Pulled Lamb Shoulder Recipe (2024)

Best thing I've made on my 3mo old smoker, but def some notes:
-my guests felt the rub was too salty. Appreciate it's meant to act as a dry brine, but I would use 1/2 as much, esp if adding after cook.
-same w worcesteshire in the BBQ sauce. That's all we could taste. I jacked up all the other ingredients and it still overpowered.
-my lamb shoulder was originally 10.5lbs; probably 9 or 9.5 after trimming top fat. After 8 hrs of cooking at 225, it still wasn't "pullable" (internal temp was 180).

If you want to pull the pork or lamb you have to cook it to at least 190degrees. Cook to 200 degrees works best. Any thing less it will have to be served as sliced not pulled.

Made this this past weekend for an anniversary dinner for my wife and I and another couple. Yes, the smoke time for my 7.5 lb bone-in lamb shoulder was more like 11 hrs at 225-250 degrees on my Weber grill and I planned accordingly. I finished it in the oven, tented with foil until we were ready to eat. My friend, a trained chef said it was the best BBQ'd lamb he'd ever had. Served it with Emeril's dirty rice and zucchini fries. Even after 11 hrs the lamb was somewhere between sliced and pulled.

Feeding the fire is an amazing book but from my experience the smoke time on this recipe should be much longer. Mine came out closer to roast lamb than pulled pork. I'm unsure why the recommended time is so much less than time suggested for pulled pork when both meats share the same size and structure. I'd smoke for 10-12 hours next time.

This is terrific - - - but allow more time. After 7 hours on the Weber, it started raining, so I moved the roast inside to the oven at 250 and it took another 3 hours to reach 195. At this temp, it pulled apart easily. It was 1:15AM, but it pulled apart! Next time I'll let the roast get to room temperature before grilling it. And I'll start the roasting in the morning! Only change I made to the ingredients was to eliminate the salt from the sauce and used only a cup of water.

Tim-You should have no problem cooking this on a gas grill. You can make up for the smokey flavor by adding an aluminum foil packet of soaked wood chips with holes punched in it onto your flavorizer bars. Just try to keep the temperature at that 250 degree range. You might also want to add a water pan beneath the leg so that you won't have flare ups. Enjoy.

Or make it in a slow cooker? It wouldn't get the smoky flavor, but the rub looks pretty flavorful without smoke.

I had never tried pulled lamb before. Did it in the oven for 6+ hrs. Also cut the rub down, less salt and volume. It pulled beautifully when still warm. My butcher cut the shoulder to size for me - enough for two meals. I will serve this again soon.

Smoke to 200 to break down the connective tissue

Had neither a grill nor a smoker so did this in the oven, at 140C for a few hours in a roasting tin with a lid. It was so, so good, absolutely my go-to lamb shoulder recipe now. The juices all collected in the bottom of the tin and when I poured in a little bit of the given sauce to thin it out it became the absolute best sauce. In the sauce I only used half the Worcestershire and none of the salt, but I only used a splash in the end so I don't know if I'll bother making it when cooking this way

You know that cooking experience where you screw up the recipe but you love the result? I, um, added the entire extra cup of dry rub to the sauce cuz I swear that’s what I read? So, the sauce was VERY intensely flavored, and I opted to throw in more brown sugar to counter it. And, voila-superb gravy for the amazing meat! I will never crock pot my pulled meat recipes ever again. (Will cook this again so I can taste the sauce as written.)

Can you taste the coffee in the rub? I'm definitely not a fan of anything coffee!

How finely ground are the espresso beans? I can imagine the flavor will be great, but the couple of times I tried using coffee grounds I did find them gritty (As David described below). I switched over to instant espresso or even coffee liquor if I need some sweetness as well. (Tip: Try Patron XO Cafe to help the rub stick to baby backs or pork shoulder!)Any thoughts? I am planning to cook this next weekend.

Another question - Anyone try this with leg instead of shoulder? I think the cuts are similar enough in characteristic and it’s easier to find leg than shoulder where I live...

why wont' my sauce thicken? runny like water. I even added 1/2 the amount of water said to add

Thank you for this recipe! I mistakenly ended up with a nine pound bone-in lamb shoulder instead of the boneless lamb shoulder I needed for a Passover recipe. I froze the bone-in lamb shoulder and bought more lamb for my recipe. Will definitely cook this at the weekend!

This was amazingly good - one of my guests had theee servings! I agree with other comments indicating that it needs longer time. This will be a definite repeat!

What wood would you recommend with which to smoke the lamb?

I made this with 4 pound lamb shoulder which I cooked all night and half the next day. It was delicious but it never got to the pulled point. I sliced it, we loved it and would make it again. By the way we raise our own lambs.

I had never tried pulled lamb before. Did it in the oven for 6+ hrs. Also cut the rub down, less salt and volume. It pulled beautifully when still warm. My butcher cut the shoulder to size for me - enough for two meals. I will serve this again soon.

Sorry, this was NOT a hit. The lamb was tough enough that I couldn't pull it apart, even after 6 hours on the Weber. The flavor was OK, not great, even though I followed the recipe to a T, and the bark was gritty from the ground espresso beans. I'll stick with grilling a butterflied leg of lamb. Less time-consuming, better flavor.

Help! The lamb shoulder at the store is really really bony - not lots of meat. I bought lamb shoulder steaks instead. Will that still work? Thanks!

This is terrific - - - but allow more time. After 7 hours on the Weber, it started raining, so I moved the roast inside to the oven at 250 and it took another 3 hours to reach 195. At this temp, it pulled apart easily. It was 1:15AM, but it pulled apart! Next time I'll let the roast get to room temperature before grilling it. And I'll start the roasting in the morning! Only change I made to the ingredients was to eliminate the salt from the sauce and used only a cup of water.