Tonight I perfected the roast chicken Maryland dinner

Tonight I think I struck gold and made the perfect roast chicken dinner. My mouth is singing with happiness.

I’ve been thinking of tonight’s dinner nearly all day. I think everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love roast chicken and my favourite part of the chicken is the Maryland. That’s the thigh and drumstick. Everyone of late also knows I’ve taken to quinoa. Given we’re about to breach winter in Canberra, roasted vegetables are high on the comfort food scale. This is a combination dinner that just sung in my mouth.

Tonight I perfected the roast chicken Maryland dinner
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Chicken Maryland
  • Potato
  • Sweet potato
  • Capsicum
  • Jalapeño pepper
  • Grated cheese
  • Olive oil
  • Diced spam
  • Black peppercorns
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Quinoa
  • Rice
Instructions
  1. Place about ⅓ cup of quinoa and rice into the bottom of the roasting tray
  2. Add ⅔ cup of water to the roasting tray
  3. Place a rack in the roasting tray and add the Chicken Maryland which has been rubbed with olive oil, salt and dried mixed herbs
  4. Place the chicken into an oven at 150 °C for 1 hour (use a meat thermometer to ensure food safety)
  5. Cut the potato, sweet potato and capsicum into wedges or batons
  6. Dice some classic SPAM®
  7. Finely dice some jalapeño pepper
  8. Put the jalapeño pepper, potato, sweet potato, capsicum and SPAM® into a large bowl and mix with some olive oil, grated cheese, cracked black peppercorns, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce
  9. Lay out the vegetables onto some baking paper on an oven tray
  10. Place the vegetables into the oven on another shelf with the chicken and cook for 1 hour
  11. Pull the chicken out of the oven and make sure the meat thermometer has achieved the correct cooking temperature to kill most vegetative bacteria (this is 75 °C according to chicken.org.au)
  12. Allow the chicken to rest for about 20 to 30 minutes (resting is really important, it helps ensure a succulent flesh)
  13. Scoop out the quinoa and rice from the baking tray and place half in a bowl in the refrigerator for lunch the next day with some salad leaves.
  14. Keep the rest of the quinoa and rice warm to serve with the chicken and vegetables
  15. Hopefully you’ve timed the cooking of the vegetables to coincide with the end of the resting period of the chicken
  16. When the chicken is rested plate up the vegetables onto a plate, then place the rice and quinoa next to the vegetables. Finally add the chicken.
  17. If you are French you probably made a sauce and lots of it to enjoy with the chicken, me, I’m an Australian. We don’t need sauce.
  18. Shoot a photograph
  19. Inhale the meal
  20. Wash the dishes
  21. Write the recipe
  22. Blog (verb)

The combination of jalapeño peppers in the vegetables made a huge difference. As the vegetables were roasting the volatile odours from the peppers were permeating my small apartment. The rice and quinoa in the baking tray had absorbed all the fatty juicy goodness from the chicken and they stuck together really well to form an old fashioned stack. The chicken was perfectly cooked. The meat was juicy and succulent. I cannot emphasise too much the value of resting roast chicken. Oh, I also added my secret ingredient, viz., SPAM®

If you make this or make a variation of this dish please let me know.

I hope you like roast chicken as much as I do 

Roast Chicken Maryland, Capsicum, Cheese, , Jalapeño pepper, Onion, Potato, Quinoa, Rice, Spam, and Sweet potato
Roast Chicken Maryland, Capsicum, Cheese, , Jalapeño pepper, Onion, Potato, Quinoa, Rice, Spam, and Sweet potato

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