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Stuffed Chicken or Turkey Legs

Stuffed chicken or turkey legs are filled with forcemeat, breaded, and fried, served with 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

  1. Remove the tendons and bone from the drumsticks.

  2. Stuff the legs with forcemeat and sew the ends securely.

Simmer

  1. Place the stuffed legs 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, let cool, and take out the stitches.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Fry in deep oil for 1 minute.

  3. Serve with your choice of 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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Fills the boned legs, giving a moist, savoury stuffing that holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the legs and crisps when fried.
Seasoned fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Let the legs cool before frying. Stitches must come out and the legs must be cool and firm, so the egg and crumb coating stays intact and the oil does not splatter.

“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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