Smoked lamb shanks with Asian barbeque sauce

These slow-cooked shanks are so good cooked on the barbeque. It’s fall off the bone madness!

Credit: Watts on the Grill

• serves

  4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  2 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 4 lamb shanks
• 2 cups hickory wood chips
• 1 bottle Chinese beer

Rub

• ¼ cup (60 ml) sesame oil
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp five-spice

Asian barbeque sauce

• ½ cup (125 ml) hoisin sauce
• ½ cup (125 ml) oyster sauce
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) rice wine vinegar
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) chilli flakes (or to taste)
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) honey

Asian coleslaw

• 4 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about ½ large head)
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onions
• ½ red capsicum (pepper), thinly sliced
• ½ yellow capsicum (pepper), thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled, thinly sliced
• 45 ml rice wine vinegar
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) peanut oil
• 1 tsp (5 ml) toasted sesame oil
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) honey
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) soy sauce
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 tsp toasted black and white sesame seeds

Wood chip soaking time: 1 hour

Instructions

1. Soak wood chips in water for 1 hour and strain. Place wet wood chips on a large sheet of aluminum foil. Close the foil up loosely to make a sealed pouch. Pierce the pouch in several spots, top and bottom.

2. Prepare grill for indirect heat. Preheat one side of the grill to low temperature, 105° C(220 °F), leaving the other side off. Place drip pan under grate with no heat. Place smoke pouch on grate above the burner that is turned on.

3. Remove any silver skin and excess fat from lamb shanks and rub with sesame oil.

4. In a small bowl, mix together salt, sugar, ground black pepper and Chinese five-spice. Rub mixture over lamb shanks.

5. When grill has reached low temperature and smoke has started to appear, remove lid and place lamb shanks on the unheated side of the grill. Pour beer into drip pan. Close the lid of the barbeque. Smoke the lamb for one hour.

6. For the Asian barbeque sauce, mix together hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, and honey in a medium-sized bowl. Reserve 1 cup of sauce for serving.

7. After 1 hour remove lamb and place on a baking tray. Remove the smoking pouch.

8. Brush each lamb shank with Asian barbeque sauce and wrap in foil. Seal package well and return to the unheated side of the grill. Close lid and cook for 1 hour.

9. Remove lamb from grill. Let cool slightly and remove foil. The lamb should almost fall off the bone.  

10. Meanwhile, make Asian coleslaw: Combine cabbage, green onion, capsicum and carrot in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl mix together rice vinegar, peanut oil, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, and chili flakes to combine.  Toss dressing with cabbage mix and season with salt and ground black pepper. Sprinkle with seeds.

11. Serve shanks with remaining coleslaw and remaining sauce.

Note

• Cooking times and temperatures will vary depending on the size and type of your barbeque.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.