Cooking chicken drumsticks in the oven can be difficult, because you need to calculate the baking time so that the meat is well cooked, but not dry. In order to make the legs more juicy, you can cook them simultaneously with other products - onions, potatoes, tomatoes and so on. In addition, this will allow you to get the main course and side dish immediately.
Easiest recipe
As noted above, you can easily and quickly bake chicken drumsticks with potatoes in the oven. There is no clear list of ingredients for this recipe. All you need is chicken legs, potatoes and your favorite spices. In general, the preparation looks like this:
- Rub chicken drumsticks with salt, pepper and dried herbs.
- Make cuts on the legs and place in them slices of garlic and bay leaf.
- Grease a deep baking sheet with oil, spread the chopped potatoes in an even layer on it. If desired, you can add onions, chopped rings, and chopped garlic.
- Spread the chicken on top. Cover the baking sheet with foil and place in a preheated oven. This will prevent drying out.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the foil and continue cooking for another 10-20 minutes to form a crust.
Using the same technology, you can cook chicken drumsticks in the oven in a baking bag. In this case, just cut it at the final stage.
Oven Chicken Drumsticks in a Barbecue Sauce
If you do not have the opportunity to travel out of town for cooking on charcoal, you can make meat in barbecue sauce in a home kitchen oven. Chicken legs are quite suitable for such a recipe, because they bake quickly and at the same time absorb spice aromas well.
Putting meat in a marinade before baking helps to improve the taste and give tenderness to chicken. So the sauce is absorbed into the skin, and then forms a delicious glaze during cooking. It is advisable to bake chicken drumsticks in the oven on a wire rack placed above the baking sheet to ensure uniform heating and a continuous flow of air from all sides. This helps prevent excess fluids.
For this recipe you will need:
- 1 kg (with skin and bones) of chicken drumsticks;
- 1 teaspoon of salt;
- half a glass of barbecue sauce (any storefront);
- 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke.
How to bake smoke aromatic chicken drumsticks
- Put the chicken legs in a shallow plate and sprinkle salt on both sides. If you use liquid smoke, mix it with barbecue sauce.
- Lubricate the drumsticks on all sides with this mixture, leave the rest of the sauce. Cover the chicken with a lid or plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour, but preferably at night.
- Place the wire rack in the oven on top of the pan placed on the middle rack. Lay the bottom and sides of the baking sheet with foil.
- Place the marinated chicken drumsticks on a wire rack a short distance from one another.
- Bake them for 5-7 minutes, turn over and bake for another 3-5 minutes or so. Then grease the drumsticks with the sauce on all sides and continue to bake until cooked.
Serve the chicken pieces immediately while they are hot, with the remaining barbecue sauce.
You can change this recipe and cook the chicken legs in the oven with mayonnaise in the same way, if you do not want to give the dish the smell of smoke. It is advisable to fry the chicken also on a wire rack to ensure an even crust.
Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Moroccan Spices
This is a somewhat exotic recipe for baked chicken drumsticks in the oven, in which spices play the main role. In total you will need:
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped;
- 1 tsp fresh grated ginger;
- 1 tsp ground turmeric;
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin;
- 0.5 tsp ground cardamom;
- 0.5 tsp chopped coriander;
- 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper;
- 1 tsp finely grated lemon peel;
- 8 large chicken legs;
- 2 tablespoons olive oil;
- 1 onion, chopped;
- 2 cups chicken stock;
- 6 dried dates, chopped;
- 1/3 cup chopped coconut pulp.
Having collected everything you need, you can start cooking.
How to Cook Moroccan Chicken
- Combine garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, coriander, pepper and lemon zest in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Trim excess fat from chicken drumsticks, if any. Place them in a heat-resistant pan. Add the seasoning mixture and make sure each leg is completely covered with them. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to marinate for 3 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
- Heat the oil in a pan. Fry chicken legs quickly in high heat until a brown crust appears on all sides. Then put them back in the baking dish.
- Put in the pan where the shanks were fried, 1 tsp. butter and onions and fry until golden.
- Add cooked onions, dates, chopped coconut pulp to the chicken. Pour the chicken stock evenly over all the ingredients. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the chicken is soft, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from the oven, open and serve with white rice.
Fried chicken legs and vegetables
If you want to cook simple and healthy food, after spending a little time on it, you can bake chicken drumsticks with potatoes in the oven. The recipe is extremely simple:
- Rub chicken drumsticks with clean sea salt (to soften) on all sides and refrigerate for several hours.
- After that, grease a deep baking sheet with butter, place 4 chicken legs on it and fill the entire free space with small potato slices, chopped carrots, shallots and season with your favorite spices.
- How much to bake chicken drumsticks in the oven? Bake them at 200 degrees for 1 hour. After that, check the chicken for readiness by inserting the tip of the knife into the thickest part of the leg without touching the bone. If the meat is easily pierced, the dish is ready.
Chicken Legs with Cauliflower
This method of cooking chicken drumsticks with vegetables in the oven is quite original. In this case, it is proposed to replace the usual olive oil with coconut, and rosemary is used as the main seasoning. All you need:
- 6 chicken legs, with skin and bones;
- 2 heads of cauliflower;
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil;
- 3 tablespoons of hot water;
- 2 tablespoons paprika;
- 1 tablespoon of rosemary leaves;
- 2 tablespoons sea salt;
- 1 teaspoon black pepper;
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.
How to cook chicken with this recipe
- Preheat the oven to 220 ° C.
- Remove the outer leaves from the heads of cauliflower, divide them into separate inflorescences. If any of them turns out to be very large, cut them in half or quarter. Place chopped cauliflower in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, mix all the spices, coconut oil and hot water.
- Pour about half of this mixture over the cauliflower, mix. Put everything in a baking dish.
- Put chicken slices in one layer on top of cauliflower. Using a cooking brush, distribute the rest of the sauce over the chicken legs as evenly as possible. Since the chicken will be cold, the butter in the sauce can immediately thicken. In this case, add a spoonful of hot water.
Bake until chicken is cooked, about 40 minutes total. Serve and enjoy immediately!
Oven crispy chicken drumsticks
Many people like fried, crispy chicken on top. It should be noted that it can be prepared not only in a frying pan in oil. Below is a step-by-step instruction on how to bake a chicken drumstick with a crispy crust in the oven to make a tasty and healthy dish. To do this, you must first use a combination of eggs and milk, and then a breading. In total you will need:
- 1-1.5 kg of chicken legs;
- 1 large egg;
- a quarter cup of milk;
- half a glass of breadcrumbs;
- a quarter cup of crushed crackers (unsweetened);
- half a glass of grated Parmigiano Reggiano or other similar cheese;
- 1 teaspoon of paprika;
- 2 tablespoons oregano (chopped);
- sea salt and pepper;
- 2 tablespoons butter (melted);
- 1 bunch of asparagus.
For the sauce:
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise;
- 1 lemon (juice only);
- coarse pepper to taste.
How to cook breaded chicken legs
- Preheat the oven to 190 ° C and put parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Beat the egg and milk. Combine the remaining breading ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Dip each drumstick into the egg mixture and then into the breadcrumbs. Pour over molten butter and bake for 45-60 minutes.
- Cook asparagus in a double boiler, season it with pepper and salt.
- Stir mayonnaise, lemon juice and pepper to make the sauce.
Pour them with asparagus and serve with chicken legs.
Chicken legs with dates, olives and capers
You can often hear that you can quickly cook chicken drumsticks with vegetables in the oven, thereby adding additional flavor to the meat. As a rule, this refers to potatoes and various types of cabbage. But you can make the recipe more original by adding olives and capers to the chicken. To prepare such a dish, you need:
- 2 kg of chicken drumsticks;
- 5 garlic cloves, minced;
- 15 grams of fresh oregano, torn by hand, plus an extra for a side dish;
- 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar;
- 3 tablespoons olive oil;
- 100 grams of green olives;
- 60 grams of capers plus 2 tablespoons of brine from them;
- 70 grams of dates peeled and cut into quarters;
- 2 leaves of laurel;
- 120 ml of dry white wine;
- 1 tablespoon syrup or molasses;
- sea salt and black pepper.
Cooking Chicken with Dates
- Place the chicken drumsticks in a large, non-metal bowl and add to them all the ingredients except wine and syrup.
- Gently mix everything together, cover the container and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, stirring the ingredients several times during the process.
- Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.
- Set the chicken legs on a large baking tray with the marinade.
- Stir the wine and syrup and pour onto the chicken.
- Bake chicken drumsticks in the oven for 50 minutes, turning 2 or 3 times until the meat is rosy on top.
Remove from the oven, transfer everything to a large dish, sprinkle on top a few fresh oregano leaves and serve.