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Oven-Baked Chicken Drumsticks

One Pan Wonders!

By Sarah CookPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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I am NOT a chef. I'm a ridiculously picky eater. And I don't know proper cooking terminology for roughly 80 percent of what I make. But, I do dig cooking. I find it to be soothing and, somehow against all odds, I stumble my way into some weirdly good food. More than half the time I don't even have proper measurements. So, I advise you to do what I do and adjust spices and whatnot to your liking.

I do not bake. I hate baking. I hate directions. I hate measuring out the precise components that are required of bakers. All of this is just flyby, the seat of your pants cooking. That's my jam.

I was tired of my usual staples (I make a lot of pastas, casseroles, and steaks) and wanted to switch it up. I went to Publix while I had some time to kill and found a can of lima beans and a pack of chicken drumsticks. All together, this cost me $4.50. I figured I'd find stuff in my pantry to make it palatable. Also, I don't like to spend a lot of money on my food. So most of my stuff is super inexpensive to make. I have a decent spice collection and that covers up a multitude of sins. I also always have crappy beer and cheap wine to cook with. My good wine is for drinking. But some truly garbage $3 wine never hurts anything if you're cooking it down.

I threw this together and I kid you not, it was THE best and juiciest chicken I've ever made.

Preheat the oven to whatever you want. I used it around 400. Everyone has their own temp they use for chicken. Whatever floats your boat.

Prep the chicken: I used a liberal amount of salt, pepper, onion powder, and paprika. (I usually use real onion but I forgot to grab one and onion powder worked just fine). I added a little Crystal Hot Sauce to it as well.

Pour half a beer or so into a skillet (I prefer cast iron, but I had some other stuff rocking in the cast iron-sized pan I needed. So I just used my basic metal skillet). Heat it up and throw some garlic in there. I chopped mine just because I like to. I imagine cloves would work just as well. Throw in a few bay leaves. Get it bubbling. Mix in some hot sauce if you like the heat. (for this chicken, I used Corona Light simply because it was in my fridge. I'd like to try this with a dark beer in the future, I imagine that'd taste delightful)

Put the chicken in the skillet. Let it sit in the bubbling beer for a couple minutes or so. Pour the rest of the beer in there and pop it into the oven. Then you just wait.

Every 10 - 15 minutes (depending on your temp and on how large the drums are) get some tongs and flip the chicken over. You'll see the beer is starting to get darker. When I flipped them, I would then add more pepper to the side that's out of the beer. Do this until they're cooked through. With the size and temp I had, this took about 45 minutes. It'll vary depending on temp and size. I don't have a meat thermometer. I just go by the way it looks. I know you're supposed to check the temp, but I've been doing this long enough to where I know when chicken is done. At this point, it should have a nice crisp to the skin as well.

Take it out of the oven and let the chicken rest for like seven - ten-ish minutes. While you wait on that, put the skillet back on the range with it turned medium to high and let the sauce continue to reduce.

Throw the chicken on the plate, top it off with some of the beer sauce/glaze, whatever you wanna call it. And you're donezo. Easy peasy. Serve with whatever you'd like. I used lima beans (oh, I have my limas cooking the entire time the chicken is. I use salt, pepper, and hot sauce and let them simmer...it gets them to that perfect spot). And my other side was some leftover loaded potato soup that I turned into a weird cheesy potato bake and it was fricking delicious. Happy eating!

Oh, and my wine of choice was a Leese + Fitch Pinot Noir should anyone be wondering.

Streamlined No Commentary Version:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Chicken drum prep: Salt, Pepper, Paprika, Onion Powder
  3. Pour one-half beer into skillet and get it bubbling. Add garlic and bay leaves. Put chicken in bubbling broth on stovetop for a couple of minutes. Add rest of beer.
  4. Turn chicken every 10 - 15 minutes in oven until done. When turning, add pepper (or other spices to the part of the drum not in the beer).
  5. Take chicken out of oven and have it rest for seven - ten minutes. Put beer mixture back on stove on medium to high to reduce it. Plate chicken, drizzle beer sauce on top and serve.

Before Popping in the Oven

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About the Creator

Sarah Cook

Florida native. Wine Drinker. Beard Lover. Dachshund Obsessed. Swell kind of gal.

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