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Baked chicken legs are very delicious, but if you prepare them with an Asian sweet and sour and slightly spicy sauce with lime fragrance, it will be a true delight. The secret is in marinating the chicken legs in a fragrant sauce that will give them a tender and exotic aroma incredibly challenging.
This recipe is perfect for a late weekend lunch, because you work very little and the result can be enjoyed by the entire family.
Ingredients:
-6 chicken legs (or how many you want)
-2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
-1 lime
-1 lemon
-1 very hot red pepper (amount to taste)
-ginger (size of a walnut)
-2 tablespoons of brown sugar (you can put more if you want it sweeter)
-2 cloves of garlic
-mixture of spices "five flavors"
-sweet paprika
-Cayenne-pepper
-pepper (Szechuan pepper is proper, it offers Asian flavor)
-some aniseed
-peanut-oil
-salt (I use Himalayan pink salt, but you can use the salt you want)
Wash the chicken legs, let them drain well and prepare the marinade. You can also use other chicken pieces.
In a bowl, mix: 2 tablespoons peanut oil, lemon juice and half a lime, brown sugar, hot pepper.
Grind in a ceramic grinding bowl a teaspoon of Szechuan peppercorns and 5 seeds of anise. If you do not have these ingredients, use freshly ground black pepper. When you crush in the mortar several crushed berries, they lend their fragrance and develop a new, great flavor. You will immediately notice how fragrant the atmosphere becomes when you use mortar (the ceramic one is perfect for it is very hygienic, and very importantly, it does not interact with the ingredients, keeping their flavor intact).
Add crushed pepper in the marinade, then 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (if you have a salty soy sauce, add less), ground ginger, half a teaspoon of mixture "five flavors", half a teaspoon of paprika, a pinch of Cayenne pepper and mix well. Add some salt.
Add the chicken legs in the marinade. Grind the garlic and smear the garlic paste over the legs, add two thick slices of lime and mix again.
Cover the dish with foil and let the food in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Legs will be very fragrant, flavor will penetrate the marinade inside, so in the end the meat will be fully seasoned.
Remove the meat from the refrigerator after marinating time passes, transfer the legs and marinade in a baking dish, cover with foil and put in the oven at 180 degrees for one hour. Arrange slices of lime over the legs, in light contact with the marinade. Their role is to spread the fragrance of lime, which penetrates the legs and not to boil the sauce. If you boil the lime peel, the sauce will be slightly bitter, so be careful to keep up the outside of the lemons, to not touch the sauce.
Then remove the foil, sprinkle the legs with sauce and remove the lime slices as not to be burned. Put the tray in the oven without foil until the legs get brown.
Meanwhile, sprinkle the legs with the sauce in the pan often.
When you are ready, the chicken legs are beautifully browned, full of sauce and the meat falls off the bone.
If you serve the legs on a platter, it is well to decorate it with fresh lime slices.
If you serve in individual portions it's a very nice combination with basmati rice and peas (shown style tower). Garnish with rosemary leaves or thin slices of lime, sprinkle with sauce.
Thai fragrant basmati rice is delicate and elegantly complements this dish with Asian high notes, taking quickly the taste of the sweet-sour sauce.
Enjoy!
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