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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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…
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!