Liquored-Up Chicken Legs

I served this a few times at Bristol Renaissance Faire, and the recipe made it into my official Dirty Duck Cookbook. Now, you get it here FOR FREE!!! Anyhoo, here is the recipe.

As always, the recipe picture above is a 4x6 JPG. You can download it and print it on 4x6 photo paper to keep in your own recipe box.

For equipment, you will need:

1. A mixing bowl
2. A knife and cutting board
3. A ⅛-cup measuring cup. If you don't have one, you can use 2 tablespoons instead. It is the same amount.
4. A ½-teaspoon measuring spoon
5. A mortar & pestle or other herb-crushing device (such as a coffee grinder)
6. A whisk
7. A 9x13 baking pan
8. An oven
9. Oven mitts or hot pads
10. A basting brush
11. A kitchen timer
12. A fork
13. Tongs

For ingredients, you will need:

1. Foil - optional (to line the pan for easier clean-up)
2. ⅛ c. firmly packed light brown sugar
3. ⅛ c. bourbon
4. ⅛ c. soy sauce
5. ⅛ c. Dijon mustard
6. ⅛ c. ketchup
7. 1 large scallion, chopped fine
8. ½ t. dried rosemary, crushed fine
9. 12 chicken drumsticks

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

1. Chop the scallion fine.
2. Crush the rosemary fine.

Put all the ingredients that aren't chicken into the mixing bowl. Whisk them to combine.

Line the pan with foil if you want easier clean-up after cooking. Swap out the pan for a larger (9 x 13) baking pan because they wouldn't fit in the glass one. Baste the chicken legs with the sauce using the basting brush.

Put the pan of chicken into the oven. Close the door. Allow this to cook for 15 minutes.

Take the chicken out of the oven. Using the tongs, turn the drumsticks over. Baste this side of the legs. Return the pan to the oven. Start the timer for another 15 minutes.

After this 15 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

1. Remove pan from oven.
2. Turn the chicken over using the tongs.
3. Pierce the chicken with a fork.
4. Baste the chicken.
5. Return the chicken to the oven.
6. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Repeat these steps until the chicken is done. I usually do this step 3 times, but you can cook them longer if they are not yet cooked through. (There is just enough sauce to get you through 4 times if you are a bit conservative.) If you wish, test using a thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. The thermometer should register at least 165°F to consider the legs "done" (according to the U.S.A. government).

And there is the completed dish. To be honest, I did the repeating step 4 times instead of just 3. This is the first time I have made this recipe in this oven, and I wasn't 100% sure the legs were cooked through after 3 times. Also, you can see why using foil in the pan is a benefit.

When I was a kid, my mother would often make boiled beef heart for dinner. It was some of the nastiest meat I had tasted. In order to tolerate it, I would stare at the meat on my fork and say out loud "chicken, chicken, chicken" before eating the morsel. To this day, I am not a fan of chicken. This recipe is one of the ways I can tolerate it. The bourbon and rosemary give it a different taste.

Cost-wise, this recipe is coming in at 86¢ per drumstick. I don't remember what I used to sell them for at Bristol, but today I'd have to charge $1 per drumstick. I'm not sure volunteer actors would pay that much for a small amount of meat, especially when one could get a huge turkey drumstick for about $5. (I have no idea what they cost now, as I haven't been back to the fair since 1999.) At a restaurant, this might work, but probably not at Bristol. So, it doesn't pass muster cost-wise.

In conclusion, I'll still make this recipe again when I can get drumsticks on clearance.