Vampire Bat Legs (aka Spicy Chicken Legs)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Okay, I know you probably aren't going to rush out to make Vampire Bat Legs for Halloween dinner tonight and eating something called Vampire Bat Legs any other time of year is rather odd, but the good thing is the rest of the time you can just call them Spicy Chicken Legs since that's what they are. We had these chicken legs (er, bat legs!) for dinner last night and they were SO good! The flavors combined perfectly. Kind of sweet, limey, spicy. My husband handles spicy pretty well and he thought they were hot too. I don't eat the skin so wasn't subjected to the full heat blast but the sauce did get cooked onto the exposed part of the chicken legs and I put a little dollop of it on my plate. The recipe also includes a lime sour cream sauce to dip the chicken into and that helped temper the heat in a very delicious way. The original recipe actually called for a full teaspoon of cayenne pepper in addition to the chipotle peppers. I left that out because I wanted us to have some tastebuds remaining so we could enjoy our caramel apples. Regardless, this may not be a good choice for little kids. You could just put some BBQ sauce on some chicken legs and cook them in a separate dish at the same time. Oh and I served my Vampire Bat Legs with orzo (aka maggots- I know it's disgusting but I couldn't resist).

Do you have a digital probe thermometer? I mentioned it earlier but didn't go into a lot of detail. I love my digital probe thermometer. It's one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. The reason it's wonderful is that you can stick the probe into the meat (or whatever) and leave it there as it cooks so you can check the temperature without opening the oven door. You can also set it to beep once it reaches whatever temperature you specify. I'm very very safety conscious when it comes to raw meat and this means I don't have to worry about undercooking the meat but also don't have to worry about overcooking it. My thermometer also has a timer :D My pet cockatiels had babies last year and I ended up having to hand raise 2 batches of babies from when they were a week old and this thermometer was actually perfect for checking the temperature of their formula (vitally important) and monitoring the temperature of their brooder that was on a heating pad- I set it to go off if the temperature rose too high. Of course this is not the standard use for most people but it just shows one of the things you can do with digital probe thermometers :D

Anyway, on to the recipe:


Vampire Bat Legs (aka Spicy Chicken Legs)

Chicken:

8 chicken legs

2/3 C BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

1/2 of an 8 oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1/2 t salt

1 T chili powder

1 T minced garlic

6 T lime juice

Cool Lime Sauce:

1 C sour cream

1-2 T lime juice (I used 2 T)

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1/4 t salt

Combine all ingredients for the chicken in a gallon zipper bag and squish it around so everything's mixed and all the chicken is coated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. While it's refrigerating you can make the Cool Lime Sauce by simply stirring together the ingredients. Preheat oven to 425, line a 9 by 13 baking dish with aluminum foil, and grease the foil. When 30 minutes are up, pour everything from the bag into the baking dish and evenly arrange the chicken legs. Bake 15 minutes and then brush the chicken with the sauce in the dish. Bake 15 minutes longer or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the biggest chicken leg registers 165 degrees. Remove chicken from oven and brush again with the sauce (I suggest washing your brush first because there may be raw chicken juices on it from the first time you basted). Serve the chicken with the Cool Lime Sauce to help soothe the burn.

Yield: 4 servings (2 legs each)