By Kathryn Reed

What’s up with all this talk of chicken? My Cooking Light and Bon Appetit magazines arrived this week with chicken on the cover. An issue of Single Leaf Winery’s newsletter I picked up last weekend featured a chicken recipe.

Food photos can really sell a person on a recipe. Even though I don’t eat meat, photos of these dishes don’t bother me. I’ve had veggie pictures nearly make me nauseous. So, it really is what the cook and photographer come up with. Both are artists in their own right.

The Bon Appetit photo might have converted me to vegetarianism had I not already done so years ago. My goodness, the fried chicken was so horrible looking even Paula Dean might have winced. However, the image of pan-cooked chicken with wine and plums on the cover of Cooking Light almost (OK not really) made rethink the no-meat thing.

And what a difference in the topics. One magazine talks fried foods, the other has 25 healthy chicken dinners.

With the National Chicken Council reporting that 1.25 billion chicken wings will be consumed this weekend – maybe all on Super Bowl Sunday – I thought it appropriate to help you eat some chicken during the game.

I have not tried the recipe below. It is from Pam Miller at Single Leaf in Fair Play. She suggests pairing it with her winery’s 2009 Reserve Cabernet.

 Ginger Spiced “Legs”

24 chicken drumsticks

1 C soy sauce

1/3 C sesame oil

½ C sesame mustard

3 T fresh lemon juice

2C fresh bread crumbs

1 T chopped fresh ginger root

2 tsp chopped fresh garlic

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Marinate the drumsticks overnight in the soy sauce in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Drain the chicken and place in rows on a large baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush each drumstick with a thin coating of sesame oil.

Whisk the mustard and lemon juice together and brush generously over each drumstick.

Combine the bread crumbs, ginger, and the garlic and sprinkle evenly over the top and the sides of each drumstick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake 1 hour, covering with aluminum foil if the drumsticks get too brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.