A whole lamb rubbed with smen, cumin, and saffron, then slow-roasted on a spit or in a sealed pit oven until the meat pulls apart by hand. A festival and celebration centerpiece across the Maghreb, traditionally eaten with nothing more than cumin and salt.
Also known as: méchoui, mechwi, meshwi, Moroccan roast lamb, whole spit-roasted lamb
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 2 kg bone-in lamb shoulder
- 60 g soft butter or smen
- 2 tbsp ground cumin, divided
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- Pinch of saffron threads, bloomed in warm water
- 1.5 tsp salt
- Cumin-salt (1:1), for dipping
How to make it
- 1
Stab the shoulder a dozen times and work in a paste of butter, half the cumin, paprika, garlic, saffron water and salt, pushing it into the slits.
- 2
Set the lamb on a rack over a splash of water, cover tightly with foil, and roast at 150 C for 3.5 to 4 hours, basting with pan juices every hour.
- 3
Uncover, raise to 220 C, and give it 15 minutes to bronze.
- 4
Rest 20 minutes under loose foil.
- 5
Bring it out whole, to be pulled apart by hand and dipped piece by piece in cumin-salt.
Pro tip: Mechoui is eaten with fingers, and that is also the doneness test: if you need a knife, it is not ready. When a gentle tug at the shank end slides meat off the bone, only then does the oven blast for crust.
