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Chicken Legs, Stuffed

Stuffed chicken legs wrapped in bacon and baked with a breadcrumb-herb filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken Legs, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut each leg into 2 joints and remove the drumsticks.

  2. Season the chicken legs with salt and pepper, then moisten with sweet oil.

Make and add the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs, lemon rind, sweet herbs, onion, and parsley.

  2. Moisten the mixture with the yolk of the egg and season with a pinch of salt and cayenne.

  3. Drain the chicken legs, cover each with the stuffing, and wrap in a slice of bacon.

  4. Secure with twine or skewers, then place on a greased baking tray.

Bake and serve

  1. Cook in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

  2. Cut the toasted bread slices in half, trim neatly, and place the chicken legs on top.

  3. Garnish with sprigs of curly parsley and serve hot.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Legs of a cold fowl
Forms the main body of the dish and gives meaty, juicy texture when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Bind the stuffing and absorb moisture so it stays soft rather than runny.
Egg
Yolk moistens and binds the stuffing, helping it hold together during baking.
Streaky bacon
Wrapping fat renders during baking, moistening the chicken and browning the outside.
Sweet oil
Coats the chicken to help it brown and keep the surface from drying out.

The step that matters

Securing the wrapped legs. If the bacon and stuffing are not held firmly in place, the stuffing can spill out and the bacon may unwrap before it renders. Tying with twine or skewers keeps the parcel together so heat cooks the stuffing and chicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, parsley, egg, bread, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, parsley, egg, bread, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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