Lamb with “Greasy Rice”

For the history of how this recipe came to be see Double Dipping: One Joy of Being an American Serb. Or, order the November/December 2008 issue of SerbWorld USA.

Lamb with Greasy Rice

6 lbs                        leg of lamb (bone in)
4                             garlic cloves
2                             onions, sweet (medium size)
3    cups                  rice, white long grain
6-7 cups                  water, hot
salt (regular, not kosher or sea salt)

Preheat oven to 350˚

Remove paper skins from garlic cloves and cut into slivers.  Make slits all over the lamb and insert the garlic slivers.  Sprinkle salt over the lamb.  Place in a roasting pan (without a rack), and put in hot oven.

Cut the onions into 8 to 10 segments each.  Add to the roasting pan after the lamb starts to brown and drippings begin to accumulate – about 40 minutes after the lamb was put into the oven.  Stir the onions to coat with drippings, lightly salt the onions.  Let cook and brown, stirring every 10 – 15 minutes.

After about 1hour 45minutes of total roasting time, add the rice to the drippings and onion.  Stir to coat the rice with the drippings.  Let the rice “sizzle” and soak up some juices and flavor (about 5-10 minutes).  Add 6 cups hot water and stir.  Every 10-15 minutes stir the rice, adding more water if dry (½ cup at a time), until the rice is cooked (30-35 minutes total cooking time), adjust salt to taste.

Quantities and adjustments:
I really like the rice and tend to make extra, typically 2 cups of rice would be sufficient for 5-6 pounds of lamb.  Allow 2 ¼ cups of water for each cup of rice.

Calculate the lamb to take 20-25 minutes per pound at 350˚.  Then allow 30-35 minutes for the rice to finish and subtract that from the total cooking time for the lamb to determine when to start the rice.

When in doubt, it is better to have the lamb finish prior to the rice.  Remove the lamb from the pan, tent the lamb with foil and let it sit while the rice continues to cook.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~