Roasted Chicken Leg with Butter Beans
Dinner | French
Roast chicken for one? If you're cooking just for yourself, it's a lot to cook an entire roast chicken. So this recipe embodies that classic roast chicken dinner but we're just using chicken maryland instead.
It's going to take you about 40 minutes from start to finish but I think it's a really great meal to make for yourself on a weekend. The butter bean and asparagus salad will mke two portions and you'll have an extra serving to pop in the fridge for tomorrow. If you're cooking for two, just double the chicken as you'll have enough salad there. Cooking for 4? Double to salad amount and buy 4 chicken maryland.
We’re roasting a chicken maryland until the skin’s golden and the meat’s juicy, then serving it on a warm salad packed with butter beans, asparagus, and just enough mustard and honey to make things interesting. A bit of lemon to cut through, some curly endive for bite, and you’ve got yourself a cracking one-pan dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken maryland
- 2 tsp olive oil
- sea salt, to season
- 400g tin butter beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
- 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed, thinly sliced
- 15g butter
- 1 tbsp thyme leaves, chopped
- 1 tbsp seeded mustard
- 2 tsp hot honey
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 cup curly endive leaves, packed
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan force (355°F).
- Drizzle chicken with oil and season with salt.
- Heat a heavy based oven-proof frying pan over medium-high.
- Add chicken, skin side down and place protein press on top. Remove from the heat and transfer to the oven straight away.
- Roast for 30 minutes, until juices run clear when pierced in the leg. You’re looking for an internal temp of 70°C, it will continue cooking while it’s resting.
- Transfer chicken to a wire rack over a tray to rest.
- Meanwhile, drain off all but 1 tbsp of the cooking juices from the pan and place back over medium heat, adding the butter.
- Add garlic and asparagus, cook for 2 minutes, until starting to soften. Season with pepper and taste for salt.
- Stir in thyme, mustard and honey, then turn off the heat.
- Add some of the resting juices from the chicken tray, then stir through beans to warm.
- Stir through lemon juice and endive, until leaves are just wilted.
- Transfer bean and asparagus salad to a serving plate, then top with chicken and enjoy!
Recipe notes
Chicken maryland:
This is the thigh and drumstick left joined as one piece, sometimes called a leg quarter. More fat and flavour than breast, stays moist through roasting, and the bone-in structure prevents it drying out during the 30 minutes in the oven. The skin crisps across a wide, flat surface when pressed against the pan. Widely available at supermarkets in the bone-in chicken section.
Butter beans:
Large, creamy white beans that hold their shape when warmed through. Canned and rinsed work perfectly here. They absorb the cooking juices, butter and mustard dressing and add body to the salad. Cannellini beans are a good substitute if butter beans aren’t available.
Curly endive:
A slightly bitter, frilly leaf that wilts quickly in the residual heat of the pan. The bitterness cuts through the richness of the chicken fat and butter in the dressing. If unavailable, substitute with radicchio for a similar bitterness, or baby spinach for a milder result. Baby spinach will wilt in seconds; radicchio will hold its texture a little longer.