A few weeks ago I discovered that cornstarch makes the most wonderfully crispy surface for tofu and that discovery totally rocked my world. Wellllll this week I happened across this post on Cookful.com, which describes a similar process for chicken. Since I had some leftover chicken drumsticks in my freezer, I was all over that. After making my Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks, I slathered them in a sweet and spicy honey sriracha sauce and I was in HEAVEN.
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How to Make Crispy Oven Baked Chicken
The process is so simple. Just coat your bone-in, skin-on chicken with a little corn starch before baking. The cornstarch and fat from the skin combine to make a wonderfully crispy exterior, without deep frying!
What Sauce Can I Use?
I whipped up a simple honey sriracha wing sauce for these Crispy Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken Drumsticks, but you could just as easily drench them in your favorite BBQ sauce, store bought wing sauce, or a homemade raspberry balsamic sauce. Report back with your favorite sauce so I can have an excuse to make these again, k? Thx!
Can I Use a Different Cut of Chicken?
This technique is originally meant for wings (see my Raspberry Balsamic Baked Chicken Wings), which are much smaller than drumsticks, but I found that the skin crisped up nicely with drumsticks as well, and the meat inside was tender and juicy. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t do the same thing with thighs or breasts. Just make sure you’re using bone-in, skin-on chicken and you’ll need to adjust the cooking time depending on the size of the pieces.
Honey Sriracha Chicken Drumsticks
Servings 6Ingredients
- 6 chicken drumsticks (about 1.75 lbs.) ($3.54)
- Pinch of salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup sriracha ($0.34)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.22)
- 2 Tbsp honey ($0.24)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil, then top it with wire cooling racks to hold the chicken up off the baking sheet. For easy cleaning, spritz the wire racks with non-stick spray.
- Place the chicken drumsticks in a large bowl and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cornstarch over top, then stir until the drumsticks are evenly coated in cornstarch.
- Place the coated chicken pieces on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the drumsticks for about 50 minutes, or until the surface is golden brown and crispy.
- While the chicken is in the oven, combine the sriracha, butter, and honey in a small sauce pot. Heat over a low flame until the butter is melted and the sauce is smooth. Set the sauce aside.
- When the chicken comes out of the oven, brush the sauce liberally over the surface of the chicken, then serve.
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Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
- Wire Cooling Racks
- Baking Sheet
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Chicken Drumsticks – Step by Step Photos
Start by preheating the oven to 400ºF. Place six skin-on chicken drumsticks in a large bowl and season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Sprinkle 2 Tbsp cornstarch over the chicken, then stir until the pieces are evenly coated.
Line a baking sheet with foil, then place two wire cooling racks on top. (For even easier cleanup, you can spritz the racks with non-stick spray.) Place the cornstarch coated chicken pieces on the racks.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until they’re golden and crispy. They won’t get super dark, and some spots that had extra thick cornstarch may still be white.
While the chicken is in the oven, prepare the wing sauce. Simply place 1/4 cup sriracha, 2 Tbsp butter, and 2 Tbsp honey in a small sauce pot. Stir and heat over a low flame until the butter is melted and the sauce is smooth. This only takes about 5 minutes.
Back to those gorgeous drumsticks…
Slather that delicious honey sriracha sauce all over the wings. As I mentioned earlier, you could actually use any type of sauce that you want… BBQ is an easy choice.
And now your amazing Crispy Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken Drumsticks are ready to eat!
I mean seriously, how easy was that?? I can’t wait to try more versions…
Will this recipe work in an air fryer?
I’m sure you could try it! I would just keep an eye on it because the honey might burn!
Love how easy these were to make, & how all the ingredients are pantry staples!! The end result was amazing, really made me reconsider buying crappy grocery store fried chicken ever again
All ur recipes look absolutely stunning n delicious
Omgoodness! These were so good! I made the recipe last night. I used skin-on, bone-in thighs. Same temp, 35 minutes. They were PERFECT. Served with sesame brown Jasmine rice & steamed snap peas.The sauce is worth making for all sorts, I’d imagine. It’s almost drinkable! 😄 I sent the recipe to my Dad. He’s going to try it on pork ribs. Thank you!
A rare Budget Bytes recipe that didn’t go over well unfortunately :( followed everything exactly as written and the chicken took a ton of extra time to cook through, texture was strange (inside was weirdly juicy and outside was grainy and not super crisp) and the sauce wasn’t our favorite (and we love sriracha!). Bummed that this one didn’t turn out :( we still love all the other Budget Bytes recipes (which we make like 5x a week)!
Delicious! We have LOVED every single recipe of yours we’ve made. Thank you so much for all of the simple, yummy and quick dishes!!
This recipe is literally life-changing–we’ve never done it this way before but you can bet we will now, like every Sunday! Devoured even by my son, who hates “bone-in” chicken. (I wonder if there’s a good way to do this with skinless drummies?)
The skin is the key to making it crispy, unfortunately!
Amazing and so quick! Delicious. My husband loved it. I used agave nectar instead of honey. Thank you!
This is one of my fav recipes ever — so easy and really satisfies a craving for wings! I like to leave them in the oven for up to 1h20 to let the drumsticks get extra crispy. I like the honey sriracha sauce but it’s also fun to experiment with the sauce. Buffalo, honey garlic, etc. 10/10!!!!
Fantastic! My boyfriend has a lower heat tolerance than me so I lessened the sriracha slightly, added a dollop of hoisin, a splash of soy, and called it a day. Like another commenter, I put the glaze on the drumsticks and then stuck them back in the over for a few minutes. Fantastic! This is a fantastic, affordable recipe, and I’ll happily be making it again.
This was so easy and delicious! I see myself using the honey sriracha sauce for a ton of different meals. For leftovers today I made a sandwich. Toasted a bun, cut the meat off the drumstick and tossed it in extra sauce, and mixed some cabbage with your lime crema as a slaw on top. So good!
Oh wow yes that sounds delicious! I may have to try that with turkey leftovers this week!
Wow, so these were remarkable. Warning, they are HOT, but a flavorful heat, not just a burn. I like spicy though, so this was great. I did this recipe with the same amount of wings and it was so good, I had to put the rest of the wings away so I didn’t eat them all in one sitting!
I’ve made this before and it was great- just wanted to let you know I’m making it for my Passover Seder tonight with your raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce!
Oh YUM!! Great combo idea!!
Delicious!…and super easy, using ingredients I keep on hand. Just one small tweak: after spreading the sauce on I baked the wings for another 5- 7 minutes or so and got nice tiny brown bits on the skin :-) .
This was so yummy! I found a package for 88 cents a pound at my local grocery store – it had 12 in it. I made 6 per recipe and 6 per my own. I used soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, peanut butter, butter, sriracha, brown sugar, garlic, chicken stock (better than bouillon) and pepper – all things I had in my fridge. These were excellent.
This was freaking delicious! Next time I’ll try w wings. Thank you so much!
Made these tonight. Ah May Zing!!!!!!
I just made these and they are great!
i’d tried this recipe several times already myself, but i made these again tonight, but for the first time for the family that i live with and they thought the result was delicious! they look forward to seeing if the cornstarch trick will work with wings for their superbowl party next year. thanks for another delicious recipe Beth!
i sub. the siracha with buffalo sauce and it was amazing! great receipe
I made this recipe and loved it. Easy way to whip up some chicken for a bunch of guests.
very good!!!! i added more sriracha to the recipe and it was great!
I had these at a bar last night. Was wondering how they were made and had forgotten that you’d posted the recipe. Thanks for the reminder :D
WOW!!! The Crispy Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken Drumsticks is out-of-this world delicious!!! Instead of using honey and sriracha, I used buffalo sauce and followed the recipe. I served the chicken drumsticks with blue cheese mashed potatoes. I’m definitely going to make this recipe again, but will have to experiment with different sauces, such as teriyaki. Thank you so much, Beth!!! :-)
This is one of my favs! Easy and delicous!
Tried this with half red sriracha w/ some Thai dried chili and half green sriracha w/ Japanese seven spice. Made an easy Ethiopian potato, carrot stew called atkilt wat
LOVE this recipe! I’ve tried this with wings too!
This is such a tasty chiken recipe using budget friendly ingredients mostly found in every homes’ kitchen. I defenitely recommend this!
I made these for my family a couple of weeks ago and they were DELICIOUS! Thanks for a great recipe that I will definitely make again! Everyone loved them.
Made this last night – the sauce was super tasty. But the chicken didn’t get crispy… I was roasting a cookie sheet (separate from the sheet w the chicken on it) of broccoli at the same time. I’m wondering if have two racks of stuff going at the same time messed up the air flow in the oven or something. Any body have any thoughts? I’m going to try again with just the chicken in the over :). Thanks!
Hmm, that’s a possibility… But maybe it just needed more time in the oven?
The moisture from the broccoli likely produced steam which prevented crisping.
This is on my menu plan for the week! what do you think would make a good dish for this? Thanks!
Hmm, maybe something simple like roasted broccoli?
hi from hk.
made this tonight it’s very good.
it’s a new taste but an amazing taste.
the corn starch coating is brilliant and we look forward to trying it with different type of sauces.
thanks for the recipe.
Just tried this recipe tonight and it was delicious. I promised myself I would cook more this year and your recipe gave me the confidence to do so. My husband and kids couldn’t eat it so I made a different sauce for them. I loved it though. Thanks!
I made these tonight with chicken thighs and they turned out great. I cooked them a little longer and the technique with the cornstarch resulted in crispy skin without frying. Yeah!
This recipe is BEYOND delicious and SO easy to make! I love the sweetness and spiciness of the sauce and the crunchiness of the chicken skin. This is def one of my husband’s favorite meals and we have it at least once a week! Sooo easy to make for you to not try it out!!
This is a wonderful way to cook up some drumsticks! All around perfect and an easy meal to prep.
This recipe tasted incredible! I think I either made the sauce too early (losing the smoothness) or should’ve dusted off some of the extra cornstarch, because it tasted a bit grainy, but besides that, it was so simple and sooo good. For leftovers, I shredded the chicken and put that in between some toasted hawaiian rolls. Add a bit of mayo, romaine lettuce, and the sriracha-honey sauce, and you’ve got yourself a winner!
Super easy super delicious!!! My husband loved it! His response: Add that to the list!! This could could be a dipping sauce for chicken tenders! And that we could make money off of this! LOL
My sister and I made these for dinner a while ago and we did chicken wings instead of drumsticks (I mean, there are some little drumsticks in there, right?) it made great wings! Definitely would be good for a superbowl party or something :)
These were delicious. I used half the butter and added a little sesame oil.
This was really wonderful! I’ve made these exactly as the recipe states with yummy results. As I cook with an electric Oven & not by choice I turned the broiler on high for under three minutes to get them crispy. Today I have three large sad looking peaches which I will cut up & add to the sauce with a pinch if brown sugar & a spritz of lemon before I smear it over the chicken.
This is a fantastic recipe. My husband keeps asking me to make these every weekend. They come out so nice and crispy with the corn starch!
These were so good! I followed the recipe exactly and it created crispy-skinned, juicy drumsticks. My boyfriend said these are the best drumsticks I’ve ever made!
I made something similiar from a betty crocker recipe but I think I’ll give your recipe a whirl! It looks less complicated and it might actually encourage my boyfriend to make it himself when I’m not there!
What’s the best way to reheat something like this?
I just use the microwave because as with fried food that has been “sauced” it doesn’t really get back to crispy again. It still tastes so good that I don’t care, though! :)
Is it possible that I can use boneless, skinless chicken thighs? Thanks, Beth!! :-)
To get the crispy exterior on these you really need to use a skin-on piece of chicken. You can use thighs, but you need that skin on there. :)
Do you think potato starch would work as well? I would really like to introduce this technique to my mom for crisping up the chicken but she is allergic to corn. :(
Hmm, honestly I’ve never cooked with potato starch so I’m not sure. :/
Hi Kelly – Try rice flour! My mom has Celiac Disease, and rice flour works really well as a crispy coating for her. I hope it works for you, too!
I have made these drumsticks four times since it was posted!! I never really enjoyed drumsticks before, but the spicy,crispy balance is fantastic! Thank you so much for this addition to my cooking repertoire.
Again, perfectly easy and tasty recipe. My MEGA picky son ate it without sauce but seemed to really enjoy the chicken with just the crispness.
My non picky son loved the sauce (I was practically eating it by the spoonful).
I’m vegetarian so obviously did t have this myself but certainly no complaints from the rest of the household. I’ve a little sauce left over just for me… :-)
These look amazing and easy! I always love your recipes – although they are usually a little spicier than I can take, haha. I was wondering if you had a product recommendation for wire cooling racks? I don’t own any now and when I see them in the store, they never appear to be oven-safe. Is there anything I should watch out for? Thank you!
Hmm, I don’t know any details about different types of wire cooling racks. I bought one set a good 10-15 years ago and have never had to shop for them again. :) I think most metal cooling racks should be oven safe.
Thank you!
I made this tonight and my husband loved it! I loved it too! Nice and crispy with a sweet and spicy sauce… Sooooo good! I noticed some people used thighs so I am going to try that next. Thanks for the great recipe!
This was great! I used a mix of legs and wings, used half the sriracha and increased the butter and honey to make it less spicy.
Would these work well being grilled??
Nope, this one needs to be baked in the oven.
I made this recipe with sambal olek in place of the sriracha. Delicious!
I made these last night with thighs (cuz that’s what I had on hand) and Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (cuz that’s what I had on hand) and it was delicious! I love the cooking method, and I ate that delicious crispy chicken skin with reduced guilt since at least it wasn’t deep-fried, right? I had cut up a fresh pineapple the day before, so I threw some diced bits of it into the sauce. Can’t wait to have the left-overs for lunch!
Limited ingredients, super easy, delicious results = the perfect recipe. Thanks for sharing, Beth!
How would the crispiness hold up after being microwaved? This looks delicious and I’d love to make it for work lunches, but wouldn’t want it to turn to mush in the microwave.
As with most fried foods or crispy foods that get drenched in sauce, it’s really only crispy right when you make it. But, that being said, I still enjoyed the leftovers very much. :)
I would never have thought to use cornstarch as a crisping agent, but of course it makes sense as it would absorb moisture. I must try this! Thanks for sharing.
Hey quick question from newbie chef. Trying to eat healthy, so is there anyway to make this sans skin?
Unfortunately this one really requires the skin. It’s actually the skin that’s getting crispy and the fat that is in/under the skin is crucial to making that happen. :)
Thanks a lot. FYI, I love your blog. Just had to say that
I think the temperature is too low, and cooking time too short. After one hour at 400, the drumsticks were still quite raw. Just raised temp to 450, and added on another 30 min. Will check in a while to see where things are at!!!!
I baked some wings using this technique yesterday, they turned out great! Thanks.
Yes! Love adding cornstarch to crispy up my chicken. Sriracha is a must in our house. Definitely trying this!
This recipe for General Tso’s Chicken on Brown Eyed Baker has become my family’s new obsession: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/general-tsos-chicken-recipe/
The method of getting the chicken crispy is great too, but the sauce is the true star of the meal! I use rice vinegar in place of white and coconut sugar in place of normal sugar (it tastes similar to brown sugar if you’ve never tried it), but that’s just me! My vegetarian sisters love it on cornstarch-coated-and-fried tofu as well :)
Made this last night but I didn’t have any skin on chicken! So I cut up some chicken breasts and dredged them in flour and gave them a fast fry in oil for a crunchy coating then mixed them in the sauce and baked them for 10 minutes. YUMMM :D
Wow! What an awesome recipe. I love sriracha and I love chicken putting them together is genius. I made these for my family last night and they are begging for more. Thanks again and please keep up the great work. Especially recipes that are spicy.
This method works so well for chicken! Ever since I found it out I have been skipping the fryer. It works so well, the chicken comes out crispy but juicy and is so much healthier for you. (Plus drumsticks are better than wings). Going to try this recipe out sometime soon! Looks delicious.
Wow, these look mouthwateringly amazing! I’ve never made drumsticks, but these sound pretty foolproof. Thanks Beth, I’m definitely going to try these soon!
Could you use potato starch instead of corn starch? Love the blog. Appreciate all the wonderful pictures and recipes! :)
Hmm, I’ve never used potato starch so I’m not sure if it acts differently than cornstarch.
Vivian, I was reading about “Japanese Fried Chicken” yesterday, and the author specifically said that potato starch is actually preferable to corn starch.
Your photos are fabulous! I don’t like spicy so I probably won’t make this exact recipe, although I might givr Kelly’s version a try. But the pictures are fabulous!
Beth, you are amazing <3 <3 <3 My first thought was the leftover chili sauce from the tofu, but the sriracha honey sounds divine!
Yes, the sweet chili sauce would also be fab! :)
Did someone say “Sriracha”???!!!!
Will definitely try this recipe.
This looks delicious, Beth! Any recommendations on side dishes to serve with this? I’m thinking about making an Asian-style wing sauce (hoison sauce, soy sauce etc) but I’m not savvy enough in the kitchen to ever come up with any sides aside from rice and vegetables.
Matt – if you haven’t tried Beth’s crunchy Asian salad with sesame-ginger dressing, you must! I’m pretty sure it’s the tastiest dressing on the planet.
Yep, I was going to say the Crunchy Asian Salad. It’s perfect for this! And I’d probably do jasmine rice, too, cuz I need my carbs. ;) Broccoli would be easy, too, if you didn’t want to go through the trouble of the salad. Just like a take-out place–add broccoli and rice and call it a meal!
These look fantastic…my fiance isn’t usually keen to drumsticks, she isn’t a huge fan of bones in her meat (I know, the jokes abound)…so I’m going to try wither either tenders or boneless thighs if I can find them with the skin on.
When I make chicken tenders or nuggets, I often use a copycat recipe of Winger’s sauce. I found this online; I’ve never been to Winger’s. I usually make a third of the recipe, using a generous pinch of salt and garlic powder. I think it’s good on fish and shrimp, too.
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Stir over medium heat until brown sugar is dissolved and it starts to bubble around the sides of the pan. Pour over chicken and toss to coat.
These look gorgeous and delicious! I’m going to try this very soon…but in what world does 2 drumsticks equal a serving?! I could eat a whole pile of these!
For a Japanese twist, try the following. You can use bite sized or full chicken breast, wings, drumsticks, whatever. Make a marinade out of fresh lemon juice, soy sauce, grated fresh ginger (or powdered in a pinch), minced garlic, and grated onion (or chopped fine), plus salt and pepper to taste. If you like spicy, add Sriracha, cayenne pepper or pepper flakes.
Let marinate for 30 minutes, then place in a paper bag or large bowl with corn starch and shake/toss to coat. Now you can either bake or pan fry with canola, peanut, grape seed or other suitable oil for frying. I generally use butter, but that’s probably not traditional. After the chicken is cooked through and the skin and coating are crispy, remove them to a dish to cool and serve with rice and veg of your choice. I include a few lemon slices to spritz fresh flavor on the chicken. It’s a basic recipe that I do by feel, but if anyone needs quantities I could take a stab at it.
BTW this is a modified chicken karaage recipe, which is basically Japanese fried chicken. Good stuff, and very suitable to bento boxes if those pique your interest. It’s just as good fresh cooked as it is room temp in a bento box. Magic!
I am so excited to try this! I was just looking for a chicken drum stick recipe for dinner tonight.
This looks awesome! Trying to tonight! Also, I think you can put this under Gluten Free too!