Hot days in Canberra.

We’ve had daily maximum temperatures exceeding 35 °C for the last few days. It’s also been very dry with humidity mostly under 20%. Hot and dry is awful. I much prefer warm and moist. I’ve been running a humidifier in my living room to try to keep my skin from cracking. I really don’t like hot days. 

Keeping hot

So what do you do on a hot night? Turn on the often and roast some chicken drumsticks!

I didn’t have much choice. I’d bought three chicken drumsticks on Saturday morning and I didn’t like keeping them too long in the refrigerator.

I thought I would cook them on a bed of quinoa rice and use some asparagus and broccoli I had. For a little colour, I used up some cherry tomatoes and red chillies. I stuck it all together with some grated Coon cheese.

Ingredients

Three (3) Chicken drumsticks

Red quinoa and brown rice—1 packet

Gorgonzola cheese—2 tablespoons crumbled

Feta cheese—2 tablespoons crumbled

Coon cheese—1 small handful grated

Asparagus spears—small bundle cut coarsely

Broccolini—small bundle cut coarsely

Two (2) red chillies—sliced

Chilli flakes—1 teaspoon

How did I make this magnificent creation?

Cook the microwave red quinoa and brown rice according to the packet instructions.

In a large mixing bowl add the quinoa rice, three raw chicken drumsticks, a good slosh of olive oil, the Coon cheese, asparagus spears, broccoli, chilli flakes and curry powder.

Mix with oiled hands, separate out the chicken drumsticks and then form a mound in an oven-proof frying pan

Place the chicken drumsticks on top of the mound

Place the frying pan into an oven at 150 °C (300 °F) for 45 minutes

At 45 minutes remove the frying pan and crumble over the top the Gorgonzola and feta cheese

Put back into the oven for 5 minutes

Remove from the oven and plate up

Picture perfect!

Well, not quite. I should have done something to avoid the shadow in the top left of the bowl. Click here for a larger version to see the detail.

How did it taste?

The rice was crunchy and cheesy. The chicken was nicely cooked. It was pretty filling. The Gorgonzola cheese really added a distinctive flavour too. 👍👍