Leg Quarter Recipes?

[TxRabbit]

Reading here and seeing ads for myself, I found that chicken leg quarters are CHEAP!

Bought some from Kroger the other day for $0.47/pound (manager's special within 2 days of sale by date). Got them home and realized that it is just a super simple butcher cut. The savings must be because the butcher hardly does anything to process them. I skinned them and separated them into the legs, thighs, and half-backs.

I found a recipe online that inspired me on recipezaar but tweaked to suit ourselves, a kind of buffalo wing inspired thing:

1/2 huge onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
sauted slowly on medium heat in 2 T butter

(I had this on the stove while I butchered the chicken)

When the onions/garlic were nice and cooked but not brown, I set them aside. In the same pan, I turned up the heat, added a T of butter and browned the chicken thighs. Put thighs in crock pot. Added one more T butter to brown the legs. Put legs in crock pot. Added sauted onion and garlic to crock pot.

In the same pan, I heated:

1 26-oz box Pomi strained tomatoes (I don't do canned tomatoes for health reasons)
over 1 cup of Franks original hot sauce (what was left in my big jar)
2 T butter

scrapped up the browned bit of the pan (which helped with cleaning a LOT) and poured the sauce over the chicken in the crock pot.

I figure the chicken might get so soft as to be a kind of pulled chicken to make some super yummy tasty buffalo wing inspired chicken sandwiches or whatever.

I put the backs in the freezer to use later to make chicken broth.

SO. What do you do with your super cheap leg quarters?

 

[SandrA9810]

I really need to get a crock pot, it's a lot cheaper than turning the oven on for 45 minutes to bake a couple pieces of chicken.

Unless I have smaller sized breasts, I have the hardest time cooking chicken all the way through on the stove (although it probably doesn't help that there's no lids).

I love just using some garlic cloves and fresh herbs from the backyard for seasoning, and rubbing a bit of butter over the skin to get it nice and crispy.

 

[TxRabbit]

Crock pots are very friendly to your a/c!

I have a $15 one that I picked up from one of the discount stores. It isn't anything special; a 4-qt oval with a removable crock (a must for cleaning). The oval is great because a whole chicken will fit inside it. The one thing about slow cookers is that it is wet cooking, so no crispy anything.

I rarely cook in the oven...crock pot or grill in our household.

 

[SandrA9810]

My friend's uncle said we could have his charmglow grill if we replace the guts. The burner is busted in the middle and the other two are rusted out, and it needs a new grill plate. Still haven't priced it, but sounds cheaper than getting a new one.

I've only cooked a couple times in a crock pot, but I do love the meals that come out of them. I think my mom has mine, never had room in my kitchen for it.

 

[TxRabbit]

Maybe. You'd have to compare it to what you would buy. It's likely that 3 burners and a grill plate together would equal an inexpensive grill. I LOVE my grill. Easy clean up. Fast cooking. I've been grilling so long, in some ways, I don't know how to cook things anymore without one! LOL.

I started using my crockpot a whole lot more after finding the book "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" which specializes in using fresh and/or unprocessed ingredients, something beyond using cream of whatever soup. I highly recommend.

 

[SandrA9810]

sounds yummy.

I have a little table top grill, but it's sitting in my storage unit in Florida. It'd be around 60-75$ to replace the stuff, but I could buy only a couple things at a time. I'm sure that grill was a lot more expensive to begin with.
For now, we just go to his uncle house every weekend to get something hot off the grill.

 

[hoffmann2828]

I really need to get a crock pot, it's a lot cheaper than turning the oven on for 45 minutes to bake a couple pieces of chicken.

Not only is a crock pot a great tool, but so are toaster ovens! I got one at Amazon.com that was a refurb'ed Convection oven as well, and we use it CONSTANTLY!!!

It heats up super fast, is big enough for say 4 leg quarters, and doesn't require any gas!

Plus, you can still get the "crisp" that another poster mentioned you can't get with the crock.

Here is one LIKE I got, not exact though. This is new, but mine was refurbished. Got it for $29.99 with free ship: http://www.amazon.com/Delonghi-DO-1...4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1280610299&sr=8-4

 

[lisam427]

i have done a couple things with chicken quarters and buy ten pounds at a time when on sale.. defentely a money saver. the first thing i do is take off the skin and boil some of them. i then take the meat off the bones and freeze it in quart sized ziplock bags. it can be used in many chicken casserole recipies that call for boneless chicken breast. my favorite use of the meat is by making campbells chicken and rice casserole, cambpells chicken and stuffing casserole. you can cook with taco seaning and i make chicken tacos with flour tortillas. i also make homemade chicken stock and some of this meat is used for either chicken and rice or chicken noodle soup. some of it is also used to make chicken salad for lunches (great in a wrap!!) with some of the i separate the legs and thighs and freezer and make baked or fried chicken.

 

[Mom2Ben02]

This is my absolute favorite chicken leg recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/japanese-mums-chicken-68955

 

[TxRabbit]

lisam427: just having cooked chicken on hand is a great idea.

Mom2Ben02: that recipe looks FABULOUS! I think my son will LOVE that flavor! I have a great Teriyaki thigh recipe so that would totally complement splitting the quarters into their parts. Thanks for sharing.