Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus

Name: Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 33 min
Total time: 51 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 1 Lamb Leg; Zest and juice of 1 Lemon; 4 tablespoons Olive Oil; 2 tablespoons Clear Honey; 1 tablespoon Cinnamon; 1 tablespoon Fennel Seeds; 1 tablespoon Ground Cumin; 3 Cloves Crushed Garlic

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Lamb recipe with Turkish flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 40 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Step-by-step instructions

Put the lamb into a large food bag with all the juice and marinate overnight.
The next day, take the lamb out of the fridge 1 hr before you want to cook it. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Take the lamb out of the marinade (reserve remaining marinade) and pat dry. Rub with half the oil and roast for 15-20 mins until browned. Remove lamb and reduce oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
Mix the zests, remaining oil, honey, spices and garlic with plenty of seasoning. Lay a large sheet of baking parchment on a large sheet of foil. Sit the lamb leg on top, rub all over with the paste and pull up the sides of the foil. Drizzle marinade into base, and scrunch foil to seal.
Roast for 4 hrs, until very tender. Rest, still wrapped, for 30 mins. Unwrap and serve with juices.

Why this works on a weeknight

Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus lands at about 51 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sheet-Pan Dinners collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍳 Sheet-Pan Dinners Lamb Turkish