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Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs

Stuffed chicken or turkey legs are simmered, then breaded and deep-fried, served with olive, tartare, celery, or currant jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,888 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the legs

  1. Remove the tendons and bone from the drumsticks.

  2. Stuff the leg with force meat and draw the skin over the ends.

  3. Sew securely to keep the shape.

Simmer

  1. Lay in a baking pan and cover with boiling water.

  2. Simmer in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from water and let cool, then take out the stitches.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll in beaten egg, then in seasoned bread crumbs, and again in egg.

  2. Fry in deep fat for 1 minute.

  3. Serve with olive, tartare, celery, or currant jelly sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  2. Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken or turkey legs
Provide the meat that is stuffed, shaped and tenderised by gentle simmering.
Force meat
Fills the boned leg, adding moisture and a tender, cohesive interior.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crisp coating.
Seasoned fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when the coated legs are fried.

The step that matters

Fry in deep fat. Frying only briefly is enough because the legs are already cooked through; the goal is to brown and crisp the crumb coating. Frying too long risks a dry, overbrowned exterior, while the egg layers hold the crumbs in place.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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