Madeleine Kamman's Chicken Legs Roasted with Mustard

We are a household rich in mustard. I believe at some point in the last month there were five tubes of mustard in our cupboards along with two jars in the fridge. Hot, horseradish-spiked, tarragon-flavored or rustic, we've got 'em all. I used to think mustard was about as interesting as math class, until I wised (wizened? wose?) up and starting using mustard in my cooking, and now I can't imagine life without it.

Germany is a good place to live if you like mustard. Plain yellow mustard squirted on a Rostbratwurst is a classic; sweet Bavarian mustard dolloped next to a pair of Weisswürste is some people's idea of heaven. There are poached eggs in mustard sauce and mustard-roasted pork. And our neighbors to the south, the Austrians, have taken the art of mustard packaging and elevated it to an art form. You should hang out in the mustard aisle of an Austrian grocery store sometime. (And that Wiener Würstel mustard? Possibly worth the price of an airline ticket straight to Vienna. We practically ate it by the spoonful.)

I've mentioned before (a hundred times before?) that my pile of newspaper recipe clippings dates back to the early naughts. These days I bookmark the ones I want to try, but the binder of printed recipes is a thick one and well predates this blog. When I unpacked my book boxes back in winter, I shelved the binder and then, frankly, forgot about it. After all, my Bookmarks folder could keep us fed for, um, years. What reminded me was Molly visiting and telling me about Francis's pasta. I knew I had the recipe somewhere...but where? After rifling through the computer and a notebook on my bookshelf, I finally turned to the binder, that gloriously overstuffed binder. There it was. And, o ho, there was so much else.

This, for example, stunning little number from Regina Schrambling in the Los Angeles Times way back in 2002. It's Madeleine Kamman's recipe and is henceforth going to be my Last-Minute Dinner Party Secret Weapon because it is so delicious and so easy and uses so much mustard you will scarcely believe your own measuring spoon.

The original recipe is for duck legs, but I used chicken legs instead. And instead of herbes de Provence (which I sort of loathe because though they might be traditional, I find the mixture to be so over-used that it just tastes like dusty old cupboards to me), I used a mixture of minced fresh herbs from my balcony (a mix of thyme, marjoram, and sage). And instead of Dijon mustard, I used the rest of a truly fabulous tube of Austrian tarragon-scented mustard. It sort of killed me to finish it, I loved it that much, but sometimes dinner party guests must be deferred to over personal greed and that is when being the bigger person really is key.

So, after washing and drying your chicken legs and then rubbing them with chopped herbs and salt and pepper, you paint them lavishly with mustard. A full tablespoon per leg. Don't worry: it seems excessive right now but something happens in the oven heat where the mustard sort of dries up (in a nice way) and becomes part of the salty, savory crust and you might almost find yourself, at the dinner table, wanting to dip the chicken in more mustard as you go. Though maybe that's just me. Germany is in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, perhaps that explains my exuberance.

Panko crumbs were one of the weird things I discovered in my kitchen boxes after I started unpacking my things in Berlin, along with a half-used roll of aluminum foil and a few almost-empty jars of things like dried summer savory and mustard seed. I could have lived without the herbs and aluminum foil, but thank goodness I brought those panko crumbs. You need a handful of them to coat your mustard-swathed chicken legs and plain old breadcrumbs just wouldn't do here.

And that's basically it! A drizzle of melted butter over the top before you slide the pan into a hot oven and before you know it, you've got crisp, herby, mustard chicken legs to grace your table and convince your dining companions that you are a truly fabulous cook. Like I said, Secret Weapon.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more recipes to dig up for you. Oh! I'm totally re-inspired. It's going to be an exciting month.

Chicken Legs Roasted with Mustard
Serves 4

4 chicken legs (thighs included, about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 teaspoons fresh, minced herbs, such as a mixture of sage, thyme and tarragon or marjoram
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard or tarragon mustard
1/3 cup panko
2 tablespoons melted butter

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Rinse the chicken legs and pat them dry. Rub them all over with the minced fresh herbs. Season well with salt and pepper. Brush the mustard over the skin side of each leg to coat thinly. Lay the legs in a shallow baking dish, leaving space between them. Sprinkle evenly with the panko or breadcrumbs and drizzle evenly with the melted butter.

3. Roast about an hour or until the meat is very tender and the coating is crisp.

Comments

[Tyla]

When I saw this tweet I couldn't click over to the post fast enough! I can't wait to try this, as mustard has recently become one of my favorite things.

There is a panko-crusted chicken with mustard maple pan sauce that I can't recommend highly enough or get enough of myself...(here's the link if you want it: http://bit.ly/cAy0TK) I think you'd really like it!

Can't wait to try this one out!

[Yester Daydream]

These looks delicious, so I'm going to try them. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

http://yesterdaydream.com/

[Victoria]

I LOVE chicken legs. (I seem to love a lot of things, don't I, Luisa?) I bake whole chicken legs all the time until they are crispy, crispy, crispy. They are good hot out of the oven, at room temp, and cold.

But I've never made them coated with mustard. Now I will.

The only white meat chicken I ever make is the Barbara Fairchild recipe with chicken breasts and cherry tomatoes that you posted a long time ago.

By the way, Fairway did not have the Thai chilis.

You sound settled and oh, so happy. It's nice to hear.

[Adrienne]

Your exuberance is delightful in this post, now I'm looking even more forward to your next installment!

When I moved into my first apartment I called my mom once asking how to cook a chicken breast. She said "slap a little mustard and mayo on it then stick it in the oven." Wise advice indeed, and this looks like a kicked up version of that long ago meal. Plus I've got tarragon in my garden even if I don't have amazon Austrian tarragon mustard in my cabinet!

[genia]

i am moving into a brand new apartment all by myself on thursday and i think this might be part of the inaugural dinner. and maybe alice medrich's brownies for dessert? yum!

[Maggie]

Love chicken baked with mustard--It's great mixed with olive oil and rubbed on a whole bird too. Can't wait to see what else you dig up from your old binder--makes me think I should excavate mine from the stack as well.

[Tracy]

I will raise a glass tonight in honor of you being re-inspired. What a great way to start off the summer. There IS just something about mustard.

[Eva]

This looks so great, I love mustard...and panko bread crumbs..perfect combo!

[radish]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hates herbes de provence - it does remind me of dusty cupboards! Chicken with mustard sounds amazing - come to think of it, it should be dinner tonight!

[margie]

This is exactly why I hate to discard old cooking magazines; I tend to fall behind in cutting/filing interesting recipes, and whenever I go through my backlog I find dozens of recipes that didn't interest me at all on the first, second, even third time flipping through them. I love finding inspiration in things I've completely forgotten about.

I was thinking about buying a chicken this week... and tarragon mustard? Count me in!

[lurker]

victoria, how do you cook them to make them crispy?

[Victoria]

Lurker - Oh, how I like your name!

Okay, I get the chicken legs and pat them all over with kosher salt. Then I put them on a rack upside down in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning I turn them over on the rack and leave them there until I am going to cook them. They are now air dried.

I preheat the oven to about 400 degrees.

I put a tiny amount of olive oil on my hands and rub each chicken leg all over. I might have to add more olive oil, but, honestly, it's not much. Drizzling on the chicken when it's in the pan would be way too much.

Then I put the chicken legs in a pan and roast them - usually, believe it or not, for about an hour - but I start checking after 45 minutes. Sometimes I baste them; sometimes I don't, but I don't turn them over so I put them in the way I will plate them.

We always eat them with lingonberries. I think they are crispy/crunchy and delicious.

I also have a Set It and Forget It Rotisserie and do the same thing with the smallest whole chicken I can find, preferably just under three pounds. I do the salting thing but don't add any oil or butter. I cook the chicken in the rotisserie for 1-1/2 hours! And I usually serve that with blanched green beans tossed in the fat that came out of the chicken and Maldon Salt. If there are two of us, we each eat a leg, thigh, and wing and save the breast for sandwiches the next day. We prefer dark meat, but the white is okay slathered with mayonnaise (and maybe bacon?).

But I must say that for a roast chicken dinner The Zuni Cafe Cookbook Roast Chicken and Bread Salad cannot be beat.

[Maddie]

I commend you on your recipe-clipping system! I devour food magazines, finding ideas and inspiration as I go, but infrequently stop to actually remove recipes from their pages. I love the idea of a binder, though, and should really start compiling my favorites...and I think I will!

[lurker]

Thanks! I like Luisa's mustard version, but yours looks great too for when the mustard haters are around. I'm always looking for a really good baked chicken recipe, but haven't found a perfect one yet so I'm up for trying a new one. The oil-rubbing technique looks excellent, too.

[Sommer @ A Spicy Perspective]

I have a mustard fetish as well. It just does such GREAT things to so many dishes!

This looks incredible!

[jenny]

oh that is a classic...my mother made that at least once a week while i was growing up. what makes it even better? forgoing the whole leg and using only thighs, the best part of the chicken. like little pieces of chicken candy...

[Susan @ SGCC]

What a simple and lovely way to prepare chicken! I must try it. And, I think I might still even have some tarragon mustard in my fridge.

[Joanne]

I've recently gone from hating to craving mustard so this is just the thing for me! And isn't Panko way better than bread crumbs? So much more texture.

[Molly]

Mustard? Panko?? I'm so there...

[the lacquer spoon]

Herbs, mustard and crispy panko to cover the chicken... This is the best edible dress, Luisa!!

[noëlle {simmer down!}]

Count me among the mustard fans as well. The book "On Rue Tatin" by Susan Hermann Loomis contains a favorite recipe of mine- chicken thighs in white wine and mustard, with thinly sliced onions which cook down all meltingly. Superb, and really easy to make.

Victoria- I'm a huge fan of the Zuni roast chicken & bread salad too... That book has to be in my top 3 cookbooks.

Luisa- I love that your posts have oh-so-subtlely begun to use the pronoun "we" instead of "I". :)

[Vanessa]

I'm a huge mustard fan, though rarely use it in my cooking - shame on me. Right now my mind is full of images with this, garden parties and very cold white wine. So glad you're inspired.

[Val]

Oh wow that looks incredible and easy too! Will totally be trying this out.

[candybeans]

it's almost as though you've *seen* how very many types of mustard I possess right now--two different kinds of german mustard, spicy russian gorchitsyeĭ, plus a mistakenly-purchased bag of dried mustard, bought in the hopes that it would turn out to be baking soda when opened. (language fail.) and, I knowwww it's not really any of our business and we really come here for the food and all that, but if you could indulge us with a wee bit of description of the other half of your "we," it would sure be lovely. . .

[Angie]

I love chicken with mustard and herbs, so easy and delicious!

[littleclove]

WOW, this looks delicious and incredibly EASY.
I love mustard and can't make a vinaigrette without it. But I want to find other things to do with it....and now this.
And I also love the Panko crumbs for a little crispy crunch...YUM.

[Monica]

@Lurker and anybody else looking for easy roast chicken recipes -- I swear by Marcella Hazan's Chicken with Two Lemons (a web search should reveal it.) Very simple, unfailingly delicious (albeit juicy rather than crispy).

@Luisa -- thanks! This reminds me that years ago in France I was served roasted rabbit that was swathed in mustard. Delicious, though not something I'm likely to do myself. Chicken legs, now... that's another story. Must try soon!

[Driftingcowgirl]

Yay! I was hunting about the blogsphere looking for a chicken dish to go with Ratatouille's Ratatouille from Smitten Kitchen, and this looks like it will do superbly!

I have one question (and please direct me to the link if this has already been discussed previously on your blog) but why no printable versions of these delightful recipes? Have I merely overlooked the button?

[Jen]

Considering we find it cheaper to purchase organic free range chicken with the bones still in--or even whole--I appreciate it very much to find a recipe that celebrates chicken on the bone, which is oh so hard to find these days in a world of boneless, flavorless chicken breasts! Cheers.

[Andrea]

Can't wait to make my husband make this for me! :)

[shannalee]

Just wanted to say that I loved this line: "It sort of killed me to finish it, I loved it that much, but sometimes dinner party guests must be deferred to over personal greed and that is when being the bigger person really is key."

If a mark of a gifted writer is her ability to make words seem effortless, you have it. And that is why I keep reading!

[Lynn]

This truly is a wonderful recipe -- I've been making it ever since I found it in a Mark Bittman Minimalist column in 2004. I like to add some cayenne or aleppo pepper to the bread crumb mixture, just to spice it up a bit.

[Ziu]

I have a favourite chicken recipe which we adore, and whenever I try something new I usually get really disappointed and cant help thinking I should have sticked to the old one! So I'm not sure if I'll be making this one, I might just, but I needed to say that your new banner is absolutely lovely!

[Luisa]

Drifting Cowgirl - no printable versions of the recipes because Typepad, last time I checked, doesn't offer that as part of their service.

Ziu - thanks!

[Chicken Salad Recipe]

This looks like a recipe that looks fancy but in actuality is quite easy. I will definitely try it.

[zuza]

poland is a country that is rich in mustard also. but at the moment i am addicted to eye-watering english mustard. will try this recipe on a bbq! z

http://cheesy-mash.blogspot.com

[Heather]

i love simple recipes like this and have made a similar mustard-y chicken recipe.

my hubs and i were joking the other day about all the mustard we have at home (in the US!!) and how to decide which one to put on our brats - i counted at least 5 with a couple unopened in the pantry too!

[Kausambi (ColoredGrains)]

Beautiful recipe! Thanks!

http://coloredgrains.wordpress.com

[Meredi]

Good commercially jarred mustard is a luxury around here...for the really good stuff, it would probably cost me more than the chicken legs! It gets me wondering whether I can actually make my own. Anyone have a great recipe for homemade mustard...not just Keene's powder whipped up with vinegar!
Thank you very much.

[Barbara]

So glad you found this recipe while digging around in your file! We eat so much chicken and I'm always searching for new and unusual ways to make it. I've never tried anything like this and it comes out so nice and crunchy (without frying). Nice.

I don't know how I lost you on my blog list! But you're going back on right now.

[R @ learningasichop.wordpress.com]

Definitely going to try this recipe! Thank you.

[Jessica]

Don't you love to "rediscover" things you've set aside? I do it all the time. Sometimes having a poor memory is a blessing! lol

Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe with us.

[kms]

my husband is a mustard maniac...he will love this!

[lynh]

ok so I know this is a food blog.....But who is this WE???? the suspense is killing me!!!
also, anxiously awaiting your book. and making some cardamom pistachio chocolate scones. would you come over to nyc, sign my book, and have some already?!!!?

[SFjackie]

This is very similar to a recipe in the NY Times from 2004 (see below), which I have made many times with excellent results. It also works very well with boneless chicken breasts (for those who are not fond of dark meat or bones).

Baked Mustard-Herb Chicken Legs
Adapted from Gary Danko

TOTAL TIME
45 minutes

Ingredients

* 4 leg-thigh chicken pieces, cut in 2, or 8 thighs
* 1 1/2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon or other herb
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 6 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trim excess skin and fat from chicken. Combine bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, tarragon and salt and pepper on a plate or waxed paper. Use a pastry brush to paint mustard lightly on chicken legs. Carefully coat chicken legs with bread crumb mixture.
2. Gently place chicken in a roasting pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until completely cooked. Serve hot or cold.

YIELD: 4 servings

Originally published with THE MINIMALIST; Crossing Over to the Dark Side
By Mark Bittman, July 14, 2004

[RichP]

These chicken breasts tasted lovely in the sunshine this weekend. I teamed it with another recipe I found for a Mixed Berry Tiramisu on youtube, I'll post the link below.

The recipe was created by Ainsley's Harriott for Onken, the recipe was so easy to follow and inexpensive to make.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DROETKERONKEN#p/u/0/XGDbZoeo5kc

[alexandria]

Thank you so much for sharing the recipes you do each week. Last night, my boyfriend and I made this recipe and it was divine! We were moaning with delight. We also paired it with some cauliflower steamed. Just perfect and with your directions it makes things simple and do-able. It will be one we make again for sure. Happy Summer!

[Matinaki]

Thanks so much for this recipe! I love baked chicken and really should make it more often!! The only recipe I make time and time again is my homey Greek lemon oregano baked chicken. I am excited to offer it for lunch :)

[Rosie]

You already know this, but just wanted to add my agreement - these are awesome.

[Margot]

I just started reading your blog and I love it. I wanted to subscribe to your feed but it appears to be broken--when I clicked on the link to subscribe all I got was a page of programming text.