Frogs’ Legs Are Back on the Menu

Photo: Hugo Yu

Hanging on the wall inside Le Veau d’Or, the octogenarian bistro that has been refurbished and reopened by chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, is a copy of one of the original menus. It lists “Fresh frogs’ legs provençale” as part of the $3.75 prix fixe. When Hanson and Nasr, along with their executive chef, Jeff Teller, and chef de cuisine, Charlie Izenstein, drafted their own updated roster, they knew they wanted a version of the dish but opted for a butter-forward, tart, bright-green persillade preparation (and saved the tomato-based “provençale” approach for their escargots).

Frogs’ legs used to be big. Maybe not “big,” but they were standard fare in the middle of the 20th century when the city was flush with traditional French spots. Now, only a handful of places — Chez Napoléon, La Grenouille (of course), Che Li, and the original Nathan’s in Coney Island, surprisingly — offer them. They may never be destined for viral fame, but “there are enough people out there who like them, so it’s an ‘It’ dish for them,” says Hanson.

Izenstein compares the appeal of frogs’ legs — meaty, sauce-forward finger food — to Buffalo wings. “It’s kind of an elevated, high-end version of that,” he says. Nobody will reveal where, exactly, the restaurant’s legs come from (all they will say is they’re from Florida), but Izenstein thinks their quality and consistency are the reason his are better than the preparation at La Poule au Pot in Paris, which, up till now, he would have ranked at the top.

The recipe is as straightforward as it gets: Tucked into themselves as if seated in the lotus position, the legs get a hit of salt and pepper and a trace dusting of flour before hitting a blazing-hot pan lightly coated with oil. Once they’ve browned on both sides, they are basted in butter to cook through. The whole process takes about five minutes, but between the strength of the stove and the hood and the secret source of the main ingredient, it would be almost impossible for a home cook to re-create the effect.

The legs are then transferred to an orange Le Creuset serving dish that has been warming on the flattop beside the burner. Holding the hot, sizzling pan above the heat, Izenstein next prepares the sauce, adding more butter, followed by fresh garlic, parsley, and lemon juice. Twenty seconds later, he’s sneaking an additional blob of butter into the serving dish with the legs as he spoons the sauce over the top.

Whenever an order for the frogs’ legs comes in, Hanson explains, it’s the last appetizer fired for the table because the timing is so fast and so crucial: “One of the biggest goals is to time it so the butter comes to the table while it’s still frothy.” A server gives it the finishing touch, a spritz of lemon, so, in Hanson’s words, “it pops a little bit.”