Perfect Roast Goat or Lamb with Rosemary

A perfect roast goat recipe can use a whole leg or smaller roasts. In this post I’ll show you how to make it with the latter.

A whole leg of lamb or goat is a great piece of meat to cook, but there’s a lot more that you can do with it than cooking the whole chunk of meat. In our post on breaking down a whole leg of lamb or goat, I showed you how I cut up a leg into individual muscles that can be cooked as small roasts to serve a few people. Cutting up a leg into muscles is how I served roasted lamb at my restaurants, and it is a great thing to know how to do (it’s easy, too).

Once you have your leg cut into trimmed muscles, I have a few more tips and tricks for getting the best result out of them. The video that accompanies this post will show you a visual demo, but here’s the big takeaways for getting a perfectly cooked roast.

How to make perfect roast goat

I’ve cooked hundreds of roasts from lamb or goat over the years. Here’s a few tricks that will help you out.

Season the meat overnight with salt, pepper, and other seasonings

This is called “dry-brining” and is important for developing flavor, and helping to get a really good crust on the meat. All you do is season the meat ahead of time and allow it to rest, uncovered in the fridge overnight. Leaving the meat uncovered helps it to dehydrate and dry out a bit, and you will notice a much richer, deeper crust and browning on your meat, which equals better flavor.

Elevate the meat from the pan

Once the meat is seared, you put it in the oven, but if the meat is in contact with a hot pan, the bottom will cook faster than the top. In a restaurant, I always used baking racks to elevate the meat away from the metal surface, but as you’ll see in the video, there’s a lot of different ways you can elevate the meat so it doesn’t touch the pan.

A chunk of bread, some vegetables–you can use just about anything you have in a pinch, and it will make a difference, although a baking rack is the best.

Low and slow

Years ago now, when I worked a busy saute station, I started playing around with the temperatures I would cook my roasts at. I used a lower temperature to cook the roasts on my station, since I might be cooking 20 pounds of roasts a day, and many of them were varying sizes.

At a higher temperature like 350 F, I found it difficult to pin point the perfect moment the roasts of varying sizes were perfectly done, so I decreased the heat to 250 F. What this does is give you a more even doneness, and a blush, pink center.

Let the meat rest (Ten min/lb)

Lastly, it’s also very important to let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes per pound. Do not worry about the meat cooling off—if you touch the roast when you’re ready to slice and find it cooled a bit too much, simply pop it back in the oven at 250 for 10 minutes or so before slicing. Two other chef tricks are to put the finished slices onto hot vegetables on a plate, and to make sure you’ve warmed up your plates for a moment in the oven or microwave before serving.

If these tips don’t help you make the best roast lamb or goat you’ve ever had, let us know!

This recipe is by James Beard Award-winning Chef Alan Bergo. He’s a chef from Minnesota and author of The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora. Learn more about Chef Alan at foragerchef.com. 

Looking to buy lamb or goat online? Shepherd Song Farm: Grass to table. We raise lambs & goats traditionally, humanely and sustainably. 100% Grass Fed, Pasture Raised, Never Confined, no Hormones, Grains or Animal Byproducts. Born, raised and processed in the U.S.A. Good for you and good for the environment.

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