Instant Pot Lamb Shanks

Lamb shanks are delicious, but they usually take a long time to cook. With the Instant Pot I’ve found that I can make them in a fraction of the time, without sacrificing flavour! Fellow food lovers: I present to you the recipe for super easy Instant Pot Lamb shanks!

I’m a huge fan of lamb, and particularly lamb shanks. I make amazing lamb shanks in the oven; one day soon I’ll post that recipe! But recently, I fell for the hype and bought an Instant Pot. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a pressure cooker and multi-cooker. I’d never used a pressure cooker before, so this was my first foray into the wild world of pressure cooking. However, I discovered it’s really quite straightforward to use and have been using it quite a bit in a few new recipes.

So, obviously, I had to make something that normally takes a long time to cook in a conventional oven to test my new kitchen toy. I was truly pleasantly surprised! Usually, lamb shanks take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to cook in the oven to reach fall-off-the-bone tenderness. In the Instant Pot, it took 35 minutes. I kid you not. This is great if you don’t like leaving your oven on unattended at home, but you also want a life so staying at home for 3 hours waiting for something to cook doesn’t quite work for you. I’ll be testing some of my old recipes out in my Instant Pot to see how they turn out.

That said, if you don’t own an Instant Pot, or don’t want to buy one, you can make this exact same recipe in a regular oven-proof casserole dish or dutch oven and it will still be delicious. However, as I mentioned above, you’ll need to cook it at low heat (around 325 Fahrenheit) for approximately 3 hours. Make sure to check on it every hour to make sure there’s enough liquid and it doesn’t dry out. That’s all there is to it.

Ingredients

1. Two lamb shanks
2. Two cups of canned Roma tomatoes
3. Three tablespoons tomato paste
4. One tablespoon Italian mixed herb seasoning
5. Half a teaspoon garlic powder
6. Salt and pepper to taste
7. Two tablespoons granulated white sugar (or other sweetener)
8. One canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped, with a tablespoon of the sauce (optional)
9. One medium onion, chopped
10. Two celery stalks, finely chopped
11. Two medium carrots, finely chopped
12. One cup of cheap white or red wine (whatever you’ve got on hand, as long as it isn’t sweet)
13. One cup long grain rice
14. Water
15. Three tablespoons canola oil.

Method

1. Preheat your Instant Pot on the Sauté setting on high, or a cast-iron skillet on the stove on high heat.
2. Add approximately 1 tablespoon canola oil
3. Season the shanks all over with salt and pepper, then place them in the pot or skillet and brown them on all sides, this will take about 10 minutes.
4. Remove the shanks from the Instant Pot and add the rest of the oil, sauté the onions, carrots and celery until slightly caramelised. Now, if you want to speed up steps 3 and 4, you can use both the cast-iron pan and the Instant Pot at the same time. I personally did that. I browned the lamb shanks in the cast-iron pan and the vegetables at the same time in the Instant Pot. That’ll save you at least 10-15 minutes.
5. Deglaze the bottom of the Instant Pot with the wine, make sure to get all the bits at the bottom
6. Add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian herbs, salt, pepper, sugar, chipotle pepper and wine to the vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil. Taste, and add salt and seasoning as needed.
7. Add the lamb shanks into the vegetable mixture, allow it to come to a boil. Add extra water until you cover the lamb shanks two-thirds of the way up.
8. Stop the Instant Pot sauté setting, cover the cooker and change it to the Stew/Meat setting. Cook it on high pressure for 35 minutes.
9. In the meantime, cook your rice according to the package instructions in a small saucepan. Usually, it’s one cup of long-grain rice to two cups of water, a dash of salt and a teaspoon of oil. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to the lowest setting, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
10. When the Instant Pot is done cooking, press the pressure quick release button to release the pressure. Be super careful and don’t stand right in front of it when you do that. Under no circumstances should you put your face directly above the pressure cooker when you release the pressure. Carefully read the instructions in the manual if you’re not sure.
11. After all the pressure is released, remove the lamb shanks and either serve on the rice, or if you want your sauce to thicken, you can turn the Instant Pot to sauté again and allow it to thicken for five minutes. Enjoy!!!

Do you like lamb shanks? How do you like to cook them? Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome! For other similar recipes, check out:

1. Elk or venison Osso Bucco
2. Braised Elk Shanks
3. Roasted Rack of Lamb
4. Camel Tagine with Couscous

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