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…
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. :)