Seeing how 2016 is a leap year, we thought that it was only fitting that we do something for the blog and after getting hit with countless amounts of annoying KFC ads on our Instagram, we were inspired to cook Nashville Hot FROG LEGS!! (Get it? cause frogs LEAP and we’re cooking the legs for LEAP year. DAMN, we’re clever). Sooooo keep reading to learn how to make this Leap Day treat.

If you want to make this thing right then you’re going to want to make homemade dill pickles. None of those middle of the road grocery store house brand pickles going on this. It’s leap year! It only happens once every 4 years! Do it right!

So 1 day before you plan on cooking the legs you need to make the pickles.

Homemade Garlic Dill Pickles:

3 medium-large cucumbers

8 garlic cloves

1 large bunch of fresh dill (at least 6 sprigs per cucumber)

4 tablespoons pickling spice mix (red pepper flakes, whole coriander, whole mustard seed, fennel seed, rosemary, dill, bay leaf)

3 ½ cups distilled white vinegar

3 cups water

3 tablespoons pure sea salt

Put cucumber, garlic, dill, and spices in a jar or multiple jars as pictured above. Only small jars were on hand, so 2 pickles got their own, and 1 was split in half. Combine vinegar, water, and salt and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Take liquid off heat and ladle into jar(s). Seal, let cool, refrigerate.

6 pairs of frog legs. (Please don’t source these out of your local park.)

Before you get the legs into the fryer you’re going to want to brine them for at least 2 hours.

Frog Leg Brine:

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon pepper

Combine, throw on frog legs, toss and refrigerate for 2 hrs.

Now onto the batter. Here’s where we are going to give some Trillkins’ secrets out. TAKE NOTES!

Dry hand:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s. This is a MUST. If you don’t use Tony’s then it must be phony. And I mean if Riff Raff is down with it, then we are too.

Wet hand:

1 cup buttermilk

2 whole eggs

3 tablespoons Crystal’s Hot Sauce. Like Tony’s, Crystals is a staple while in the Dirty South. Don’t even THINK about using another hot sauce when you’re frying frog legs.

Prepare mixes. Coat in dry mix, back to wet, back to dry.

Heat frying oil to 325º F and fry (covered if possible) for 5 minutes per side (2 at a time) or until its GBD (Golden Brown Delicious). Side note: GBD is the official Team Trillkins colorway.

SPICE MIX TIME! This is where you get that nuclear color red that you see in all of those ads.

Nashville Spice:

4 tablespoons cayenne

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon brown sugar

5 ounces of hot frying oil

Combine ingredients and have it ready for right after finishing the frying process. Ladle in hot oil and mix until thoroughly combined. Should be pretty wet, but not too wet. Just wet enough to get the job done.

Bonus step: when all frog legs have been fried, flash fry them for one more minute before coating with the spicy Nashville Oil Bath. (It’s only oil. It’s not like its going to raise your cholesterol or anything).

Time to plate. You’re going to want to get the cheapest brand of white bread you can find to start this off (the cheaper the better). This is going to be your moist maker. We chose Wonder Bread to soak up all of the red gold drippings from those legs. Then lay down some legs, sliced homemade pickles, and top with buttermilk ranch (duh) to finish it off.

See you next Leap Year! 🐸