Deep Fried Frog Legs with the Swamp Chef

This outré entree is not for the faint of palate! The Swamp Chef's latest video recipe are Deep Fried Frog Legs with Remoulade Sauce.

The Louisiana recipe comes courtesy of my nephew, Cajun Chef Matt. When I visit Mom in Louisiana it's always fun to hang out with my family, where we always get busy in the kitchen.

I know you may not find Frog Legs in your local market or even to your taste, but you can substitute chicken or fish, and the creamy and spicy Remoulade Sauce is tasty on any salad, or as a dipping sauce, similar to Tarter Sauce, for your favorite fried fare.

Also, join the Swamp Chef in a bullfrog swamp hunt, but don't worry, it's all in good fun as no amphibians are harmed when the Swamp Chef goes hunting. -- the video hunting scene is more Muppets than Duck Dynasty.

So, my vegan viewers may want to bail after the Muppets-like opening scene, as real Frog Legs are on the menu! But be sure to return and watch the last minute of the recipe video to see a frog's revenge.

 While Deep Fried Frog Legs are not for everybody, it's worth a try, at least once, especially when there is a rich Cajun Remoulade Sauce to go with it.

Matt's version of a Cajun Remoulade Sauce is made with a base of mayo, and the addition of lemon juice, ketchup, mustard, horseradish, chopped green onion and capers. If you like Thousand Island Dressing then you will like a Remoulade Sauce. I easily find all the ingredients at my local Dollar Tree and 99c only Stores!

And surprisingly, Fried Frog Legs are mild in taste, having the texture of chicken with a slight fish flavor. To get a crunchy crust, Chef Matt soaked the frog legs in buttermilk then dusted the legs with flour, simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

If you have a fave fish fry coating or fried chicken batter, then use it.

So check out my latest recipe video, Fried Frog Legs with Remoulade Sauce, featuring the Swamp Chef and Chef Matt. It's all in tasty good fun.

Deep Fried Frog Leg & Remoulade Sauce - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 9 minutes, 2 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients for Frog Legs

• 2 frog legs - okay to substitute chicken pieces or fave fish fillets.
• 1/2 cup flour - I sometimes use half flour and half cornmeal.
• 1 cup buttermilk - to soak and flavor frog legs. For Homemade Buttermilk, just use regular milk and add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice, then mix well.
• Salt and pepper to taste - okay to use favorite seasoned salt or spice mix. I like a bit of garlic and onion powder, too.

Ingredients for Remoulade Sauce

• 1/2cup mayo - light or regular mayonnaise.
• 1/4 onion - finely chopped.
• 1 tablespoon capers, chopped - a couple chopped green olives are a good substitute.
• 2 green onions - finely chopped.
• 1 tablespoon Creole Mustard - or any mustard. A good substitute is a whole grain mustard.
• 1 tablespoon horseradish - okay to use less to suit your taste.
• 1/4 teaspoon Louisiana Hot Sauce - okay to use any fave hot sauce -- or just leave it out.
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• Lemon juice - half a lemon or about2  tablespoons of juice.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
I really did not hunt and skin the Frog Legs in the video above, but got them at my local Louisiana grocery.

First, add buttermilk and Frog Legs to a bowl. Keep them in the refrigerator until ready for frying.

Chef Matt has a deep fryer, so he heated it up while making the Remoulade Sauce. Okay to use a regular frying pan with enough cooking vegetable oil to half-cover a Frog Leg, or about an inch deep of oil in a frying pan or pot.

.Click on any photo to see larger.

For Remoulade Sauce, mix the ingredients listed above in a bowl, including chopped onion, green onion and capers, plus ketchup, lemon juice, hot sauce, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper.

Keep Remoulade Sauce in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Now time to fry the Frog Legs. Add flour, salt and pepper to a plate. Spread out seasoned flour and add soaking Frog Legs to plate of flour. You don't need to drain off all the buttermilk from frog legs as it will mix and make a thin batter for frying.

Cover Frog Legs with seasoned flour, on all sides. Pat and add more flour if necessary.

When cooking oil reaches 375 degrees in temperature add the flour-coated Frog Legs and deep fry them for about 4 to 5 minutes until cooked all the way through.

If you are using a frying pan heat vegetable oil over medium/high heat. Add about an inch deep of oil and heat. Cook Frog Legs about 4 minutes for each side, or until the flour crust is brown. Check doneness by slicing into thickest part of the cooked leg to check for firmness - it should be just like cooked chicken.

When Frog Legs are done cooking allow to cool for a minute or two as they will be very hot right out of oil.

Swamp Chef recommends dipping Frog Legs into Remoulade Sauce and enjoy!

Turkey Carnitas for Tacos & Burritos - Video Recipe

My latest recipe is a lighter version of Mexican-style Pork Carnitas. I often look for Pork Carnitas being slow-cooked by street vendors, like Leo's Taco Turck, in a Los Angeles alley or sidewalk. I just pull over and get in line for a luscious Carnitas taco after being on the town late at night.

Hey, with my easy to make Turkey Carnitas recipe, you can cut in line and have a taco or burrito anytime!

I know there are a lot of you who have dietary restrictions against pork products, so this recipe is for you. So all my Jewish or Muslim readers can now enjoy real L.A. street tacos, right at home.

And with Christmas right around the corner, Turkey is extra cheap. And this recipe travels well if you are a designated potluck provider.

For my recipe, I use two dark meat drumsticks, that weigh in about a pound each. They are often on sale for less than a $1.50 per pound at my local Latin grocery store. For extra-tender and juicy Turkey Carnitas, dark leg meat is the way to go, you can use thigh meat or even turkey wings, too. For Thanksgiving or Christmas Turkey Carnitas the sales are on full blast!

I get my spices and dried herbs at the local Dollar Tree and 99c only Stores. I use garlic powder and dried onion, but you can use fresh veggies if you like. So between dollar store spices and meat sales at an ethnic grocery, a lot of dinero is staying in your pockets!

Click on any photo to see larger.

I first noticed Turkey Carnitas in cafeteria-style heating bins in the deli section of my local Latin  market. And they are not cheap at about $7 per pound, so I decided to just make some myself.

Latin market Turkey Carnitas

Theirs seem to be drier than my fresh made, but that could be the result of  hours under heating lamps - which do give Turkey Carnitas an extra chrispy edge. To get that I just bake some cooked meat in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes to get some crunchy bits.

I flavor Turkey Carnitas with typical spices and herbs that Pork Carnitas also use. The most important ones are: cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Extra spices include thyme, bay leaf, and chopped or dried onion - so if you don't have those, it's okay to leave them out.

The trick is to slow-cook or braise the turkey legs in water and/or broth for 2 to 3 hours until tender. With Pork Carnitas, pork shoulder is used that has fatty skin and marbling. They are slow-cooked in it's rendered fat, for that luscious flavor.

My Turkey Carnitas are lean and mean, since there is little fat in turkey legs. I do leave the skin on, but you could take it off. Since turkey is much more pungent than pork, this helps make up for the extra fatty flavor you get with typical Pork Carnitas. And two turkey legs will feed the whole family!

Flour and corn tortillas are cheap these days, too. All I do is add a little oil on a pan and heat them up for a minute - stack on a plate and cover with a paper towel to keep warm.

You can use your fave jar of salsa for your taco topping. If you like your tacos gringo-style then chop some tomato, iceberg lettuce and open a bag of shredded cheddar cheese. Or kick it up a notch and click on any of the following salsa names to get my homemade recipes: Roasted Salsa Verde (tomatillo,) Red Chili (2 dried types - but same recipe,) Pico de Gallo, Mango, and an Avocado Crema.

My cheap$kate recipe is easy to make, just turkey legs and a few spices and herbs that are slow-cooked -- so all you need is a little patience, and the payoff is bigtime. And I just use dried herbs and spices, so you don't even have to chop anything.

So if you're looking for a dish to serve at your next taco party then try out my Turkey Carnitas. Let your guests do all the work and build their own. Just set out some chopped onion, cilantro and your fave salsa, oh and kick it up a notch with some sliced avocado, too.

Turkey Carnitas - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 3 minutes 10 seconds

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients (about 12 tacos)

• 2 turkey legs - about 3-4 pounds total. Okay to use thighs or wings. Use a turkey breast too, although it's a bit drier to my tastes.
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano - fresh or dried. 
• 1 teaspoon thyme - fresh or dried.
• 1 tablespoon dried onion - okay to use 1/2 chopped onion.
• 1 tablespoon dried garlic - okay to use 2 chopped cloves garlic.
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder - okay to substitute with paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups water or broth

Directions

Add turkey legs to a large pan or pot, over a medium heat. I leave the skin on. It renders very little fat, but okay if you want to remove it.

Sprinkle on the spices including cumin, oregano, thyme, dried or fresh onion and garlic, chili or paprika powder.

Salt and pepper to taste, or about a 1/4 teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper.

Pour in 2 cups of water or a favorite broth. On your stovetop, bring the cooking pot to a boil. Once it's boiling, reduce heat to a low simmer and cook covered for 2 - 3 hours until meat separates easily with a fork.

You are cooking the Turkey Carnitas so the broth reduces and intensifies and the meat becomes flavorful.

Check every hour or so, and add water or broth if it cooks out, but it's okay for the liquid to reduce by half for an intense pot liquor to drizzle over finished Turkey Carnitas.

Rotate the meat a couple times during simmering so all sides evenly cook through.

Done when meat is fall-apart tender. Use a fork to see how easily turkey flakes off the bone.

Traditionally Carnitas are fine chopped and piled into flour or corn tortillas. When you peel turkey from the bone, look for small fine bones and chewy cartilage to remove.

For serving, just take turkey pieces and chop them into small 1/4 inch pieces. You could also do the "pulled pork" method of using 2 forks to pull the tender chunks apart to shred.

You can drizzle on some of the "pot liquor" or broth if you are storing the Turkey Carnitas to serve later. Or if you are keeping it warm in the oven, make sure to drizzle on plenty, so cooked meat stays moist.

The above method is the easiest way to make Carnitas. Outdoor sidewalk vendors cook it similar in a large pot or pan filled with pork shoulder and thick skin, intestines, tongue and other parts, slow cooking for hours in the rendered fat and broth. And when you order, the cook just plucks out a hunk of meat and chops it into small pieces to pile on a warmed corn tortilla. The main difference here is way less fat and grease! 

You can top Turkey Carnitas Tacos with my Pico de Gallo (recipe here,) or simply with chopped onion and cilantro. Go Americano with your favorite salsa, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and shredded cheddar cheese.

For a Carnitas Burrito, add some of my Mom's Mexican Rice (recipe here) with a heated can of pinto beans, along with the above mentioned chopped veggies. If you have a favorite salsa then use that...and don't forget the hot sauce!

I've also had Turkey Carnitas with a crispy crust.

Roasting for Crispy Bits

This is a lean way. Just add the larger chunks of tender braised turkey to a roasting pan and bake about 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. To keep the Turkey Carnitas extra moist add some of the broth to the roasting pan, just enough to barely cover the bottom. You just want to lightly brown some of the turkey pieces for crunch. Don't worry about all the small boiled bits, just add them to the larger roasted pieces and chop them up altogether.