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Pulled lamb shoulder with sticky pomegranate glaze

Cassie Best's Moroccan pulled lamb with a Halal shoulder: marinated in garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and lemon, slow-roasted in pomegranate juice, glazed with the reduced juices and honey, and served with minty pomegranate yogurt.

Moroccan · Main · Easy · 6 portions · 1820 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The dish is a 1.5 kg bone-in lamb shoulder, which is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, served with 250 g natural yogurt, which needs a gelatin check.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Lamb shoulder: Lamb is Halal only from a Halal-slaughtered animal, and lamb without a Halal mark doesn't say how the animal was slaughtered. Buy the shoulder from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Lamb.
• Natural yogurt: Plain yogurt is milk fermented with cultures, but gelatin turns up in set, low-fat and dessert yogurts. Choose a yogurt with no gelatin on the label. See Yogurt.

Ingredients

Lamb and marinade

• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 lemon, quartered, pips removed
• 1.5 kg Halal bone-in lamb shoulder joint
• 2 red onions, cut into wedges
• 1 litre carton pomegranate juice
• 2 tbsp clear honey

Pomegranate yogurt

• 250 g natural yogurt with no gelatine
• 100 g tub pomegranate seeds (or the seeds of 1 pomegranate)
• small handful mint leaves, chopped

Method

1. Marinate the lamb. Blend the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and lemon with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp black pepper until smooth. Put the lamb in a large roasting tin, tip the marinade over and massage it all over the meat. Leave in the fridge for 24 hours, or up to 2 days.
2. Slow-roast in pomegranate juice. Take the lamb out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Scatter the onions round the lamb, tucking some underneath, and pour over the pomegranate juice. Cover with foil and cook for 4 hours.
3. Reduce the glaze. Remove the foil and carefully pour the pomegranate juices from the tin into a large saucepan with the honey. Turn the oven up to 220C/200C fan/gas 7, re-cover the lamb and cook for 30 minutes more. Meanwhile, bubble the juices over a high heat until reduced, thick and syrupy; this may take up to 30 minutes.
4. Glaze the lamb. Pour the glaze over the lamb and onions and return to the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes, until the glaze is bubbling and just starting to char and the lamb is really tender.
5. Serve. Mix the yogurt with most of the pomegranate seeds and the mint. Shred the lamb at the table and serve with the sticky onions and the minty pomegranate yogurt, scattered with the remaining seeds.

Allergens

milk (yogurt)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Pulled lamb shoulder with sticky pomegranate glaze' by Cassie Best, tagged Moroccan (serves 6: 4 chopped garlic cloves, 2 tsp each ground cinnamon and cumin, 1 tbsp dried oregano, a quartered lemon with the pips removed, 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp black pepper blended smooth and massaged over a 1.5 kg bone-in lamb shoulder in a roasting tin, then left 24 hours to 2 days in the fridge; the lamb out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking; 2 red onions in wedges scattered round and under it, a 1 litre carton of pomegranate juice poured over, covered with foil and cooked 4 hours at 160C/140C fan/gas 3; the juices poured into a saucepan with 2 tbsp clear honey and reduced up to 30 minutes until thick and syrupy while the lamb cooks 30 minutes more, covered, at 220C/200C fan/gas 7; the glaze poured over and the lamb cooked uncovered another 30 minutes until bubbling and starting to char; 250 g natural yogurt mixed with most of a 100 g tub of pomegranate seeds and a small handful of chopped mint; the lamb shredded at the table). We specified Halal lamb and a gelatine-free yogurt; the last published step is split between glazing and serving. Nothing else needed changing. The rest time is the minimum 24-hour marinade plus the hour out of the fridge. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: lamb chops on a grill, not the finished dish from this recipe.