Mustard & Maple Roasted Chicken

ok... so several things went wrong..

Waaaay wrong....... Turned out beautifully though!

Now, my ingredients are very similar to Rach's, however I improvise, remember? This is supposed to be simplified and easy... and simple.. and easy... so I will go ahead and apologize now..

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter, melted (pop in the microwave after you pre-heat the oven)
2 pounds medium potatoes (about 6), skin-on and cut into wedges
4 crispy apples, quartered and cored then cut into 8 wedges per apple (I have a nifty apple corer-thingie that does this in a snap!)
3 medium yellow onions, peeled, cut into 6 wedges each with root attached (very important)
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped (I chopped about 10-12 sprigs) - you can also use dried thyme, just the same
1 5-pound chicken, quartered OR 5-quarter legs (mine was 5.23 lbs)
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
About 1/2 cup dark amber maple syrup
About 1/3 cup grainy mustard
About 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
About 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
About 1/3 cup chicken stock
3 cloves garlic, grated(i used three - you may use 2)

Serves 4 (or 6 - depends on how we look at this...) If you notice, most of these measurements are "about". This is straight from Rach's website... and I 'eyeball' my ingredients... never claimed to be any kind of baker! With that being said, these are NOT precise. Alter the sauce to taste! I did..


Ok, kids - this is where I went wrong... I used BONE-IN thighs. This is much cheaper (I speant $4.08 on 5.23 lbs!) However, takes much longer to cook! I was not anticipating almost 2 hours for this dinner! Which would lead to my epic FAIL for my very first assignment *sigh*
Also, be sure you wedge your potatoes all the same size! Cut into half, then quarter each section... makes cooking time more evenly.


Onto Preperation!

Pre-heat your oven to 400ºF.

In a deep roasting pan (you want sides at least 2" tall - it was a disaster for me to get this in and out of the oven. Lost lots of yummy juices. The fact I used an aluminum pan doesn't help either. Use a roasting pan, folks... a REAL-LIFE roasting pan....), dress the potatoes, apples and onions with melted butter and season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Roast for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven. While this is roasting, combine the syrup, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, stock and garlic in a small bowl.

Dress the chicken with the EVOO, salt and pepper and arrange over the potatoes and onions. The take your sauce mixture and pour evenly over the chicken and potatoes and roast for 1 hour more (this is with your normal chicken). If you use bone-in,

after an hour, I flipped my chicken to roast both sides (and I didn't want my birds black on one side, pink on the other!). Flip it then pop it back in for another 30 minutes or so. You want to taste your potatoes and make sure they are soft enough. Mine tasted like I had just chopped them up, straight from the bag! Certainly didn't taste like they had been in an oven for an hour.. so, I increased the initial roasting time to 20 minutes.


This is the golden goodness you come up with:

This has wonderful sweet flavors from the apples and carmelized onions - and salty flavors from your potatoes! When you are serving this, remove the onions (unless you prefer to eat them - I do not). This is why you keep them on their roots - makes it MUCH easier to fish out of there!

Now... I have a few notes on this first dive bomb of mine: it's not "short and sweet" but it is simple and a GREAT make ahead meal. I personally have a lot of these ingredients as staples in my pantry. I always have stock on hand for any reason; garlic; onions, EVOO and Worcestershire sauce..

I went to the store and spent about $20 on chicken, a bag of yellow onions, fresh thyme (this, unfortunately isn't one herb in the garden!), grain mustard, maple syrup (you may also substitute Amber Agave here, as well), 4 apples (I love apples but don't eat them often enough to keep on hand), cider vinegar (mine in the cabinet expired) and a 5-lb bag of yellow potatoes.

If you do choose to make ahead, all you have to do is prepare in full, cook, cover and refrigerate. Pop it in the oven on the day you want to serve for about half hour - to heat all the way through. note: cooked chicken can be kept in the fridge for up to five days.

This had great flavor and I was impressed - I have not yet given this over to my sister but I will this evening so I can get the 7 & 4 year old take on this. I believe they will be pleased!

you can find Rachael Ray's original recipe <~~ there!


Let me know if you have any fun improvisions to try out on this recipe! I promise the next one will more thought out and less complicated..