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The lamb morsels in this Lamb Stew just melt in your mouth and so do the potatoes. This recipe is uncomplicated (a one-pot meal!) and it simmers in the oven for awhile so every bite is completely delicious. The lengthy (and care free) baking time creates a most satisfying broth consistency. Even if you have no clue what the old days were like, this lamb stew will take you there!
My 2 and 8-year old kiddos both loved this lamb stew (which shocked me because they love their usuals like Mom’s meatball soup and borscht). They both asked for refills! I was beaming of course because this lamb stew recipe is loaded with healthy ingredients and my family was was gobbling it up with such satisfaction. It’s a winner, especially for special occasions, like Easter!
Ingredients for Lamb Stew Recipe:
This hearty lamb stew is a meal in itself and so satisfying! This lamb stew recipe is a close relative to our beef stew recipe (a reader favorite!). We turned it into a one-pot recipe so it is easier and a little heartier with more potatoes. We also experimented making it gluten free and we were all so impressed with the results.
Gluten Free Substitution: I have tested this with this gluten free flour and it worked wonderfully.
How to Make Easy Lamb Stew:
1. In a large dutch oven pot, saute chopped bacon over medium heat until golden brown and fat is released. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.
2. While bacon cooks, season trimmed and chopped lamb pieces with 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup flour. Toss to combine and coat the meat in flour. Cook the lamb in 2 batches in hot bacon grease over medium heat until browned (3-4 minutes per side) then remove to the same plate with bacon.
3. Add diced onion and sauté 2 minutes. Add garlic and sauté another minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups wine, scraping the bottom to deglaze. Add thickly sliced mushrooms, bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes uncovered. Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F.
4. Return bacon and lamb back to the pot then add 4 cups broth, 1 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp dried thyme and 2 bay leaves. Add potatoes and carrots then stir to combine (potatoes should be mostly submerged in liquid. Bring to a boil then cover with lid and carefully transfer to preheated oven at 325˚F for 1 hour and 45 minutes. When done, potatoes will be easily pierced and lamb will be very tender. For a lower fat stew, spoon out any excess oil at the surface of the stew.
Serve with soft crusty bread to soak up that broth which is loaded with amazing flavor!
Explore our Most Popular Stew Recipes:
- Beef, Rice and Tomato Stew (Kharcho)
- Red Borscht (a beef and beet stew)
- If you love lamb, don’t miss our Lamb Chops
Lamb Stew Recipe

Ingredients
- 4 oz bacon, (4 strips, chopped into 1/4" strips)
- 2 lbs boneless leg of lamb or lamb shoulder, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1 1/2" pieces
- 1/2 Tbsp sea salt for the lamb plus 1 tsp for stew
- 1 tsp black pepper for lamb plus 1/2 tsp for stew
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour or gluten free flour*
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 cups good red wine, *
- 1 lb button mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 4 cups low sodium beef broth or stock
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 1/2 lbs small yellow potatoes, halved or quartered into 1" pieces
- 4 medium carrots, 10 oz, peeled and cut into 1/2" thick pieces
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped for garnish
Instructions
- In a 5Qt dutch oven, saute chopped bacon over medium heat until browned and fat released. With a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a large plate.
- While bacon cooks, season lamb pieces with 1/2 Tbsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup flour and toss to coat. Cook lamb in 2 batches in hot bacon grease over medium heat until browned (3-4 min per side) then transfer to the plate with bacon.
- Add diced onion and sauté 2 min. Add garlic and cook another minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups wine, scraping the bottom to deglaze. Add sliced mushrooms, bring to simmer then cook uncovered 10 min. Preheat Oven to 325˚F.
- Return bacon and lamb to pot and add 4 cups broth, 1 Tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp dried thyme and 2 bay leaves. Stir in potatoes and carrots, making sure potatoes are mostly submerged in liquid. Bring to a boil then COVER and carefully transfer to preheated oven at 325˚F for 1 hr and 45 min. When done, potatoes and lamb will be very tender.**
Notes
** For reduced fat stew, spoon out any excess oil from the surface when it comes out of the oven.
Nutrition Per Serving
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Q: Are you cooking up any special Easter recipes?
Is lamb typically on the menu for you? I’d love to hear about your Easter dinner traditions!
Im going to be out most of the day with the grandkids. Can i put everything in a slow cooker?
Hi Rona! I haven’t tried this in a slow cooker, but one of my readers, Mariya, offered some good insights. She wrote: “I always make my beef stew in the slow cooker- it should work with lamb also. At step 4- transfer everything into the slow cooker and set it to high until it starts boiling and then put it on low until the meat is tender and potatoes cooked.” I hope that helps!
Delicious. So flavorful. Didn’t have a dutch oven available, so after bringing it to a boil, I just turned it to low and let it all simmer on the stove until the lamb was nice and tender. Thank you so much for the great, easy recipe.
That’s wonderful, Colette! Thank you for sharing.
I made this Sunday 4/3/23 and it was excellent. I did not change anything in the recipe.
This is now one of my favorite’s and I will be making this again. It is the best Lamb stew I have ever tasted!!
Hi Rick! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for sharing your feedback.
We made this exactly as your recipe states. My husband helps chop and peel vegetables and meat. It was wonderful. The meat was so tender. No knives used. My husband doesn’t drink and I was afraid about using wine. But the 10 minutes it cooked by itself, the alcohol burned off. Excellent! Thank you so much.
You’re welcome, Joyce! So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
I’m going ahead and giving this stew a 5 star review. Why? Because it is from Natasha!! She is the best!!! I am making it for Easter along with her Tres Leche Cake. Cannot wait. I know it would be Jesus approved as well. 🙌💖
Aww, thank you, Darlene. That is very sweet. Happy Easter! Be blessed.
I am excited to find this lamb recipe for our Easter dinner-it looks perfect! I have a large family, will it fit in a 7qt dutch oven if I double the recipe?
Hi Margaret, I haven’t tested that but I think I would probably do 1 1/2 times the recipe for a 7-quart pot to be safe. You will definitely want to sear the meat in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pot.
The best lamb stew ever! Admittedly, I didn’t have red wine, so I used mostly white with a little cranberry juice, and I didn’t have tomato paste, but I had some super thick tomato jam I made so it was a good sub. This was nothing short of divine even with the substitutions. I love all your recipes, Natasha. Thank you for making life so much better with your delicious-every-time recipes!
Hi Janelle! That’s great. So glad you are loving my recipes.
Natasha, this recipe is the bomb! I didn’t change a thing except I left out the flour because I am on a keto diet. At the end, I just picked out the lamb and bacon and mushrooms for my serving, but my family loved the stew just as it was. Thank you for posting it.
You’re very welcome, Shannon! So glad it was enjoyed. 🙂
Has to be one of the best stews I’ve ever made. I followed the recipe almost exactly (omitted tomato past because I didn’t have any). Was still absolutely amazing. I will use this recipe again.
Hi Michael! That’s wonderful. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe, thank you for sharing.
I’d like to make this with an Irish Stout rather than red wine and to add green beans w the carrots and green peas at the end. Also want to add some rosemary w the thyme. Thoughts?
Sounds delicious, Sarah! Let us know how it turns out if you experiment.
Someone drank the last bottle of red. Had some Dubonnet Apertif Queen Elizabeth’s favorite drink. still yum yum
Glad it still turned out for you, Eldon. 🙂
Can be this be made ahead and reheated? If so, how far ahead and temp to reheat? Also – does it freeze well?
I would probably just cook the whole thing ahead and let the flavors meld in the refrigerator. I think you could chop and have all of the ingredients prepped ahead.
thx – guess that means it could be made completely the day before and refrigerate it. Then just reheat the day of serving
It is WONDERFUL reheated! (I have never had enough to test the freezing part. Hubby happily eats any leftovers!)
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Rita!
The stew is excellent! I cut the wine down by 1/2 cup, added a packet of powdered beef boullion and added flour at the final boil point to make it thicker and it is exceptional. Thank you!
Hi Lori! I’m so glad you loved it. Thank you.
Amazing! Even my Mother-in-law loved it. The lamb was so tender, the sauce/gravy was so flavorful. I used part of a butterflied leg of lamb. For me cleaning the meat up was a bit more labor intensive compared to beef, it seemed to have more silver skin etc but the 1st bite made it worth it! Thank you
You’re welcome, Carol!
I’m allergic to alcohol and tomato.
Any suggestions as to what I can use instead of those?
Hi, without testing specific substitutions, it’s difficult to make a recommendation.
I would use a rich beef, chicken, or even veggie stock in place of the alcohol. As far as the tomato paste goes, try pureed red bell peppers (if you don’t have an allergy to them, of course), pureed butternut squash, or even something that I just saw in a quick Google search called nomato sauce (combination of carrots with onion, garlic, beets, both balsamic and white vinegar, and sautéed in oil before being pureed together).
I have a beef with Natasha. When you print out the recipe, you can change the servings, yet the written instructions do not change. So, the ingredients may state one thing but the instructions quite another. Watch out for this.
BTW: Love , love the Chicken Pot Pie Soup. Our fav.
Hi Mike! Yes, unfortunately, the written instructions don’t change. We do not have a feature for this yet but hopefully, we can improve on this in the future. 🙂
Glad you loved the chicken pot pie soup! 🙂
This is the best lamb stew recipe ever. My ex was a chef and I have been trying for years to make as good as him. This by far exceeds his recipe. I will make this a lot now. Incredibly easy, and such a pow of flavour!! I am in love!!!!
I’m so glad you loved the recipe, Donna!
Wow – made this last night for the first time and it was delicious! I substituted a Bordeaux for the Pinot and it worked perfectly. Asking myself, “is it too soon to make it again?” Thank you!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Carolyn!
I made this stew exactly according to the recipe and it was AWESOME! My husband says it’s the best stew he has ever had! The lamb really shines through even using beef broth. Tender and delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Hi Dana! That’s wonderful news! I’m so glad it was a hit. Thank you for sharing.
We don’t eat pork. Is there a substitute for the bacon or a work around? Thanks, HarryZ.
Hi Harry! You could sub for turkey bacon or just leave it out. It does add great flavor to include it though. I hope you love the recipe.
Thank you for your kind reply. We’ll try the turkey bacon.
HarryZ.