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…
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 :)