Cooking chicken legs in a frying pan

Cafe Society
1

I’ve got a bunch of frozen chicken legs and I think I’m going to make some. I want to make them on the stove top in a frying pan (I’ve got pans of various sizes at my disposal). What’s the way you recommend I go about it?

So you know what skill level you’re working with: People say I’m a pretty horrible cook and they’d probably be right. That being said, I typically have loads of fun doing it. I tend to like what I make for myself but it’s always… ah, experimental cooking? Anything that doesn’t come in a box with instructions is usually prepared with a fair amount (read: complete) guesswork. Example: “Frozen fish, huh? Well I think to fry it I’d have to put it in boiling oil… but I’ve got no oil… uh, butter’ll work.” Half an hour later- “The pieces of this that don’t crumble to ash when poked are fantastic! What an amazing chef I am!”

Ingredients I have available: Salt (kosher and iodized), pepper, paprika (I love this stuff and put it in whatever I can such as bowls of vegetabls, stuffing mix, etc), poultry seasoning, some vegetable oil (and some more in spray form), some vinaigrette spray, margarine, sprinkles, sugar (white and green), cinnamon, shortening, baking powder, mayonnaise, garlic powder, flour and vanilla extract.

Regards,
AClockworkMelon

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2

You have green sugar?

:stuck_out_tongue: Okay first of all, make sure the chicken is thawed. So you have to take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge for 24 hours. I believe there’s also a way to defrost it under cold running water.

Are you going to leave the skin on? If not, put a paper towel over the skin and pull off the skin with the friction of the paper towel. Cut off what you can’t get off otherwise (this is after the chicken is fully de-thawed). Season with pepper, salt and poultry seasoning.

I would heat a good sized pan with canola or vegetable oil to medium high for a few minutes and put in sliced or minced garlic - a clove for every thigh or so. Watch the chicken turn opaque and then flip over. ETA: since you’re such a novice, I would cut through a piece first to make sure it’s cooked through. No pink, just white firm flesh. Serve with mixed vegetables (you can just empty a bag into a Gladware or Pyrex, throw in a tablespoon or two of water and nuke in the microwave. Season with salt/butter/pepper, whatever you like).

I recommend Steamfresh bags of frozen precooked brown rice. On sale they’re like $1, and provide 2-3 servings of the rice.

Or shred the chicken and wrap it up in a tortilla with shredded lettuce and some diced tomatoes and onions or just the chicken, salsa and some shredded cheese. Be healthy, grab the 2% cheese instead of full fat :). Try a whole wheat tortilla too, see if it doesn’t kill ya :slight_smile:

3

Hmm, tough call with what you list. I’m hoping you have a little leeway in ingredients.

Assuming you don’t want fried chicken since you don’t mention that, your other choice is to braise them. Braising just means cooking at a relatively low temperature in liquid for a long time - for chicken legs, that means about an hour. It’s a great method for tough non-lean meats, which is what chicken legs are.

The trick, given your set of ingredients, is that you don’t list any liquid ingredients. Assuming you can get your hands on some, get one or more of the following:

  • chicken stock. The low-salt Swanson’s in boxes is the best, but canned will do.
  • red wine
  • white wine
  • beer (not too strong - you don’t want to use that ultra hoppy microbrew here, bud is fine)
  • canned diced tomatoes

Lots of other liquids will do as as well - you just need something to give it taste. You can mix & match as well - canned tomatoes with beer or wine is good. You could even use orange juice + water, that would be nice with paprika and cinnamon.

OK, so technique: First, salt & pepper the chicken legs. Put some vegetable oil in a skillet that’s big enough to hold your legs without crowding them, heat to medium/medium high. When it’s hot, add the legs, brown them on all sides. You’re not going to be able to brown every last visible surface since legs are oddly shaped, just do your best. It’ll be fine.

When they’re all browned, take 'em out of the pan. If there’s a ton of fat, pour some off, leaving 1 or 2 Tablespoons. Now you get to get creative with your seasonings. Add some paprika and garlic powder (since you list those) or whatever else sounds good. If you happen to have any onions or shallots or garlic, this is the time to saute those babies up. If you’re just doing spices, toast 'em for a few seconds in the hot oil, then add your chicken back to the pan and roll it around to coat on all sides.

Add your liquid at this point, fill it up maybe halfway up the chicken. You don’t want the chicken totally submerged, but you want enough that it won’t cook down in an hour. You’ll also probably want to put some salt & pepper in at this point. Put a cover on the pan (or cover with tinfoil), turn it on low, and let it cook for 45-60 minutes, until the meat is falling off the bone.

It’s fine to add more liquid (or even water) if it evaporates off before the legs are done.

Once they’re done, you can take the meat out of the pan, turn up the heat, and boil the remaining liquid down a bit to make a sauce if you want. If you happen to have rice or potatoes or noodles or any other starchy thing, you could make a dinner by serving the rice/potatoes/noodles with the sauce on top and the legs on the side.

Good luck!

4

Yes.

Can’t I defrost it by… I don’t know, putting it in the microwave or something? What about putting it in a pot of boiling water? I don’t want to wait 24 hours.

Damn right I am.

By “season” do you mean “pour on”?

I’ve only got the ingredients I listed. Though I do have a colander!

5

Most microwaves have a “defrost” setting. So yeah, you can defrost in the microwave.

You can’t do it with a pot of boiling water - that’ll just defrost the outside and leave the inside hot.

You can put them in a pot of cold water for a few hours, if you have that much time. Pull them apart as much as possible for fast defrosting. And no, this isn’t advocated by the FDA, but as long as you cook them thoroughly, you’ll be fine.

6

I like fried chicken. :slight_smile: But I don’t want it to turn out like my fish…

I’ve had this before. The meat becomes super tender and basically just falls off the bone when you pick it up, right? I hate that. :frowning:

I’ve got oil, milk, water and a half bottle of vinaigrette.

Should the oil be bubbling? If so, should it be bubbling a lot? When I made my fish (I put the stove burner on high…) the boiling oil splashed everywhere and I had to approach the stove with a towel to turn it off. Then it took like half an hour to stop. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks. I might try just tossing 'em in with oil like you said and browning them like you said. I wasn’t sure it’d cook all the way through. Or something.

7

How long do you think it’ll take for like two large legs to defrost?

8

Then absolutely don’t make my recipe! Cuz that’s what it does.

You should put in just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, and there shouldn’t be enough to really bubble much at all. Heat it on medium high until it starts to look glossy - like watery if you tip the pan, not oily - and it might smoke a little bit. If it’s bubbling fast, it’s too hot for browning. And you’ll make a mess, as you noted.

Hmm. I’m not sure you can saute chicken legs all the way through in a pan on top of the stove without really overcooking the outside. They’re just too dense, and the bone makes it even harder. You can definitely do thinner cuts or boned legs, but that’s not what you have.

Adding the liquid makes it a braise and that definitely works, but… you don’t like that. So I’m out of ideas! Maybe Lindsey’s idea works? I dunno, I’ve never tried it, it’s just my gut feeling that thinks that legs are just too big to fry.

Edit: you can definitely make FRIED chicken legs on top of the stove. If that’s what you want, put a bunch of flour in a big bowl, add salt & pepper, mix together and coat the legs. Fill your pan up about an inch or so of oil, get it super duper hot - it WILL be bubbling - and put the legs in. Fry until the outside is brown and the inside is down, maybe 8 minutes or so total.

It’ll make a huge mess, but it’ll taste good!

9

Pull them apart, put them on a plate, do them at 5 minutes on half power then check them. Move them around so they defrost evenly, do them for another 3 minutes on half power then check again. Keep going until they’re thaw. My guess is somewhere around 8-10 min total time.

Make sure you’re doing half power if your microwave doesn’t have a defrost setting, otherwise you’ll cook the outside while the middle is still frozen.

10

Do you not have access to an oven? It would probably be easiest just to bake them.

If you really want to do them in a pan, then you can either fry them (the simplest way would be to dredge them in seasoned flour and drop them in hot oil, turning them every few minutes with tongs), or braise them.

I invented a braise I sometimes use for small chicken parts (works best with thighs, but ok for legs) that I call “butterscotch chicken.” Basically I make a braising liquid out of brown sugar, butter, water, salt and cayenne. I brown the chicken in a little oil, then pour the braising liquid over it and let it simmer on medium low heat until the chicken is cooked through. The liquid reduces as it simmers until it leaves a kind of sticky-sweet-salty-spicy glaze.

You can do this in the oven too. Basically just put the chicken in a casserole pan, pour the braising liquid over it and bake (uncovered) for about an hour at 400 degrees. The liquid reduces and gets sticky just like in the pan.

11

No, but it should sizzle when you throw a pinch of flour in it. If you’ve got a rolling boil, you’ve got it WAY too hot.

12

Ahh, in the future you wanna defrost 24 hours in advance. Defrosting in the microwave has always resulted in stuff that’s kinda cooked on the outside, so I don’t advocate it myself. Athena mentioned pot of water - I think running water is acceptable by the FDA, yeah?

Also, you need to hack the joint between the drumstick and the thigh. Don’t cook a whole leg, it’s way too big a piece to handle safely unless you’re already a good cook. Is the piece of chicken the size of your hand or is it bigger? IF it’s bigger, it’s a leg, if it’s smaller it’s a thigh. If you don’t have big metal tongs, don’t fry it either (like in deep oil, deep fried. I suggested pan frying, which is fine).

I just blu myself.

PS Cooking to start out with is SO HARD. It seems like there are a bajillion steps. But like riding a bike, a bajillion steps turn into second nature quickly. It gets really easy really fast. 2 years ago I was making garbage Mac & Cheese, Tuna Helper and Spaghetti. Now I’ve practiced a whole lot and can rival some of the best cooks here (although I’ll never touch norinew or Athena). I wouldn’t have kept up with it if it weren’t worth it.

13

OK, take a step back. Way back. That fish you made? The heat was way too high. Keep your heat no higher than medium until you learn more about cooking. If you do to your chicken what you did to your fish, you’ll end up with charcoal encrusted raw chicken.

Next step: take your time. Bone-in chicken does not cook quickly and remain edible. Expect to take at least an hour to make this dish, from beginning to end.

So the morning you want to make the chicken, put it in a Ziplock bag and cover it with milk. Add just a splash of vinegrette. Shake. Let it sit in that all day. (You’ve just made “sour milk”, which is a pretty decent substitute for buttermilk, and it will help to keep the chicken moist and juicy when you cook it.

Okay, so when you’re ready to cook, put a handful of flour in a shallow bowl. Add about half a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Add 1/2 tsp of paprika, since you like it and it will give a pretty color. 1/4 tsp of garlic powder would be nice, too. Now use a fork and mix it all up so you can’t see blotches of spices anymore.

Pull the chicken out of the milk and let it drain of the excess. Put the milk soaked chicken into the flour/spice mixture and sort of toss the flour over it to coat it on all the sides. Do this with all your pieces before you get your pan ready. They’ll benefit from sitting a bit while your oil heats up, and you won’t go crazy trying to juggle two things at once.

Put your pan on the burner. You want a pan big enough so that there’s at least an inch of room around each piece of chicken when you get them in there. A 12 inch skillet is perfect for 2 legs. Pick the heaviest pan you have that’s the right size - cast iron is perfect, if you have it. Put in enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan about 1/8 of an inch. Turn your heat on low. Not high. Low. Yes, I mean it. You CANNOT hurry this up by heating your oil on high and then turning the burner down, not at your skill level.

In a few minutes, the oil will start to look shimmery. Turn on your water faucet and swipe your hand under the running water. A few drops of water will cling to your fingers. Shake your hand, holding it at least a foot over the pan. Did the water go “sizzle sizzle sizzle” as soon as it hit the oil? Then it’s hot enough. If it didn’t sizzle, you need to heat the oil a bit longer. (Or you can use a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the oil. You want it to be at 325 degrees.)

Using tongs if you have 'em, place your floured chicken, skin side down, in the hot oil. Then DON’T MOVE IT! Leave it there for about 10 minutes. If you move it sooner, it’s likely to stick and pull the skin off. After 10 minutes, use a pair of tongs to gently pick it up and peak under. It should be golden brown. Carefully flip it over and cook it another 10-12 minutes on the other side.

Do you have a meat thermometer? If so, stick it in the meatiest part of the thigh. It should read 180. If you don’t have a thermometer, you’ll have to cut into it to make sure there’s no pink left.
After dinner, check out this link, and see how all this is explained in recipe-speak. Read more recipes and you’ll start to understand the jargon, and then you’ll be able to make more stuff!

14

I’d rather defrost in the fridge or (shsssshhhh…) on the counter, but I’ve found that microwave can produce good results if you’re really careful about it. If you want an even defrost, yeah, you can’t just throw it in there and walk away. But if you put it on super low power and check it every few minutes and re-arrange it and take out the bits that are already thawed, you can do it. It’s a pain in the butt, but it works.

[hijack]
And as far as the FDA is concerned, f### 'em is my thoughts. I’ve just finished reading a whole huge bunch of stuff about food safety, and the FDA is much more about politics and posturing than safety IMO. There’s a lot of stuff they publish that actually contradicts itself, and a lot of other stuff that they don’t say that can really cause problems.

If you’re a restaurant, you’re screwed, because you have to do what they say, but us home cooks can be mindful of what we’re doing and most of the time manage not to kill anyone.
[/hijack]

15

I completely and totally agree with you. It’s 100% about politics and posturing - have you ever tried to get raw milk? It’s pretty much impossible in some places. I don’t know why there has to be restrictions on what people eat at all. In Pittsburgh they’re going to (effectively) shut down all the urban gardens because they’re trying to license it for 500 bucks a year. Some people don’t have 500 bucks a year, that’s why they grow their own veggies! I was just throwing out vague guidelines for a newbie tis all :slight_smile:

16

All right… I’m going to attempt defrosting the chicken in short intervals, nudging the pieces around each time. If I manage to not mess it up I’ll come back through here and pick through all the advice given and see if I can try something.

Thanks guys. :slight_smile:

And don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell you all about whatever happens.

17

Diogenes is right, unless you’re going for fried chicken, you’re much better off baking it in the oven. It’s much easier and fool-proof that way.

18

That’s exactly what I’m going for.

Speaking of which, I’m currently heating the oil. Results soon!

Edit: I just did the water drop test… the surface of the oil was completely still. Really, unless I knew it had been on the burner I don’t think I would have known it was hot at all. But when I dropped a couple drops of water into the oil there was an absolute EXPLOSION of snapping oil. Some of the little bursts were going more than a foot above the pan. >.< I assume that means I had it on the burner too long or I had the heat too high (I had it only a bit above the simmer setting on my stove…). I do NOT want that happening when I drop the chicken in so I’m reducing the heat and waiting for it to cool. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

(Yes, you have the oil too hot. You also don’t need to wait too long for it to cool).

I’ve been frying chicken so long I don’t even know how to quantify what I do, but here goes some tips for oven-fried chicken:

DO NOT THAW IN THE MICROWAVE!!! In my humble opinion, the less microwaving done in cooking, the better. You can take the chicken, put it in a ziplock baggie, and place it in a bowl/sink of warm water (not flowing, and the bag will likely float). After 10-15 minutes, replace the water, break apart any frozen pieces, make sure that the side that was “water-side down” is now “air-side up”. Depending on the number of pieces, it’ll take about an hour to thaw using this method.

For the breading mix, I keep it simple - flour, salt, pepper. You can add paprika, but I wouldn’t have a clue as to how much you are to use. I can’t even tell you how much flour, salt, and pepper to use - THIS much flour, this much salt, and this much pepper.

Turn the oven on to 380-degrees. You can preheat, but I don’t - all you’re doing is delaying yourself and the ovens nowadays heat pretty damned quickly, unlike that monstrosity my stepmother battled back in the '70s.

I use a glass pan similar to the one in this page (scroll down about 1/4 through the page). I rub the bottom of the glassware with butter, put the legs in the glassware (they shouldn’t touch), and put it in the oven.

About 15 minutes in I turn the legs.

Another 10-15 minutes, I turn them again.

Another 10-15 minutes, they’re done.

I ALWAYS use a meat thermometer, and I always make sure my chicken is hotter than recommended. Having had a bout of food poisoning from undercooked chicken (and I knew it was undercooked, but I ate it anyway), it’s not an experience I need to relive.

Take the chicken out of the glassware pan and serve it.

20

I don’t think this is necessarily the oil boiling. More likely is that the pan was not fully dried when you added the oil, so the residual water was boiling and carrying off oil droplets.

This is fine if you have a dry pan or at most a very light coat of oil, such as you might have on a cast iron pan. Not a good idea to do if you have any visible amount of oil as the water will explode as you saw and be a potential fire hazard thanks to the now aerosolized oil droplets.