Sesame Chicken Legs
Posted by in Food
I have Lucinda Scala Quinn’s cookbook, Mad Hungry. Lucinda is an editor at MSL and I’ve always thought her recipes in the magazine were dead on. The cookbook is pretty fun and is supposed to be about feeding a family of men and boys. Although I don’t have 3 sons like she does, I have found some things in it to make.
Recently I decided to try her recipe for Crunchy Sesame Chicken Wings, but modified to my needs. The photo in the book looked fantastic and my kids are HUGE fans of sesame chicken. I was stuck with chicken legs though since I can’t get organic wings. I used 10 legs. The recipe says to mix up 3 eggs and coat the chicken in them. I used 1 egg and 1 egg white. I mixed in honey and sesame oil, hoping it would make this taste more like the Chinese restaurant dish sesame chicken.
Then you dip the wings in a mix of 1/2 cup sesame seeds, 1/2 flour, 2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 2-3 minced garlic cloves. Bake the legs on a greased baking sheet at 375 for 30 minutes, then turn it up to 400 for another 20-30 minutes. I lined my sheet with foil that I sprayed with Pam, and ended up sprinkling some olive oil over it halfway through.
The chicken was fantastically crunchy – Lucinda was a genius in constructing this coating. However, I felt like it was just lacking in flavor. If I make this again, I would either marinate the chicken in honey and sesame oil and maybe some soy sauce or I would try to coat it in just honey with a little water to loosen it up. My kids like their sesame chicken sweet and this wasn’t. It’s worth making again if I can pump up the flavor b/c it was just so majestically crunchy!
You can follow any comment to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Crunchy chicken is the best! I make chicken legs in the oven by baking them on a sprayed foil lined sheet @400 for 20 min, then putting them in a bowl with bbq sauce & coating them, then bake on the sheet to bake for another 30-40min. The longer you leave them in the crispier they get. My family loves these.
I like your idea of marinating the chicken in honey to pump up the flavour a bit. I so want that cookbook and love her recipes too.
The only thing I’ve made from it that I did not like was that vinegar glossed chicken which was also in Living. Her recipes are really approachable (none of the million steps involved in Martha’s stuff) and most of it is just good, plain, normal food if you know what I mean. There’s one I’ve been meaning to try called Fat Girl Rice – which she says she named b/c she couldn’t stop eating it. There’s also a chocolate cake that sounds pretty good.
Ooh, I’ll try this…I think the soy sauce might add that needed punch of flavor, especially by way of its saltiness, right? But I adore sesame seeds, and I think I would love this…putting it on the menu…
b
I vote of the honey and sesame seed combo. Yum!
I’d think with a little tweaking this could be delicious. The photos look yummy, so you’re on the right track, I think!
I keep meaning to cook more from this cookbook but for some reason I just haven’t. But you have spurred me on to give a recipe a try over this weekend.
Lucinda says she serves hers with hot sauce for dipping, so I guess that’s how she adds flavor, but I want mine to taste more like sesame chicken. I’ll be trying it again I guess.
That’s fun – let me know how it works out. Lucinda strikes me as more down to earth than Martha which is why I like her so much.
I also love the combo of sesame seeds and pretty much anything. I’ll have to try this. We like to make an easy dipping sauce of equal parts fresh lime juice and soy sauce. It sounds simple, but it’s soooo tasty.
That does sound really good. I love limes.
I think this is such a winner of a book! I’m thinking of giving away a copy on my blog and buying one for everyone I know for Christmas.
Lucinda is a genius. I understand what they were trying to do with this book, but it is a really unappealing title to me. I don’t mind the Mad Hungry part, but the men and boys things is sort of weird.
Mmmm those look so yummy. I am a huge fan of drumsticks, so will definitely be trying this recipe.
This one sounds really good too. But my kids are being weird about eating chicken. They are all acting like pseudo-vegetarians. After seeing FOOD, INC I totally agree that no one should be eating conventional chicken. (Have you seen that movie?) But we only buy free-range organic chicken from a local grower. Still, my daughters aren’t eating it so I may not be making crunchy drumsticks any time soon…
My son went through a veggie stage. It didn’t last long though. I agree – I am so picky about what meat I will buy. I’ve got to find a local source for organic pork next. I also have to say I think it is ridiculous that the organic beef my grocery store has is flown in from somewhere in South America, so I’m looking local for that too.