A Chicken Maryland is a butcher's cut — the thigh and drumstick left joined together. It can also include a segment of the spine, along the top of the thigh.
Somewhere along the way, it got named after a state, though no one can quite agree why or how. The name stuck anyway, carried by butchers from kitchen to kitchen, country to country, meaning slightly different things depending on where you are.
Sound familiar?
Today I'm making Chicken Marylands with lentils — a humble, unhurried dish for a day that has been anything but. Because sometimes the most political act you can do is slow down, tend to something carefully, and feed the people around you.
Recipe below. We all need to eat. We all need to come back to the table.
(Recipe inspired by Jesse Jenkins.)
