Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks

These oven baked chicken drumsticks are a favorite weeknight dinner option for us. They’re crispy on the outside, seasoned to perfection and so juicy and tender on the inside. And the best part, it’s only 5 minutes prep and 40 minutes baking!

What I love about these baked chicken drumsticks is that they make for easy weeknights dinners, I can season them slightly differently each time and I can serve them with sauces or dips depending on what I have available.

Our typical dinner when I make these drumsticks involves rice, salad and a yogurt mint dip with garlic.

I remember when I was a child, we would often bake a whole chicken with either rice or potatoes and my grandfather and I would always pick the drumstick for our servings. We used to joke that it was the best part of the chicken and the rest of the family didn’t know what they’re missing out on.

Ingredients

Chances are you have all the ingredients needed to season the drumsticks available in your pantry. Which is another plus when cooking this recipe. Just thaw the drumsticks and you can start cooking them. I tend to buy big packages of drumsticks at Costco and freeze them so I can always find a bag or two in my freezer.

Here’s what I have used this time around and below I’ll list what substitutes I have included in the past variations.

• Olive oil – good quality always makes a difference. If you pat dry the drumsticks, olive oil is also a great medium to allow seasonings to mix and coat the drumsticks.
• Lemon – there’s something about chicken and lemon that is so classic. Add lemon juice and if you have time to zest, add that too.
• Drumsticks – the packages I buy come in groups of 4 drumsticks, so I will cook about 2-3 packages at a time.
• Garlic Cloves – fresh garlic is a staple of Mediterranean cuisine so I always add some cloves to any marinade.
• Sea Salt – sea salt is my secret ingredients with meats and poultry. It’s almost a complete seasoning on its own if I don’t have anything else on hand.
• Black pepper – freshly cracked is more flavorful and aromatic.
• Za’atar – since I discovered this spice, I tend to add it to anything I cook. Try it, you won’t regret it:).
• Parsley – dry parsley is great on seasoning, fresh parsley for garnishes in this dish.
• Oregano – dry oregano adds so much flavor to chicken and compliment the lemon especially well in my opinion.
• Smoked Paprika – smoked paprika provides that earthiness and some color to the crispy skin of the drumsticks.

Additional spices you can use instead of the above or in addition to some of the above, feel free to mix and match seasonings to your taste.

• Cayenne pepper – if you like the drumsticks to be more spicy, I would cayenne pepper as well as some crushed red pepper.
• Taco seasoning – if you don’t have other spices available but you have taco seasoning, it will work great on the these drumsticks.
• Thyme – I love adding thyme anytime I can for a delicate flavor.
• Italian seasoning – Italian seasoning is great when you don’t want to bother with parsley, oregano, thyme separately. In drumsticks the quantities are not vital to the recipe succes, I usually eyeball them anyway. So you can definitely take some shortcut and use Italian seasoning.
• Marjoram – This is a lesser known herb overall but in Albania where I grew up and other Mediterranean countries marjoram is widely used especially when cooking poultry.

Easy Steps on How to Make this Recipe

Usually with weeknight dinners I try to make it as easy as possible with very little fuss. This is the process I follow in general but you can pick it apart and season the drumsticks differently and then bake, there’s no right or wrong in my opinion.

• Make sure drumsticks are thawed and not frozen.
• Add drumsticks in a glass bowl.
• Pour olive oil and lemon juice on top as well as lemon zest. Then slowly add all the seasonings: sea salt, black pepper, paprika, za’atar, parsley, oregano etc.
• Use a large slotted spoon to mix carefully so all the drumsticks get coated. Alternatively, you can mix all the ingredients in a bowl then apply over the drumsticks with a brush.
• If you have some time, cover with a plastic wrap and let marinade for about 30 minutes.
• Then add the drumsticks to a baking sheet with parchment paper using the slotted spoon.
• Bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees F (about 200 degrees C). Internal temperature of the drumsticks should read 165 degrees F for them to be safe to eat.

ProTip – If you like a crispy skin you can bake for 35 minutes and then broil for 5 minutes.

How Do You Serve These Drumsticks?

These drumsticks are perfect for weeknight dinners in my view. We love to add them over cilantro rice and add a side salad. This cilantro yogurt dip is perfect as a dip or this Peruvian green sauce tastes great when drizzled over the drumsticks when they’re still hot.

If buying the drumsticks for dinner, I usually buy them from my local grocery store or from Costco. But if I’m trying to use them as appetizer then I buy the smaller drumsticks, I’m not sure if they’re listed as drummettes or something else, can’t remember exactly the wording on the packaging. Either way they’re very easy to distinguish from the the dinner drumsticks.

This recipe is Low Carb, Gluten Free and depending what side dishes you serve it with, it can be Keto as well.

If you would like to use this recipe at a later time, please pin any of the pictures of this recipe to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know in comments how the recipe came out if you cooked it, or if you have any feedback:). I appreciate you reading my blog!

Thank you:)

More Chicken Recipes

I love cooking with chicken because usually that means that dinner won’t be time consuming. My kids love chicken dinners and I can add lots of veggie side dishes or salads to compliment all the nutritious values they need.

• Creamy Garlic Chicken in Dijon Mustard Sauce
• Creamy Chicken with Garlic and Spinach
• Chicken and Rice Soup
• Mediterranean Sheet Pan Chicken and Veggies
• Cast Iron Chicken Kebabs
• Tarragon Chicken