Slow Cooker Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Bacon

Have I mentioned that I love my Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker? I really need to do a review on it because I really do love using it.

Anyway, I originally was going to make a bacon wrapped, slow roasted leg of lamb, but since temps are in the triple digits again, and my AC has been running practically non-stop, I didn't think running the oven for several hours was a good idea. So I used the slow cooker instead and I will make the slow (oven) roasted leg of lamb in the fall when it's a bit cooler outside.

what you need:

• 1 boneless lamb leg (mine weighed 5.5 lbs)
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 6 slices uncured, unseasoned bacon (seasoned will work, too)
• 1 medium organic onion
• rosemary powder
• salt
• pepper

what you do:

Place the 6 bacon slices in the bottom of your slow cooker. Sprinkle liberally with Celtic sea salt. Omit this step if you are using seasoned bacon. Slice your onion and place on top of bacon.

Season the leg of lamb on all sides with rosemary powder, salt, and pepper, then place on top of the onions and bacon. Cut 8 slits into top of lamb and stuff garlic cloves inside those incisions.

Put the lid on your slow cooker and cook on low overnight or roughly 6 hours. I started mine around 8 PM and the next morning, around 6 AM, it looked like this.

The meat was really tender and practically falling apart when I took it out of the slow cooker. It tasted great just by itself.

The liquid in the slow cooker had a nice layer of fat on it. I strained the liquid into a couple of bowls and sauteed the onions and bacon to get them a bit crispy. 

I placed the liquid in the fridge so the fat would solidify.

I have a lot of fat in my fridge and didn't want this to spoil. So once the fat was solid I scraped it off the liquid and put it in a cast iron skillet on low. I let it cook until it stopped "sizzling", then poured the fat into a clean bowl. Removing all the moisture from the fat makes it last longer.

The combination of pork fat and lamb fat was really good and it had a nice consistency. 

I ate the lamb, dipped in the fat, for lunch and dinner without any sides. However, I think this would go great with some mashed fauxtatoes and green beans or roasted broccoli.

Guten Appetit!

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