More About Cooking Our Dark Meat

I recently had a subscriber ask about cooking our dark meat (legs, wings and thighs).  It seemed like a good idea to pass along what I shared with her with the rest of you.  

Our chicken can be a bit harder to get "right". People are so used to cooking with six week old chickens like the kind you find in the store and most farmers' markets. That chicken will pretty much always be mushy / tender no matter what you do with it. 

However, birds that are older and allowed to actually use their legs and wings will tend to be more of a challenge to get the texture just right.

Chicken that is given the time to fully develop will always be firmer, but I think that the dark meat is actually the best part, so here are some tips:

With wings and drumsticks: always slow cook them.

Wings

I recommend cooking wings in a crockpot with a sauce for 6-8 hours before broiling or grilling to crisp up. Letting them dry in a fridge for the night before will help crisp up the skin (leave them on a rack in the fridge).  Here is a recipe for our delicious buffalo wings...

Drumsticks

Drumsticks are fantastic if cooked as a 'confit' ... there is a chicken confit recipe in our cookbook that I'd highly recommend. Often, I personally make it sous vide with less fat. You'll need a sous vide machine, but they are really useful for other things too. 

Another easy recipe for dark meat is our famous lemon-butter chicken.

Drumsticks can also be cooked in the crockpot and then grilled/broiled like described for the wings or slow-cooked to make amazing soups or taco meat, etc. Our chicken quinoa recipe is also fantastic for any crockpot cooked chicken or the chicken taco recipe is quick and easy. 

Thighs

For thighs, I generally am able to just put them on the grill and get a great result. They make great confit and any other slow cooked method. However, if you cook them in the oven or grill, they will be tough if under or overcooked. I generally shoot for 180 degrees on the thighs and then let them rest covered for 5-10 min before serving. 

Check our other chicken recipes.  We're always adding more.

Cooking slow-growth pasture-raised dark meat can have a bit of a learning curve, but the payoff is amazing!