Pressure Cooker Lamb Shoulder with Red Wine and Carrots
Tender lamb shoulder braised in red wine with sweet carrots and rosemary, all in one pressure cooker. A rich, savory one-pot dinner that tastes like it simmered for hours.
- Total
- 90 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 65 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Searing · Deglazing
- Savory
- No rush
- Pressure cooker
Instructions
-
Cut the lamb shoulder into 4 cm chunks. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Peel the garlic cloves and slice them. Peel the carrots and cut them into 2 cm thick rounds. Measure the red wine, water, rosemary, salt, and black pepper.
~15 min
-
Set the pressure cooker to the sauté setting and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the lamb chunks in a single layer. Sear for 4 minutes per side until deeply browned on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Work in two batches if needed to avoid crowding. Remove the lamb and set aside.
~16 min
Searing browns the meat through the Maillard reaction, building deep savory flavor that braising alone cannot create.
Searing Pat the lamb dry and leave space between pieces so it browns instead of steaming. Crowding the pot drops the temperature and produces gray, not deeply browned, meat.
-
Add the chopped onion to the pressure cooker and cook on the sauté setting for 5 minutes until softened and lightly golden. Add the sliced garlic and 1 tsp rosemary and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
~6 min
Cooking onions until golden develops sweetness, while briefly blooming garlic and rosemary in fat releases their aromatic oils.
-
Pour in 150 ml red wine and 100 ml water. Scrape up the browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Return the lamb to the pot along with the carrot rounds, 0.5 tsp salt, and 0.25 tsp black pepper. Lock the lid and bring to high pressure. Cook at high pressure for 35 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes.
~45 min
The acidic wine and scraping up fond dissolve browned bits into the sauce, adding flavor and preventing scorching.
Deglazing Pour the wine in and immediately scrape the browned bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon. Those fond bits dissolve into the sauce and are where much of the flavor lives.
-
Quick-release any remaining pressure. Open the lid carefully. Use tongs to transfer the lamb and carrots to a bowl. Set the pressure cooker to the sauté setting and simmer the braising liquid for 5 minutes until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.
~5 min
Simmering evaporates water, concentrating flavor so the sauce thickens and clings rather than tasting watery.
Let the braising liquid reduce until it coats the back of a spoon. A thin sauce will taste watery, while a slightly thickened sauce clings to the lamb and carries the rosemary and wine flavor.
-
Return the lamb and carrots to the pot and stir to coat in the reduced sauce. Taste and adjust salt if needed. Serve hot in a shallow bowl with the sauce spooned over the top.
~2 min