Mutton Leg Roast Recipe

Mutton leg roast, or raan, is a whole bone-in leg of mutton marinated in yogurt, garlic, ginger, cumin and lemon, then roasted covered at 175 °C (350 °F) for 2½ hours and uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the meat is soft enough to pull from the bone. The quantities below are for a 2.5 kg leg, which serves about 7, and the leg needs at least 8 hours in the fridge to marinate before it goes in the oven.

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Last updated 9 October 2026

Recipe

Mutton Leg Roast

Prep

45 mins

Cook

2 hr 50 mins

Total

3 hr 35 mins

Serves

7

Ingredients

For the leg

• 1 bone-in mutton leg (raan), about 2.5 kg
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 to 3 whole garlic cloves
• 240 ml (1 cup) water, plus a little more if the tin dries out

For the marinade

• 300 g plain yogurt (about 1¼ cups)
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1½ tbsp grated ginger or ginger paste
• 2½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 large pinch saffron threads
• Red chilli powder, to taste
• Garam masala, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste

Method

1. With a sharp knife, make deep cuts all over the mutton leg so the marinade can get into the meat.
2. Mix the yogurt, crushed garlic, ginger, salt, cumin, lemon juice and saffron with the chilli powder, garam masala and black pepper into a smooth marinade.
3. Rub the marinade all over the leg and into the cuts. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours, or overnight. Never marinate raw meat at room temperature.
4. Heat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Spread the sliced onion and whole garlic cloves in a roasting tin and lay the leg on top, then pour the water into the tin.
5. Cover the tin tightly with foil and roast for 2½ hours. If the tin looks dry when you check, add a little more water.
6. Remove the foil and roast uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the surface browns.
7. The leg is ready when the meat is tender and pulls away from the bone; if it is still firm, cover it again and keep roasting. Check with a food thermometer: USDA FSIS gives 145 °F (63 °C) as the safe minimum for lamb roasts, followed by a rest of at least 3 minutes.
8. Rest the leg under loose foil, then carve or pull the meat from the bone and serve with the onions and juices from the tin.

What is raan?

Raan is what all three published recipes this card is built from call a whole leg of mutton or lamb that is marinated in spiced yogurt and slow-roasted: Flour & Spice and Hari Ghotra roast a mutton leg, and SBS Food a lamb leg.

How long to marinate a mutton leg

At least 8 hours, or overnight, and always in the fridge. SBS Food marinates for 8 to 24 hours, Flour & Spice overnight and up to 3 days, and Hari Ghotra in two overnight stages. USDA FSIS advises marinating meat in the refrigerator, not on the counter, and lists lamb roasts as safe to marinate in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (Lamb From Farm to Table). Do not reuse the marinade as a sauce unless you boil it first.

How much chilli and garam masala to use

That is up to you, because the three sources disagree too much to give one amount. Per kilogram of leg, Flour & Spice uses about 2½ tsp each of red chilli powder and garam masala, SBS Food about ¼ tsp chilli and ½ tsp garam masala, and Hari Ghotra ½ tsp chilli with whole spices (cardamom, cassia, cloves, fennel) instead of garam masala. For a 2.5 kg leg that is anything from a mild ½ tsp of chilli to a hot 2 tbsp. Black pepper varies too, from about ¼ tsp per kg (Flour & Spice) to ½ tsp (Hari Ghotra) to “to taste” (SBS Food).

Mutton or lamb: does the cooking time change?

It can. Hari Ghotra roasts a mutton leg for about 4 hours at a lower 160 °C, while SBS Food roasts a lamb leg for 2 to 2½ hours. The times on this card are an estimate, so test the meat rather than the clock: it is done when it is tender and comes away from the bone. If it is still firm after the covered roast, put the foil back and keep going.

Scaling the recipe to your leg

The marinade is worked out per kilogram of meat, so it scales with the leg. For each kilogram, use about 120 g yogurt, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp salt, 1¼ tsp ground cumin and ¾ tbsp lemon juice. A bigger leg needs more water in the tin and, usually, longer under the foil.

Is it safe to eat? The temperature to check

USDA FSIS sets 145 °F (63 °C), measured with a food thermometer, as the safe minimum for lamb roasts, followed by a rest of at least 3 minutes (Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart). A raan is roasted until the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender, so the thermometer check is a safety floor, not the finish line.

How this recipe card was put together

Each quantity on the card is one that at least two of three published raan recipes agree on per kilogram of leg (Flour & Spice, Hari Ghotra, SBS Food), scaled to a 2.5 kg leg. The oven temperature, roasting times and servings are the median of the three. Nutrition and ratings are not given, because no figure for them was measured.

More Pakistani recipes

For more from the same kitchen, try chicken seekh kabab, Pakistani chicken tikka, biryani.