Chrissy Teigen’s Fried Chicken Recipe & Beer: John Legend’s Wife Kicks Off New Year with Cheat Meal

Chrissy Teigen’s Fried Chicken Recipe & Beer: John Legend’s Wife Kicks Off New Year with Cheat Meal
(Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for LA Confidential)

Chrissy Teigen is basically suggesting that you put your New Year’s weight loss resolution on hold with her beer-battered fried chicken recipe. It is similar to a recipe from husband John Legend. The 31-year-old Teigen kicked off 2017 in style with friends and family with some beer and fried chicken, according to a recent Instagram post.

Former Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl Teigen and 10-time Grammy Award winner John Legend were in St. Barts Tuesday to celebrate Legend’s 38th birthday with eight-month-old daughter Luna.

Teigen is a model who has made another career from her playful approach to food. The culinary school-trained food lover is responsible for the food blog So Delushious. Her recipes have been very popular, which led to the release of a Chrissy Teigen cookbook in February 2016 called Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat.

The cookbook features a collection of realistic and delicious recipes for people who love everything from sweet potatoes to fried chicken. Other recipes in her cookbook include the vegetable tortilla stew, cheesy jalapeno bacon cornbread, and spaghetti cacao e pepe.

Teigen has become the center of dieting controversy due to her avoidance of the word diet; instead, she likes the terms clean eating or eating light. As a result of the comment, a full-fledged Twitter war of the terms “clean” and “diet” sparked.  Some people even went as far to say that clean eating is nothing but a myth. However, many nutritionists believe that clean eating is a diet where you simply understand what you’re putting in your body. Consuming a diet high in vegetables that avoids chemicals and refined ingredients in food would be a general stance of eating clean. Let’s take a look at how Teigen eats and a special recipe from husband John Legend.

What is Chrissy Teigen’s Healthy Eating Lifestyle?

Chrissy Teigen’s healthy eating lifestyle is basically a paleo diet with a twist and some cheating here and there. Teigen will post a lot of low-carb recipes that are often dairy-free, gluten-free, and high-protein. However, Teigen admits that she loves cheese, and must include some cheese-oriented recipes. When Teigen is not cooking her meals she gets salads from organic delivery places and adds roasted lamb.

Teigen’s healthy eating diet will include lots of eggs, and she loves them hard-boiled, in omelet form, and over-easy for breakfast. Other paleo-friendly foods Teigen eats include avocado, tuna salad, green juices seaweed sheets, sashimi, and almonds and cashews. Teigen also stays away from caffeine. Although Teigen is against starvation diet plans, she has tried the 10-day Master Cleanse that includes drinking six to 12 glasses of a lemonade drink with maple, syrup, cayenne pepper, water, and fresh lemon.

John Legend’s Fried Chicken Wings

The Chrissy Teigen cookbook also features John Legend’s fried chicken wings with spicy honey butter. Although some of the cookbook recipes are high in calories, she certainly knows exactly what is in the recipe. Let’s take a look at John Legend’s fried chicken wings with spicy honey butter recipe.

Ingredients: Chicken and Brine

  • 6 tbsp. of seasoned salt
  • 2 tbsp. of cayenne pepper
  • 2 1/2 tbsp. of garlic powder
  • 5 pounds of chicken wings and drumettes
  • Canola oil to fry (or sub with avocado or olive oil)

Breading:

  • Canola or another oil for deep-frying
  • 4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp. of seasoned salt
  • 1 tbsp. of cayenne pepper

Spicy Honey Butter

  • 1 stick of unsalted butter, melted and cooked
  • 4 tbsp. of hot sauce
  • 2 tbsp. of honey
  • 3/4 tsp. of kosher salt

Directions:

  • For the chicken: in a large pot or a two-gallon zip top plastic bag, combine 10 cups of cold water, the garlic powder, the seasoning salt, and cayenne. Add the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for about four hours, and as long as 24 hours.
  •  Bread and fry the chicken by filling a large dutch oven with six inches of oil and make sure there is at least four inches of clearance between the oil and the lip of the pot. Heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 360 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • In a large bowl, add the seasoning salt, cayenne, and flour. At a few at a time, remove the wings from the brine and toss them in the flour mixture until well coated, and then place them on a baking sheet.
  • Add the wings to the oil in batches and fry until they are golden and crispy for about 13 minutes per batch. Remove the wings to a plate lined with paper towels.
  • For the spicy honey butter, use a small bowl, and add hot sauce, melted butter, salt, and honey, and whisk until incorporated. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Sather the wings with the spicy honey butter and enjoy!

Sources:

Wagoner, M., “Is Clean Eating a Myth? Chrissy Teigen Sparks a Twitter Health Debate,” Vogue website, July 25, 2016; http://www.vogue.com/13461080/chrissy-teigen-diet-clean-eating-controversy-twitter-debate/.

Rankin, S., “Everything I Learned From Eating Just Like Chrissy Teigen,” Entertainment Tonight News website, Jan. 4, 2017; http://www.eonline.com/news/817808/everything-i-learned-from-eating-just-like-chrissy-teigen.

Sotoodeh, S., “Let’s roll! Chrissy Teigen and John Legend take daughter Luna for a walk while on holiday in St. Barts,” Mail Online website, Jan. 3, 2017; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4085770/Let-s-roll-Chrissy-Teigen-John-Legend-daughter-Luna-walk-holiday-St-Barts.html.

Teigen, C., “John’s Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Honey Butter,” The Chew website; http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/johns-fried-chicken-wings-with-spicy-honey-butter-chrissy-teigen, last accessed Jan. 4, 2017.