Description
Roasted maple dijon chicken is a gourmet dinner for two that you can easily scale-up to serve more guests.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 chicken legs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
For the paste:
- 2 large garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 teaspoon chopped sage (or rosemary or thyme)
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup good maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
Optional:
- 1 bunch of asparagus for side dish (or your favorite veggie or salad)
- Fresh lemon wedges for asparagus
- Fresh chopped parsley garnish
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Instructions
- Chop the fresh sage. You can use sage, rosemary or thyme for this. I stacked the sage leaves on top of each other (4-6 depending on size of leaves), rolled them up and diced them down from there. I used one teaspoon finely chopped, but you can use more if you want!
- With the two large garlic cloves, smash them down with the side of your knife (my video shows this well). If there are any large pieces, cut once or twice to make it smaller. If you’re not comfortable doing that just give both garlic cloves a rough chop.
- Trim the fat from the chicken legs. I have a great instructional tutorial if you have time (how to trim the fat from chicken thighs). Generally, trim all hanging fat and all the fat underneath as well. There are hidden pockets of fat so watch out for that. Do your best to trim as much as you can. Put chicken on small sheet pan or plate.
- Use a light sprinkling of salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken. For both sides it probably amounts to ½ to ¾ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper, approximately.
- Make the paste: to a small bowl add the Dijon mustard, fresh sage, smashed garlic, maple syrup, and soy sauce. Mix together until well combined.
- Transfer chicken to a large bowl and add the maple/Dijon mixture. Toss and turn the chicken to coat evenly. Transfer chicken and all the sauce to a parchment paper lined baking dish – I used an 11x7 baking dish. The parchment paper will preserve the awesome juices so we can spoon it on top when we serve.
- Bake in a preheated over at 400 for one hour. Half-way through cooking, baste the chicken with the sauce in the pan. At the end of cooking - this is optional - switch oven to broil and let chicken crisp for a minute or two. Keep your eye on it here it can burn easily.
- While the chicken is cooking you can make a veggie side or salad. I made asparagus. Chop a small portion of the stalks from the bunch. It’s usually a little discolored and can have a bitter taste.
- I filled a large pan with water and placed the asparagus in the water. When the chicken is almost done. Turn heat on medium-to-high and cook with lid on for 8-10 minutes, depending on how al dente or soft you like your asparagus.
- Optional add-ons for this are a few lemon wedges. One wedge to squeeze onto the cooked asparagus and two more to garnish plate.
- Fresh chopped parsley for garnish is another optional add-on. It’s up to you, but I do think it make a nice presentation.
- After the chicken is cooked and cooled for 5-10 minutes, transfer chicken to two plates. Carefully tilt the baking dish so you can spoon the sauce onto the chicken. This is amazing flavor so don’t skip this. Add asparagus to plate, squeeze fresh lemon over it and some parsley garnish if using. Serve immediately.
- This is an easy recipe to double using the recipe multiplier tool in the recipe card. Just remember the numbers are doubled in the ingredient list, but not the written instructions.