A Spicy Chicken Leg

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Hopefully everyone had a fun weekend regardless of where you are in this world of ours.  We had a fun family weekend, including a spur of the moment trip to Halifax ( which means I get to go to Costco ), a trip to the pool for swimming lessons and of course a family outing to the grocery store.  So Mrs. Zesty and I are really caught up in the show Dexter.  Do you ever watch it?  It is very interesting, demented and overall disturbing however we keep watching the next episode on the dvd box sets.  We completed season oine Saturday night and rented season 2 last night.

On Saturday, I made a large batch of spicy chicken legs, cheese quesadillas and a large serving of sweet potato fries to relax on the couch and watch Dexter.  Sounds good right?  Well I must say the food was yummy but guess what?  You cannot relax when you watch Dexter.  It is too intense – I find myself propped up at full attention and usually in an ackward position for the entire 53 plus minutes of the episode.  I need to know if you watch Dexter and feel the same way as us.

For the chicken, I wanted something full of flavor with a little heat.  To do that, I combined a few tablespoons of Basil Pesto, and some homemade sweet chili sauce.  The results were very “WOW”.  We easily ate 4 chicken legs each and the only thing left were the bones.

Ingredients

10 Chicken Legs
3 Tbsp. Basil Pesto
1 Tsp. Hoisin Sauce
1/3 Cup Sweet Chili sauce
1 Tbsp. Mustard
2 Garlic cloves ( crushed)
Black Pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
In a large roaster, place the chicken legs in pan after ensuring they are patted dry.
In a bowl, add remaining ingredients and mix together.
Pour over chicken rubbing it in gently with a spoon.
Cover pan and roast for 2 hours.
In the last 30 minutes, remove the cover and let the legs get crusty and brown.
Top with a slash of lime and a bit of ZEST.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Normally I baste the chicken through out the process to add extra flavor but in this case the pesto has a high oil content so I avoided basting in this particular case.  I counted on the crust of the chicken to provide all the flavor.

Back to back spicy dishes in the winter really make me smile.  Not overly hot but the hint of heat help warm your insides.  The Spicy Pasta Shrimp from last week would go very well with some of this left over chicken as well.  Substituting chicken and shrimp is something I do all the time depending on what I have on hand.  I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day and I will definitely see you on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty