house, with gravy and often mint sauce. Welsh lamb, when you can get it, is a well-regarded choice for a joint like this, though a good leg from anywhere in these islands will do the job.
The method here is a fairly hot roast and a proper rest, so the probe, not the clock, decides when it comes out, and the meat finishes as it sits.
How this recipe was developed
Our main inspiration for the timing is Jamie Oliver’s handy guide to roasting meat, which is already the basis of the lamb row on our Roasting Know How page: a 2 kg leg at 220°C for about 1¼ hours for pink, or 15 minutes more for well done. We compared that with his Best roast leg of lamb, BBC Good Food, Delia Smith and Wayne Gisslen’s Professional Cooking, then wrote our own method to match the site’s probe chart.
- A lively 220°C oven and a 2 kg timing (Jamie Oliver). His roasting guide gives 220°C (425°F, gas 7), 1¼ hours for a 2 kg leg for blushing, juicy meat, plus 15 minutes if you prefer it well done. We follow that, with fan and gas equivalents as on our roasting page. His separate Best roast leg of lamb uses a slightly cooler 200°C oven for the same times; we stayed with the guide and the roasting page.
- Garlic and rosemary in the joint, roasted on onions (BBC Good Food, Jamie Oliver). BBC Good Food’s Easy roast leg of lamb (4.5/5 from 91 ratings) tucks garlic and rosemary — and optional anchovy — into incisions and sits the joint on sliced onions. Jamie Oliver rubs the leg with garlic, rosemary and lemon. We use the incisions and the onion trivet, and keep the anchovy optional.
- Cook to a probe temperature, then rest (Gisslen, our roasting page). Gisslen treats the thermometer as the reliable test and notes that a roast keeps rising as it rests (typically 3–8°C). We use the same take-out and rest figures as the roast beef doneness table: a 6°C rise, taking the joint out at 47°C for rare, 50°C for medium-rare, 55°C for medium and 64°C for well done, not Gisslen’s higher doneness table. Rest for 15–30 minutes, as both Gisslen and the roasting page advise. BBC Good Food rests for 15 minutes and quotes 55°C for medium and 70°C for well done; we keep our own take-out figures, which already allow for carry-over.
- Baste and make a gravy from the tin (Delia Smith). Delia’s Roast Leg of Lamb with Shrewsbury Sauce roasts the joint on onion, bastes, rests for 30 minutes and builds a wine sauce from the juices. We keep a simpler red-wine gravy in the tin, with an optional spoon of redcurrant jelly, and we do not follow her longer 30-minutes-per-pound timing.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 12 November 2026):
- Jamie Oliver: handy guide to roasting meat (main timing source)
- Jamie Oliver: Best roast leg of lamb
- BBC Good Food: Easy roast leg of lamb (4.5/5, 91 ratings)
- Delia Smith: Roast Leg of Lamb with Shrewsbury Sauce
- Professional Cooking (Gisslen), chapter 16 — doneness, carryover and resting
- Food Standards Agency: cooking food safely (whole lamb joints may be served pink)
- Cookeryonline: Roasting Know How (oven, times and probe chart)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.