Recipe Search: Chicken Drumstick

A cut that I wish I knew how to cook. The humble drumstick. How do you even cook them!?



I really struggle to figure out how to properly utilize a chicken drumstick. That is a problem because it is a sizable part of the bird that I would not want to go to waste.

The one recipe that I have had success with was making chicken noodle soup from scratch utilizing the drumsticks. A thought I had is potentially smoking them so that they can be utilized in things such as red beans and rice?

Please give me all of your suggestions!

Do you start with the whole chicken or you have only the legs to use?

Josh Hoffman wrote:Do you start with the whole chicken or you have only the legs to use?

I'd ideally like to know how best to utilize just the drumsticks. Sometimes I break down birds based on cuts to make it easier to do recipes on the fly during the week. Unfortunately that leads to a buildup of cuts that I am not as confident utilizing.

Timothy Norton wrote:

Josh Hoffman wrote:Do you start with the whole chicken or you have only the legs to use?

I'd ideally like to know how best to utilize just the drumsticks. Sometimes I break down birds based on cuts to make it easier to do recipes on the fly during the week. Unfortunately that leads to a buildup of cuts that I am not as confident utilizing.

I understand. Like rabbit, we've found that our chickens are easiest cooked as a whole.

I'll be watching this though because I bet there are some amazing recipes out there for individual parts!

I usually buy chicken thighs rather than drumstick because they are meatier.

I prefer mine battered and fried.

I have not had good luck with that lately.  Maybe I got an old tough rooster?

Otherwise I buy chicken leg quarters and make bone broth and chicken and dumplings ....

We have gotten some leg deals now and then. If they are cheap enough, I tend to just treat them like a large wing.

Mostly, I do a marinade, at least overnight, and then barbecue. Char Sui or Chinese barbecue that is typically used on pork is wonderful and we have also been loving Korean style lately. Bulgogi uses Asian pear purée as a tenderizer and it works very well.
For the bulgogi, I've been doing up larger batches and then freezing the sauce so it is ready fast whenever we get meat that would work.
A big batch of the barbecue legs feeds us for a couple of days. I tend to plan to finish them up by using the meat in some noodle or veg dishes but they have always been so tasty none make it that long.

Added benefit of doing your own of these sauces is control on what you do or do not want. We can use low salt soy, sugar substitutes, use real fruit, control the spice levels and no red dye.

my husband has something like this cooking rack for drumsticks and wings  then he will bake plain, or use one of those oven coating mixes. Sometimes he will use barbeque sauce on them.  We also use them for stock/broth and the base for chicken and dumplings or chicken based soups.   Or we feed them to the dogs raw for a treat every once in a while.

They are inexpensive and it only takes 2 or 3 for each of us so we eat them fairly often.  If he gets quarters he will cut the legs off for use separately from the thighs.

If you're wanting a really simple roasted chicken leg recipe, my family likes this one.  It goes well with mashed potatoes or mashed turnips or just cubed roasted veggies.

https://www.julieseatsandtreats.com/wprm_print/baked-chicken-legs

Every recipe online seems to say to used aluminum foil.  I never do... It's just a bit of extra cleanup to skip it.  If you want even more cleanup a roasting pan gets them crispier at the price of a small mess.

One of my absolute favourite recipes is from the Silver Palate cookbook that a dear friend gave me back in the 80's.

It is a go to recipe when I have to take anything to a pot luck meal and I have never brought any leftovers home.

https://californiaprunes.org/recipe/the-original-recipe-for-chicken-marbella/

For something simpler, marinate the drumsticks in a dressing of lemon juice, lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper, salt, lots of crushed garlic and olive oil overnight.

Bake or grill until cooked.

Edited to update dead link

It’s actually been several years since I’ve cooked a drumstick, but it was an absolute staple for us growing up - especially in summer.
Pops would buy the “legs and thighs” pack at the store, about 4 of each, coat them in BBQ sauce, and pop them on the grill. Usually they’d be accompanied by corn on the cob and a salad. I can still picture the tongs he’d use to flip them.

He always checked the doneness by slicing into one and confirming it was white all the way through, but I remember mom finding some speck of red or pink when she tried to cook them and never feeling confident. I guess that was passed on to me because I never trust judging by eye.
The best investment I’ve made in my culinary adventures was an instant read thermometer. It’s added a level of confidence and consistency to my cooking. Poultry must be cooked to at least 165°F  

I’ve gone through several thermometers but this Taylor Waterproof digital one has lasted the longest.

You have a second vote for the hanging rack. Well... ok, I've never used one, but heard good things about it.

I don't know if you could call it a recipe... but I don't do much to them. I take flour and salt and pepper... roll the legs around in it, then bake in the oven. Sometimes I add baking powder, which is supposed to help the skin get crispy.

Highly recommended:- https://www.recipetineats.com/

Excellent recipe ideas;  all sorts of origins for recipes;  plenty of asian style and others for chicken parts, not just drumsticks.

Personally I like them cooked in the slow cooker with chicken stock and apricots, but that's probably another rabbit hole on the internet!

They are really lovely in a Portuguese chicken marinade. This my recipe for it, it makes enough for a full chicken, so maybe use 10 to 12 drumsticks for this amount of marinade, or use chicken pieces of any kind:

1/4 cup olive oil or melted lard
1/4 cup lemon juice (or 2 tablespoons cider vinegar)
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon chilli flakes (red pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
2 or 3 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
a few grinds of black pepper

Marinate for at least half an hour, preferably longer. Roast for 40 to 60 minutes, or until fully cooked through - you can roast vegetables in the same pan and they will get some of the marinade on them - delicious. You could probably also use this as a bbq marinade.

Hey Timothy,

A cut that I wish I knew how to cook. The humble drumstick. How do you even cook them!?

I have found that drumsticks are tasty when dipped in milk and then drenched in curry! I am not a curry fan but I do like this recipe.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Put one oven rack on the highest spot in the oven.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and coat with non-stick spray.

Wash and dry the drumsticks.  Dip them in milk, then drench them in curry powder. Place on the prepared cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet on the top shelf in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, turn the drumsticks. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Serve with blue cheese dipping or dressing if you like.

Kate Downham wrote:They are really lovely in a Portuguese chicken marinade. This my recipe for it, it makes enough for a full chicken, so maybe use 10 to 12 drumsticks for this amount of marinade, or use chicken pieces of any kind:
(...)
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
(...)

Hi Kate,
Thank you for sharing!! This recipe looked so delicious I wrote it down in my recipebook.
I think there might be a typo in the amount of fresh oregano leaves, should it read 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons?

Looking forward to giving this marinade a try, also the tip to roast veggies in the same pan is great, thanks!

I have two go-to ways of preparing chicken legs or quarters:
1. Parboil and then finish them on the grill with BBQ sauce.
2. Oven bake at 350 degrees for an hour with just a sprinkling of salt and paprika in a low-sided baking pan.  Don't crowd; otherwise they won't crisp up.  This is my most usual way of preparing legs and thighs.  The skin gets very crispy but not at all burned and the chicken flavor really comes through.  It's incredibly easy and delicious.

Two ways:

1
Stick them in a crockpot on low and leave them until the meat is falling off the bones and there is no pink to be seen

2
Throw them in a pot of water that just reached the boil, reduced heat to a roiling simmer, justlow enough it won't boil over, and do the same, afterwards removing the fat and bones and store the meat for anything else like a chicken casserole etc., save the broth and cool, skimming off the fat and drink the broth, and most of the grissle will be edible if you want building blocks for your tendons and shoulder injuries etc

Compost the bones

Boring but no fuss!

I bought a reduced 20lb box of drumsticks a couple weeks ago, at about $1usd per pound
I stuck them all in a corn pot. The dog ended up getting more than half with added veggies and split red lentils with fennel powder. I use that pot for gray water too, and almost no clean-up time!
I do tend to buy drumsticks in vast quantities and I think I cook as though for an army

It's another snow day here and I will be bagging and freezing dog food again, but hey it's so much cheaper and ensures no good food goes to waste

We cut up all the chickens we butcher so we end up with large amounts of drumsticks too.

Place in crockpot with bbq sauce and put on low for 6 hours. Meat is falling off the bone and the sauce soaks right in.

Coat with homemade bread crumbs spiced with whatever you like, we go with a chicken spice heavy with paprika, bake until crispy and done.

Smoke at around 250 for 2 hours, wrap in foil with bbq sauce and go another 2 or 3 hours.

The best piece for soup.

My two cents ..

Fresh chicken drumsticks, wings, ribs in a Crockpot in sticky  honey and garlic sauce

Sauce made directly in Crockpot and stirred well
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup honey
1 tsp garlic powder or 3 cloves fresh garlic – minced

Place desired meat inside the Crockpot, coat meat pieces with sauce.
Set Crockpot on high, check after 3 hours for doneness.
Once cooked (SAVE the sauce!), spread meat pieces on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Set aside.
Preheat oven to 400 F.

For the glaze to use after meats are done:

Cooked sauce from Crockpot and a slurry made with :
1 Tbs potato starch
2 Tbs water

Pour out cooked sauce from a Crockpot into small cooking  pan, set over the heat.
Add in slurry  whisking, and cook until it bubbles, turn off the heat.

Brush hot sauce thickly and generously as you like over the meats.
Place in the oven for 5-6 minutes.
Note:
You don’t have to make the glaze, but that’s something I came up with as an experiment and have been using ever since. I use potato starch because it gives clear shine and doesn’t have to be boiled like flour or other starches.
Depending on meat sizes, you can double the sauce, add more garlic or less.
The more glaze you spread, the stickier the pieces of meat

Nina Surya wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:They are really lovely in a Portuguese chicken marinade. This my recipe for it, it makes enough for a full chicken, so maybe use 10 to 12 drumsticks for this amount of marinade, or use chicken pieces of any kind:
(...)
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
(...)

Hi Kate,
Thank you for sharing!! This recipe looked so delicious I wrote it down in my recipebook.
I think there might be a typo in the amount of fresh oregano leaves, should it read 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons?

Looking forward to giving this marinade a try, also the tip to roast veggies in the same pan is great, thanks!

2 tablespoons of fresh oregano is correct, use much less than this if using dried oregano though.

I have found a new favourite drumstick recipe that freezes well too.

It is from a NZ site, food lovers forum

Chicken Shawarma style tray bake

A can of drained chickpeas can be added for some more bulk.

Middle Eastern Chicken Tray Bake

600g chicken thigh fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp sumac
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
S&P
1 orange kūmara, peeled and chopped
1 red onion, quartered
2-3 capsicum, sliced
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 zucchini roughly chopped
1 broccoli, cut into florets.
1/2 cup hummus
1/2 cup tzatziki  ( or just yoghurt with mint and garlic)
1 handful parsley, chopped

Marinate the chicken in the olive oil, lemon juice and spices for an hour (or longer if you can).
Heat oven to 200 C fan bake.
Arrange vegetables in a single layer in a large roasting dish. Cover with chicken and scrape any remaining spices from the dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked and vegetables tender.
Top with hummus, tzatziki and parsley.

Megan Palmer wrote:I have found a new favourite drumstick recipe that freezes well too.

It is from a NZ site, food lovers forum

Chicken Shawarma style tray bake

A can of drained chickpeas can be added for some more bulk.

Middle Eastern Chicken Tray Bake

600g chicken thigh fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp sumac
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
S&P
1 orange kūmara, peeled and chopped
1 red onion, quartered
2-3 capsicum, sliced
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 zucchini roughly chopped
1 broccoli, cut into florets.
1/2 cup hummus
1/2 cup tzatziki  ( or just yoghurt with mint and garlic)
1 handful parsley, chopped

Marinate the chicken in the olive oil, lemon juice and spices for an hour (or longer if you can).
Heat oven to 200 C fan bake.
Arrange vegetables in a single layer in a large roasting dish. Cover with chicken and scrape any remaining spices from the dish.
Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked and vegetables tender.
Top with hummus, tzatziki and parsley.

Sounds good. 'Kumara' in NZ is sweet potato, I imagine regular potatoes would go well in this too.

Kate Downham wrote:

Sounds good. 'Kumara' in NZ is sweet potato, I imagine regular potatoes would go well in this too.

Thanks Kate, I completely forgot that it said kūmara😉

I’ve substituted pumpkin, cauliflower florets, Brussels sprouts and of course regular potatoes in the roasted vegetable base too.