Cumin lamb is a Xinjiang (新疆) dish, similar to Yang Rou Chuan (grilled lamb skewers). Like the wildly popular (and delicious) chuan, it has gone beyond Xinjiang to become a popular dish all over China. I’ve seen it most often at authentic Hunan, Sichuan, and Chinese halal restaurants.
It’s really not difficult to see why cumin lamb, flavored with whole cumin seeds, has become such a popular dish. Cumin and lamb is a flavor match made in heaven. Add some hot peppers and plenty of cilantro, and it’s a dish too perfect to ignore. With white rice…I’ll use a phrase that Bill and the girls taught me over the years: Daaaaaaaang.
As a matter of fact, cumin lamb is one of my mother’s favorite dishes, and she usually doesn’t even like lamb. That’s how good it is. Fun fact, most Shanghainese people don’t like lamb—I used to be one of them, I’m ashamed to admit. You will never find any lamb dish in a Shanghainese restaurant.
That said, I really don’t know why that’s the case. According to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), lamb’s benefits include: expelling dampness from the body, warming the blood, and improving your overall Qi. Not surprising, then, that the best time to eat lamb is in the autumn and winter. So as summer comes to a close, what better time to post this recipe?
One last point I want to make: the trick to a good cumin lamb is the lamb fat. Hear me out. Overly lean lamb just tastes tough and unpleasant. The addition of a little extra marbling makes all the difference in the flavor and savory quality of the dish. I used leg of lamb, which ended up being a bit too lean. Most recipes will tell you to use leg of lamb, but I think the shoulder cut is better. Whatever you do, find a way to get some lamb fat in the dish.
Cumin Lamb Recipe Instructions
Pad lamb dry with paper towel before cutting. Once cut, combine the lamb with the marinade ingredients in a bowl—cumin powder, cornstarch, oil, light soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. Set aside and marinate for 30 minutes.
Once the lamb has been marinated, heat a wok over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds to the wok and dry toast them until fragrant. Turn off the heat, remove the cumin from the wok, and set aside.
Now heat the wok over the highest setting until it starts to smoke. Add two tablespoons of oil to coat the wok, and then immediately add the lamb. Sear the meat until it turns brown and starts to crisp slightly. The high heat will sear the meat, but keep it tender as well.
Now add the cooked cumin seeds, red chili peppers, Sichuan red pepper flakes (or powder), sugar, scallions, cilantro, and salt.
Toss everything together quickly (so that the scallion and cilantro are just wilted), and transfer to a serving dish. Serve hot with plenty of white rice!
Cumin Lamb
Ingredients
To marinate the lamb:
- 1 pound lamb (450g, preferably shoulder, cut into ½-inch by 2-inch pieces)
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon oil (optional, if you have a fattier cut of lamb)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
For the rest of the dish:
- 2 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 red chili peppers (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan red pepper flakes (or chili powder)
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 2 scallions (chopped)
- Large handful of chopped cilantro
- Salt (to taste)
Instructions
- Pad lamb dry with paper towel before cutting. Once cut, combine the lamb with the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Set aside and let marinate for 30 minutes.
- Once the lamb has been marinated, heat a wok over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds to the wok and dry toast them until fragrant. Turn off the heat, remove the cumin from the wok, and set aside.
- Now heat the wok over the highest setting until it starts to smoke. Add two tablespoons of oil to coat the wok, and then immediately add the lamb. Sear the meat until it turns brown and starts to crisp slightly. The high heat will sear the meat, but keep it tender as well.
- Now add the cooked cumin seeds, chili, red pepper flakes (or powder), sugar, scallions, cilantro, and salt. Toss everything together quickly (so that the scallion and cilantro are just wilted), and transfer to a serving dish. Serve hot with plenty of white rice!
nutrition facts
Hello! I’ve made this dish for my home and roommates a few times and it is outstanding. Perfect for winter months in Chicago! I’m planning on making this recipe for my coworkers next Friday for lunch. We typically do 1 meat, 1 vegetable, and rice. Do you have a veggie recommendation that would well accompany this dish?
Hi Nick, I’d usually just do a stir-fried leafy green—we have a few recipes that you can search for on our website. But I have to tell you, Bill and I had a stir-fried spinach with cumin at a Xinjiang restaurant that was really good. You might want to give it a try: instead of the white pepper powder that we called for in our stir-fried greens recipe, use cumin powder instead and double the quantity.
Hello, do you use the velveting technique for lamb dishes?
Cheers
We don’t, Jonathan, but it should be very similar to how to velvet beef.
Let me just say that this was probably the best lamb that I’ve ever eaten.
I have never really liked lamb and I have never cooked it. I consider myself a great cook.
My friend lost power during the hurricane and we went over to help them. They gave us a rack of lamb since they couldn’t keep too much fresh meat – with their power being out.
I swept all of my favorite food blogs for lamb recipes and I decided that this one looked best. And it was pretty easy as well.
I deboned the lamb chops and made it following the recipe and it was delicious. I used Serrano chili peppers.
Even my little one (who mainly eats chicken tenders and hot pockets) loved it. Hubby really loved it. He also wasn’t a fan of lamb before this. Thank you!!
Sorry to have missed your comment, Mimi. I’m so glad that we are the chosen one :-) Much appreciated!
Absolutely fantastic. The tip about larger pieces and letting them cook without moving for three minutes is perfect — crusty yet juicy. Really first rate. Many other cumin lamb recipes include garlic and Sichuan pepper corns but I followed this exactly. Cumin seems excessive but the finished product is balanced. Never had a bad recipe from this site.
Sorry to have missed your comment, Jana. Thank you so much for your lovely words :-)
This recipe sounds like the recipe I’ve been looking for. I was served this dish in a small northern Chinese Mom and Pop restaurant in Florida where no one spoke English. The flavor haunts me to this day. I’ve ordered it in other restaurants and tried making other recipes at home but the cumin flavor was not nearly as intense as the original. How can I make sure the cumin flavor is really intense?
I would add more cumin and even add a dash or two off ground cumin. I love extra spices so I always over spice my food
Sounds like a good idea, Mimi. You really want a strong cumin taste in this case.
I love ordering this dish from restaurants, although I think they always add too much cumin. I have 2 questions before I attempt this dish:
1) Would using ground cumin powder instead of the whole cumin seeds alter the taste or texture of the dish?
2) Would using presliced lamb shoulder meat (thin round slices) alter the overall dish? As some areas of the lamb fat separates completely from the rest of the meat. Usually when I encounter pieces of just lamb fat in the restaurant-ordered dish, I would just toss it instead of chewing a piece of complete lamb fat.
Hi Sophia, 1) You can use cumin powder. 2) Thin sliced lamb will be overcooked too quickly in this recipe. That’d be the only problem I can think of.
Great! Never had any better lamb dish!
Will be added to mycfavoutites
Wow, thank you for your high praise :-)