Greek Lamb Neck Recipe with roasted lettuce; knowing how to cook lamb neck couldn’t be easier.
Lamb neck recipes? Yes, lamb neck! It’s a super cheap cut of meat, incredibly flavorful and massively underused.
It can however get a little complicated; lamb neck is basically broken down into three cuts; Best End of Neck, Middle Neck and Scrag End.
Scrag End is the toughest part; usually sold as circular looking chops; these need to be slow cooked. Period.
Best end of Neck and Middle Neck looks like the picture. These can be barbecued, slow cooked, braised but also work terrifically well roasted. Which is what we’re doing today.
They are also sometimes called bone-in stewing neck… I know, bloody minefield this lamb neck malarky…
Not to mention lamb neck fillet which is a tender fast cook cut of lamb – check this recipe out for a traditional Greek lamb recipe..
When buying lamb neck for this recipe ask for Best End of Neck or Middle Neck – if you’re speaking to a good butcher they’ll know what you want. If you’re picking them up from the supermarket they might not know the difference – so my advise – go look at the meat and point to the cuts that look most like the ones in the picture (best description is rather scrappy looking chops!).
Moving on…
My Greek inspired lamb neck recipe is assembled and the whole thing is roasted together making this a brilliant one-pot lamb neck recipe / family dinner… with a little Greek Theo Magic sprinkled on top.
Question – ‘Greek Theo Magic’ – that sounds abit naff or no?
Cooking best end of lamb neck or middle neck on a high heat for about 45 minutes is de-bloody-licious and doesn’t need slow cooking.
I like to use gem lettuce in this lamb neck recipe; I have tried it with Kos Lettuce but it just didn’t come out as good, so if you can get gem lettuce – use that. Otherwise Kos comes a close second.
Want more lamb recipes? Or just fancy going Greek?
Something happens in the oven over the 45 minutes that melts down the lettuce but keeps a crunch. The roasted lettuce allows itself to be enveloped in all the lovely juices and the whole thing just works.
Seriously, I want you to cook this and then leave me a comment saying how much you like it. If you don’t like it please write to my agent instead 🙂
Lamb Neck Recipes:
My Greek inspired Roasted Lamb Neck Recipe on Lettuce – serves 4
Ingredients:
750g Best End of Neck (about 2-3 pieces per person)
2 gem lettuce cut in half lengthways (4 lettuce if small)
2 cloves garlic thickly sliced
1/2 tin tomatoes
60ml white wine (or stock/water if not using alcohol)
1 tin butter beans (drained)
4tbl/60ml extra virgin olive oil
Squeeze of lemon to taste
1tbl/15ml dried oregano
Chopped parsley for garnish
Method
Pre-heated oven FAN 200C
- Prep the lamb by marinating it generously with salt, pepper, oregano a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
- While the lamb is resting assemble the rest of the dish. First, add the butter beans to the bottom of a roasting tray and drizzle with a little olive oil and seasoning.
- Line the roasting tray with the cut gem lettuce on top of the butter beans and pour over the wine before scattering the garlic, half the tin of tomatoes and finally placing the lamb on top evenly (trying not to overlap the lamb too much).
- Finally, scatter the remaining tin of tomatoes over the lamb, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle of seasoning and dried oregano and pop into the oven for 45 minutes at 200C.
Perfect on it’s own but if you want some carbs to pad it out my rosemary roasted new potatoes go great!
Lamb Neck Recipe – How to cook lamb neck (Greek Style!)
My Greek inspired Roasted Lamb Neck Recipe with roasted Lettuce – serves 4
Ingredients:
- 750 g Best End of Neck ((about 2-3 pieces per person))
- 2 gem lettuce cut in half lengthways ((4 lettuce if small))
- 2 cloves garlic thickly sliced
- 1/2 tin tomatoes
- 60 ml white wine ((or stock/water if not using alcohol))
- 1 tin butter beans ((drained))
- 4 tbl/60ml extra virgin olive oil
- Squeeze of lemon to taste
- 1 tbl/15ml dried oregano
- Chopped parsley for garnish
Method
- Prep the lamb by marinating it generously with salt, pepper, oregano a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
- While the lamb is resting assemble the rest of the dish. First, add the butter beans to the bottom of a roasting tray and drizzle with a little olive oil and seasoning.
- Line the roasting tray with the cut gem lettuce on top of the butter beans and pour over the wine before scattering the garlic, half the tin of tomatoes and finally placing the lamb on top evenly (trying not to overlap the lamb too much).
- Finally, scatter the remaining tin of tomatoes over the lamb, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle of seasoning and dried oregano and pop into the oven for 45 minutes at 200F.
Perfect on it’s own but if you want some carbs to pad it out my rosemary roasted new potatoes go great!
“45 mins. @ 200F “? Really? Farenheit? Seems not even “moderate oven” for an hour, to me.
Hi Lisbeth, thank you for spotting that! You are absolutely right – it should read 200c not F.
Tried the Lamb neck recipe and as i had a Greek friend was told to add a couple of fresh bay leaves as that normally goes in almost all Greek dishes. Thanks for the recipe was brilliant especially as its my favourite meat 😃.
Thanks Shane! I’m chuffed you enjoyed it!