diff --git a/news/changelog-1.6.md b/news/changelog-1.6.md
index 2d4b8a89d66..39f8b03b73d 100644
--- a/news/changelog-1.6.md
+++ b/news/changelog-1.6.md
@@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ All changes included in 1.6:
 - Upgrade `mermaidjs` to 11.2.0.
 - Upgrade Pandoc to 3.4.
 - Upgrade `deno` to 1.46.3.
+- ([#11068](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11068)): use standard location when writing to standard output to avoid breakage under `self-contained: true`.
 - ([#10162](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/10162)): Use Edge on `macOS` as a Chromium browser when available.
 - ([#10235](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/10235)): Configure the CI schedule trigger to activate exclusively for the upstream repository.
 - ([#10295](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/10235)): Fix regression to return error status to shell when `CommandError` is thrown.
diff --git a/src/command/render/output.ts b/src/command/render/output.ts
index fdf2e1a0c40..cf08086e6f1 100644
--- a/src/command/render/output.ts
+++ b/src/command/render/output.ts
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ export function outputRecipe(
       });
     }
 
-    if (!recipe.output) {
+    const deriveAutoOutput = () => {
       // no output specified: derive an output path from the extension
 
       // derive new output file
@@ -200,15 +200,16 @@ export function outputRecipe(
 
       // assign output
       updateOutput(output);
+    };
+
+    if (!recipe.output) {
+      deriveAutoOutput();
     } else if (recipe.output === kStdOut) {
-      // output to stdout: direct pandoc to write to a temp file then we'll
-      // forward to stdout (necessary b/c a postprocesor may need to act on
-      // the output before its complete)
-      updateOutput(options.services.temp.createFile({ suffix: "." + ext }));
+      deriveAutoOutput();
       recipe.isOutputTransient = true;
       completeActions.push(() => {
-        writeFileToStdout(recipe.output);
-        Deno.removeSync(recipe.output);
+        writeFileToStdout(join(inputDir, recipe.output));
+        Deno.removeSync(join(inputDir, recipe.output));
       });
     } else if (!isAbsolute(recipe.output)) {
       // relatve output file on the command line: make it relative to the input dir
diff --git a/src/command/render/render.ts b/src/command/render/render.ts
index 195bdd693cf..80986a16016 100644
--- a/src/command/render/render.ts
+++ b/src/command/render/render.ts
@@ -276,25 +276,38 @@ export async function renderPandoc(
       await withTimingAsync("postprocess-selfcontained", async () => {
         // ensure flags
         const flags = context.options.flags || {};
-
-        // call complete handler (might e.g. run latexmk to complete the render)
-        finalOutput = await recipe.complete(pandocOptions) || recipe.output;
-
         // determine whether this is self-contained output
+        finalOutput = recipe.output;
+
+        // note that we intentionally call isSelfContainedOutput twice
+        // the first needs to happen before recipe completion
+        // because ingestion of self-contained output needs
+        // to happen before recipe completion (which cleans up some files)
         selfContained = isSelfContainedOutput(
           flags,
           format,
           finalOutput,
         );
 
-        // If this is self-contained, run pandoc to 'suck in' the dependencies
-        // which may have been added in the post processor
         if (selfContained && isHtmlFileOutput(format.pandoc)) {
           await pandocIngestSelfContainedContent(
             outputFile,
             format.pandoc[kResourcePath],
           );
         }
+
+        // call complete handler (might e.g. run latexmk to complete the render)
+        finalOutput = (await recipe.complete(pandocOptions)) || recipe.output;
+
+        // note that we intentionally call isSelfContainedOutput twice
+        // the second call happens because some recipes change
+        // their output extension on completion (notably, .pdf files)
+        // and become self-contained for purposes of cleanup
+        selfContained = isSelfContainedOutput(
+          flags,
+          format,
+          finalOutput,
+        );
       });
 
       // compute the relative path to the files dir
diff --git a/tests/docs/self-contained/simple.qmd b/tests/docs/self-contained/simple.qmd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..dea0a3fa2f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/docs/self-contained/simple.qmd
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+format:
+  html:
+    self-contained: true
+---
+
+## Hello
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/smoke/self-contained/stdout.test.ts b/tests/smoke/self-contained/stdout.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f03a8e6c730
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/smoke/self-contained/stdout.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import { quarto } from "../../../src/quarto.ts";
+import { test } from "../../test.ts";
+
+test({
+  name: "https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/issues/11068",
+  context: {
+    setup: async() => {
+      await quarto(["render", "docs/self-contained/simple.qmd", "-o", "-"]);
+    }
+  },
+  execute: async () => {},
+  verify: [],
+  type: "smoke"
+});