Diet Chicken Legs
Okay, like a lot of other folks I usually take the first three months of the year and “atone” for my gustatory excesses during the other nine. Particularly, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s day I’m prone to eat just about anything that falls in front of my face. Then, about the first week in January I notice my waistline and my blood sugar have expanded. My clothes did not shrink. It is all my fault.
Fortunately, I have discovered through many years of the above behavior that I can drop three to five pounds a week, reliably, by maintaining an average 1600 calorie per day diet and sticking to my (rather enjoyable) regimen of walking two or three miles most days. Yes, I know I shouldn’t pig out as badly and for as long as I do but let’s not go there right now since I won’t see my doctor until May. What he doesn’t know while he’s drinking scotch and eating steaks at his country club are of no concern to me.
Fact: Some parts of the chicken are relatively low calorie while still rich in flavor. The breast is nice but can be bland (I eat a lot of them this time of year) and gets boring after a while. Wings and thighs are delicious but, pound for pound, the heftiest chunks of the bird calorie-wise. This brings us to the humble leg. Unless coated with a sugary rub and slathered with sweet sauce, this component (when cooked per my recipe here) will weigh in at a reasonable 90-110 calories per. So, three or four of them accompanied by a small salad with minimal gooey dressing will tot up to a manageable meal that will be both filling and satisfying because it won’t taste “diet”.
Ingredients
- Chicken Legs (my store sells packages of 14 – I know not why they choose that number)
- Pam or other commercial pan release spray (I like butter flavor)
- Montreal Steak Seasoning (by McCormick)
- Smoked Paprika (I like Pensey’s)
Preparation
Prepare a zero-calorie “rub” using ½ cup Montreal Steak Seasoning combined with three heaping teaspoons of smoked paprika. Easy. Salty. Tasty in a non-sweet kind of way. Sprinkle it lightly over the chicken, spraying them (moderately) with the butter flavored pan release first. It really doesn’t take much – there’s lots of garlic and pepper and onion overtones that will come through plus you want the chicken meat flavor to still be there, too.
Cooking
This batch I’m doing in my PBC just because I haven’t used it for this recipe before. Usually I fire up the Traeger or the Memphis to 325. I’m not aiming so much for smoke flavor (I get some from good pellets) as I am good texture. Smoking chicken at the customary pit temperatures for great smoke (225-260) “rubberizes” it in most pellet cookers and stick burners unless you’re using a very tedious (and high calorie) competition method . The only thing worse than smoker rubber chicken is microwave rubber chicken.
The trusty Maverick said the legs were done in about an hour and a half. This really isn’t much different in the PBC than it is in the pellet machines at the same temperature. It would probably be about the same if I just put them in the oven, but wood (either charcoal or pellets) is super-necessary to avoid the dreaded “diet” flavor.
Serving?
I plated several with some salad on the side and dug in. The flavor was excellent – woody from the charcoal with some “sizzle” unique to this breed of cooker. I didn’t add any sauce, of course but I did get a good balance of chicken meat flavor unique to the darker portions of the bird, the effect of the “rub” and the method (charcoal smoke). Calculating my plate I managed a 600 calorie dinner which wrapped up my 1600 calorie day very close to target. I didn’t feel like I had a low calorie meal – I was full and it tasted like real food.
Other Thoughts
Moisture and texture were first-rate. Tender and nicely chewy. Next time I may try a handful of apple wood chips or some 100% flavor wood pellets. I think this would “define” the smokiness a little.
I peeled the skin away and didn’t eat it for calorie control purposes but it was tender enough. It wasn’t crispy but it wasn’t rubbery, either. Leaving it on for the cook helps assure moisture and flavor balance. Cooking skinned chicken is asking for leathery layers on the outside using most cooking methods.
In a few months, I’m going to do this again with some of my favorite yardbird rub and a good brushing of Head Country for the last ten minutes. It won’t be “diet” but it’ll be dynamite!
Hub
