leg of lamb in the slow cooker - who has done this? How?

[thereisthesnowball]

I've no oven so am planning a leg pf lamb for Christmas dinner, done in the slow cooker. My butcher says it will fit. Has anyone done this? What did you do? I was guessing about 6 hours on high (my cooker does a chicken on high in about 3 hours) on a bed of veg with a splash of wine to keep things moist. Sound about right?

i do a half leg like this.
Sear leg on high heat on stove top so it goes brown. Put to one side.
Chop onions, celery, fry off till soft. Put in slow cooker. Top and tail whole baby shallots fry off, put in cooker. Add copious carrots, a large carrot cut into big chunks diagonally will get about 4 pieces. Add to cooker. Stir veg. Put meat on top. Heat bottle me red wine in pan, to clean pan of flavour add lamb stock cube and lots of fresh rosemary. Pour wine mix over lamb. A half leg takes about 6 hours, turn it over half way through. After 6 hours. I remove the lamb, the meat falls off. I stir the chunks of lamb back into the sauce, thicken and serve :-)

i do that for me and dp and we get 3 meals from it, so it would serve 6 people.

oh, and i've found it better to do 6 hours on low, so if you can stand the smell, which gets tiresome after a while, i'd give it at least 8 hours on low, maybe longer. If you wanted to carve it rather than make a stew. I have no idea about that!

Thanks, that's really helpful. I was hoping to carve it, loosely speaking, so was planning to cook it in a lot less liquid. I know shoulders can be slow-roasted in the oven, so maybe I should think about one of those instead? Really want to do a leg though.

I wouldn't do leg of lamb in a slow cooker, too good of a cut for it. Shoulder, however, would be positively brilliant [drools]. Main thing is to properly brown it before.

Too good even for Christmas dinner?

why slow cook it? seems a shame, especially if you get a nice crispy skin. A leg needs to be moist and slightly pink. I stud mine with anchovies, garlic and rosemary.

Seems a very expensive cut too. It'll end tasting of stew. this works well with shoulder not at £15 plus per half leg!

I know that shoulder of lamb works well in a slow cooker, and that leg of lamb makes a delicious roast, but I've also read good things about slow cooked legs of lamb too. It doesn't sound as if you have tried this though, apart from Thrifty, and as I said I'm not trying to make a stew.

Bacon, I'm thinking about this because I only have a slow cooker and want to do something really spectacular in it - it's our Christmas dinner, hence the unthrifty choice of cut. If I had an oven I'd use it!

Maybe the question should be - what is the most impressive, celebratory joint (or bird) you can do in a slow cooker?

Op said she has no cooker hence the slow cooker..

Slow cooked HALF leg of lamb
1.Firstly, prepare the lamb. Heat oven to 160C/fan140C/gas 3. Wipe the meat all over and season well. Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a large heavy flameproof casserole, add the meat and fry all over on a fairly high heat for about 8 mins, turning until it is evenly well browned. Remove to a plate.
2.Thinly slice the onions. Add to the pan and fry for about 10 mins, until softened and tinged with brown. Add a few of the thyme sprigs and cook for a further minute or so. Season with salt and pepper.
3.Sit the lamb on top of the onions, then add the wine. Cover tightly. Bake for 3 hrs. You can make to this stage up to 2 days in advance, then reheat for 45 mins.
4.To finish off, strip the leaves from 2 thyme sprigs and chop them with the parsley. Scatter over before serving.

Definitely not 6 hours on high. I did a leg of lamb in mine for the first time (with lamb stock and rosemary which came to about half way up the lamb) for 6 hours on low yesterday and if anything it seemed a little overcooked. Depends on the weight of the leg of course. At 1.2kg mine would have been better on low for 5 hours I think. But if your leg is bigger than that 6 hours would be fine. It is still fine to carve for me - not falling apart at all.

We always cook leg of lamb in the slow cooker and it comes out perfect every time. Just chuck it in (no fluid - it will produce enough of its own), sprinkle with rosemary, and cook on low. I dont even bother with browning first.

Thanks.