Dixie-Stuffed Chicken Legs
from Cuisine at Home, August 27, 2009
Chicken recipes are a dime a dozen, but here’s one that could turn out to be your new favorite.
For The Stufffing:
4 strips thick-sliced bacon, diced
3 cups stemmed and chopped collard or mustard greens
1/2 cup diced onion
2/3 cup fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
3 Tbsp. low-sodium chicken broth
1 jalapeño chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 cup crumbled cornbread (Cornbread recipe)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Kosher salt to taste
For The Chicken:
8 chicken hindquarters (leg and thigh)
Extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper
For the Apricot-Rum Barbecue Sauce:
1/2 cup minced onion
1 Tbsp. minced fresh gingerroot
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup prepared barbecue sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Make the Apricot-Rum Barbecue Sauce: Sauté onion and gingerroot in oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add preserves, rum, barbecue sauce, lime juice, and red pepper flakes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer sauce about 20 minutes or until thickened. Reserve 1/2 cup sauce to serve as dipping sauce. Use remaining sauce (about 1 cup) for basting Dixie-Stuffed Chicken Legs during grilling. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
Prepare the Stuffing: Sauté bacon in a pan over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Spoon off all but 1 Tbsp. rendered bacon fat. Add greens and onions to pan and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add corn, bell pepper, broth, and jalapeño to bacon mixture; cook 2 minutes. Off heat, add cornbread, cayenne, and salt. Let stuffing cool to room temperature, then chill for 20 minutes.
Prepare the Chicken: Remove the bone from the chicken thigh by first cutting between the joint where the leg meets the thigh. Do this with the skin side down and do not cut all the way through. You want the leg still attached to the thigh. Then carefully cut around the bone in the thigh, scraping any meat that clings to the bone. Pound out the thigh to about 1/4" to ready it for stuffing. (You can save the bones, perhaps freeze them, for making chicken stock.)
Place 1/3 cup mounded stuffing in each thigh, making sure there’s at least 1-inch of meat all the way around. Wrap thigh around stuffing to cover. Tie thighs with butcher’s twine at 1-inch intervals to secure stuffing. Make the knots snug, but not so tight they squeeze the stuffing out. Coat chicken lightly with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Grill chicken covered over direct medium-high heat for 10–15 minutes on each side. Baste chicken with Apricot-Rum Barbecue Sauce, flip over, and baste the other side. Reduce heat to low; cook until sauce is bubbling and caramelized, about 2–3 minutes. Before serving legs, snip strings with kitchen shears and remove. You’ll need only about 1 cup of the sauce for basting.
Serve with grilled vegetables and reserved sauce on the side for dipping.
Makes: 8 stuffed legs
