Chicken legs in the oven with a crispy caramel crust
Super chicken! THE SECRET TO A PERFECT CRUST! Just 4 INGREDIENTS. The trickiest part of the recipe is making the caramel sauce — everything has to happen fast. The sugar takes a while to melt at first, but once it goes, it starts to scorch in seconds. So you have to keep stirring it and add the water at exactly the right moment.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make oven-baked chicken legs with a crispy caramel crust? Gather your ingredients. To make the legs in crispy caramel, you'll need: chicken legs, water, sugar, and salt.
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Step 2:
Rinse the chicken legs and pat them dry.
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Step 3:
Prick the underside of the legs with a skewer in several spots. This helps the syrup we're about to make soak into the meat.
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Step 4:
Pour the sugar and salt into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Melt over high heat. Don't stir at first — just wait until all the crystals darken and the sugar at the edges starts to turn brown and melt.
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Step 5:
As soon as the sugar begins to melt, stir it quickly until it's completely dissolved.
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Step 6:
The mixture should take on the brown color of caramel. The instant the sugar caramelizes, pour in the water. Stir and hold it over medium heat for 2–3 minutes. Then take the sweet-and-salty syrup off the heat.
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Step 7:
Transfer the chicken legs to a deep bowl. Pour the caramel syrup over the top. Toss well to coat. Let them marinate for 15 minutes.
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Step 8:
Arrange the legs on a baking sheet or in a baking dish. Brush the tops with caramel syrup. If the syrup is too thin, you can strain it after marinating and simmer it down until slightly thickened. Bake in an oven preheated to 400°F (200°C) for about 40 minutes.
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Step 9:
Enjoy!
- I do know how to make caramel, salted caramel included, and I usually nail it on the first try. But I normally make caramel in fairly large batches, where the process moves a little more slowly. Here there's very little sugar, plus I was photographing as I went... so I cheerfully scorched the first batch. On top of that, I didn't like the flavor — it was incredibly salty, even though I followed the original recipe exactly. Even if it had worked, that syrup would have gone straight down the drain. The original called for a 1:1 ratio of salt to sugar (1 tbsp sugar to 1 tbsp salt). So the second time I cut back on the salt. But I didn't care for that caramel either — still too salty, and not really caramel-like at all. On the third try I finally found the right proportions, and that batch came together right away. I didn't reduce it much, though I could have simmered it to a slight thickening. I actually did that step after the chicken had finished marinating, because the thin syrup just ran off the chicken skin. A thicker syrup, on the other hand, clung to the legs and formed that crisp caramel crust around the meat. So if your caramel syrup doesn't come out right the first time, no big deal — it takes literally 5 minutes and barely any ingredients. Consider it good practice for working with caramel down the road.
- Keep in mind that every oven is different. Your temperature and cooking time may vary from what's listed here. To get reliably good results with any baked dish, take advantage of helpful tips on how ovens behave!
- Any heat-resistant dish works for this recipe. If you use a silicone mold, there's no need to grease it with butter or margarine. But metal, ceramic, or glass dishes are best lightly oiled so the food doesn't stick and burn.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Chicken leg - 185 kcal/100g
