Curried Roast Chicken Pieces with Spicy Sweet Potato & Carrots

A recent commenter on Cook Lisa Cook left a link to one of her recipes, Curried Roast Chicken Leg with Spicy Sweet Potato Chips.  After one look at her recipe, she had me and I was going to be making her recipe…Or my version of it because she was only cooking for one and also, I can never leave good enough alone.

The combination of coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon & chili powder is always a winner for me so I knew that we would love the flavors.  In addition, my friend Trixie recently gave me a big bag of her homegrown sweet potatoes so I’ve been wanting to use some of those and I had all the other ingredients to make this recipe either in my pantry or freezer.  Making this recipe for dinner this week was a no-brainer.

I of course made some changes from the original recipe as I bumped up the spices quite a bit, added carrots because I had so many in the house and because we love it, a lot, LOT more garlic.  I used chicken leg quarters and they just happened to be huge so if you make this recipe, adjust accordingly. 

The recipe was simple to make, one big bowl and a roasting pan so not a lot of dishes.  The only thing to watch out for is, use gloves because I ran out of them and spread the spice mixture on the chicken by hand and now because of the turmeric I’m sporting lovely yellow nails. 

We loved this recipe as the chicken was juicy and tender with a nice crispy and flavorful skin.  The sweet potatoes and carrots were naturally sweet and wonderfully flavored by the spices and the shallots and garlic were mellow and a great addition to the dish.  Even though I put in quite a bit of chili powder the dish was not “hot” spicy in any way and I will probably up the chili powder the next time I make this…and I will be making this wonderful dish again.  We also enjoyed the cucumber & mint raita and even though it wasn’t needed to “cool” the dish it was a very refreshing addition.

Curried Roast Chicken Pieces with Spicy Sweet Potato & Carrots  (Adapted from here)

For the veggies:

1 lb. baby carrots
2-3 medium sweet potato, peeled & cut into sticks similar in size to the carrots
6 large shallots, peeled & halved
20+ cloves garlic, peeled
1 TBS coriander
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS turmeric
1 TBS cinnamon
2 tsp. dark chili powder (or more to taste)
sea salt to taste
melted coconut oil or oil of your choice

For the chicken:

5-6 chicken leg quarters, skin-on, bone-in, fat & excess skin trimmed away 
2 TBS coriander 
2 TBS cumin 
2 TBS turmeric
1 TBS cinnamon 
1 1/2 TBS dark chili powder (or more to taste)
sea salt to taste
melted coconut oil or oil of your choice

Pre-heat oven to 450 F. 

In a large bowl add the spices for the the carrots and sweet potatoes.  Add enough oil to make a mixture that will easily spread on the veggies.  Add the carrots and sweet potatoes and mix to coat all the pieces evenly.

Lightly grease a large shallow roasting pan and add the shallots, cut side down, garlic and the sweet potatoes & carrots.  Place in the hot oven for 10 but not more than 15 minutes while preparing the chicken.   

In the now empty bowl (no need to even wash it out) add the spices for the chicken and enough oil to allow the spice mixture to easily coat the chicken.  Add the chicken to the bowl and spread the spice mixture over the chicken pieces working it under the skin a bit but not fully separating the skin from the meat.

Remove the partially cooked veggies from the oven and place the chicken pieces on top of the veggies.  Return the pan to the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked completely, depending on the size of your chicken pieces, 30-40 minutes.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, remove the chicken pieces to a serving platter and loosely tent with foil.  Turn on the broiler and place the veggies back in the oven for just a few minutes allowing them to crisp up a little more.

Cucumber and Mint Raita
1 cup plain yogurt (I used fat-free Greek yogurt)
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed & chopped very finely
handful of mint leaves, chopped very finely
pinch of cumin powder 
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together. Add salt to taste.  Chill and serve as a side to the chicken and veggies.

Enjoy!