The benefits of chicken meat have long been known. Many people love dishes from chicken giblets, stomach, necks. But the fact that you can cook delicious jellied meat from chicken legs may be a discovery for someone. It is worth exploring a few step-by-step photo recipes for easy preparation.
Chicken is a dietary meat, easy to prepare, quickly digestible, allowed for consumption even by those who are overweight, have intestinal problems, and have high cholesterol. The paws have healing properties, and from them you can make very tasty and low-calorie jellied meat. To learn how to cook this dish correctly, you need to know a lot not only about the rules of preparation, but also about its properties.
What is jellied meat
Jellied meat is a cooled dish consisting of pieces of meat and a jelly-like mass. A jelly-like mass is obtained as a result of prolonged heat treatment of the legs of animals. They contain a substance that makes the broth thick, jelly-like when cooled.
It is important to understand that initially, several centuries ago, when jellied meat was invented, no special thickeners were used - gelatin or agar-agar. Jellied meat was based only on natural substances.
Jellied meat was prepared from beef, pork and chicken legs (legs). In different countries, the dish was called differently. Historical chronicles say that chicken leg jellied meat is a Moldovan national dish that was prepared exclusively from a rooster and was called, in translation into Russian, jelly. But such jellied meat was served everywhere with mustard, and in Russia - also with grated horseradish.
How to cook chicken leg jellied meat
There are a lot of step-by-step recipes with a photo on how to make the easiest way to cook jellied meat from chicken legs, but there are a number of general requirements for the selection and preparation of the base of the dish and its secondary ingredients, which, by the way, can be very different.
Chicken feet for boiling jellied meat must be clean - this must be paid special attention to when choosing raw materials in the store. Before cooking, they must be soaked in clean, cold water for at least three hours. If the water becomes cloudy, you can replace it with fresh water. When changing the water, the legs are washed in running water.
After soaking, the paws are washed again, thoroughly cleaned from the tough yellow skin and marigolds. They are usually removed before the feet reach the store counter, but not always carefully. It is recommended to check the feet again before starting to cook.
1 recipe for making jellied chicken legs - with vegetables
Chicken leg jelly with vegetables is the most popular cooking option. In the photo of the authors of the recipe, you can see a variety of design solutions that make the dish a real masterpiece. The list of required products looks like this:
- chicken legs - 1 kg,
- chicken meat - 500-800 grams,
- onion and carrots - 1 each,
- broth - from 1 to 1.5 liters,
- salt and spices to taste.
Chicken legs and skinless chicken meat are placed in a container with thick walls, filled with clean water so that the liquid covers them "by two fingers".
After the water boils, the characteristic foam is removed and the heating level is reduced to medium. It is necessary to simmer meat and chicken legs for at least 3 hours.
Onions and carrots are placed in a saucepan along with legs and meat, but removed after an hour and a half. Onions can be thrown away, but carrots are fine for making decorations.
At the end of cooking, the meat and legs are pitted and cut into strips or cubes, if possible. Some "tear" them into fibers. The broth is boiled for a few more minutes with spices, then it is necessarily filtered.
While still warm, meat and broth are combined and cooled, then placed in the refrigerator. If the proportions and recommendations for cooking have been followed exactly, the chicken leg jelly turns out to be elastic and transparent.
2 recipe for making jellied chicken legs - with gelatin
If there is not enough chicken legs, but you really want to cook jellied meat, you can supplement the recipe with gelatin. The products you need are the same as for the first recipe + a bag of regular food gelatin. It is important to understand that the paws contain a huge amount of collagen, which is a natural thickener, but it can be replaced with gelatin. As a result, you will get no less visually attractive and tasty jellied meat.
After the meat and legs, vegetables are properly prepared and cooked, you can start preparing the base for the jellied meat. A little broth, about 1 cup (250 ml), cool to room temperature and pour 40 grams of gelatin into it.
When the gelatin is completely dissolved, pour it into the broth and heat it, but do not let it boil. Pour the prepared solution into the meat and vegetables, which were laid out in advance in molds. You can add garlic, passed through a special press, and any other spices to the dish.
It is impossible to put jellied chicken legs with gelatin in the refrigerator immediately after pouring. It must be cooled to room temperature and only then placed in the refrigerator. In 2, 5-3 hours, a tasty, beautiful and healthy dish for the whole family will be ready to eat.
How and how much can you store chicken leg jelly
Jellied meat from any original products, including chicken legs, must be stored for a certain time. The optimum temperature range is from 0 to + 8˚С. Freezing, as well as high temperature, is guaranteed to spoil the jellied meat.
It is not recommended to cook a large volume of jellied meat from chicken legs at once, since its maximum shelf life, even if all requirements are met, is no more than 3 days. If the dish is decorated with boiled vegetables or eggs, then the shelf life is reduced to one and a half days (36 hours).
Particular attention in the storage requirements for jellied meat from chicken legs, pork or beef legs is paid to the dishes into which it is poured. The container should not be deep, plastic, glass or metal under the enamel - enameled containers, bowls.
It is necessary to limit the access of foreign odors to the jellied meat - tightly close the container with a lid. This will have a beneficial effect on the duration of its storage, and on the taste. It is important to know one more rule - every hour the jellied meat is kept warm reduces its shelf life by a day. You cannot keep the dish outside the refrigerator - take out the container, take as much as will be eaten, put the container back in the refrigerator.
The benefits and harms of chicken leg jelly
The beneficial properties of the dish are related to its chemical composition and calorie content. Jellied meat made from chicken legs contains a high content of nutrients such as
- protein,
- collagen,
- calcium,
- mucopolysaccharides,
- aluminum,
- phosphorus.
In addition, chicken legs contain vitamins P, A, B and C, trace elements - rubidium, copper, boron and others, and it is precisely those varieties that are not destroyed during heat treatment.
The calorie content of homemade jellied meat from chicken legs is low - 215 per 100 grams. But eating it in large quantities is not recommended for those who have problems with blood vessels, overweight, have been diagnosed with obesity, pancreatitis, gastritis, chronic kidney or liver disease, hypercholesterolemia, an acute form of intestinal or stomach diseases.
It is important to understand that nutrition should be both correct and moderate, even in healthy people. A small portion of homemade chicken leg jelly will not hurt even if there are contraindications.
