These Baked Ginger Chicken Drumsticks are marinated in a rich gingery glaze and then baked in the oven to a slightly charred perfection.
With inspiration from Indonesia these baked chicken drumsticks will become your new favorite! Plus they are perfect for when it is just too cold to grill!
Served hot or cold these are a great way to feed a crowd. They are definitely a 'just add friends' meal, oh and maybe a beer 😉
If you love the waffle and stories behind the recipes then you can use the Jump to Menu below (it should be after my latest video), to jump straight to the Recipe Waffle and read all about why I made these on a random Monday in February!
For those of you that hate the blurb you can also jump to the recipe there too. But you'll miss some top tips and more yummy photos, so once you've checked out the recipe scroll back on up and see what I have to say, I promise it is useful and not filled with stories of my grandmother (Now there is a lady who could talk, she once told me the story about.... just kidding!
How to Marinate Ginger Chicken Drumsticks
Drumsticks are so inexpensive aren't they!!! And everyone loves them!
But when you marinade them in the sticky delicious goodness of ginger, soy sauce, sugar garlic and a couple of other ingredients you transform chicken drumsticks into great chicken drumsticks.
The marinade for these drumsticks is simple to make:
- Fresh ginger
- Garlic
- Soy sauce
- Canola oil
- Lemon juice
- Dijon mustard
- Brown sugar
Once these are mixed together they make a wonderful marinade for the chicken and also create the delicious glaze that you can see on the drumsticks. Especially the lemon juice and the brown sugar, they caramelize and char so wonderfully in the oven.
How to bake chicken drumsticks in the oven
Once the chicken drumsticks have had their time in the delicious gingery bath, they want to be cooked slowly so that the meat gets nice and tender and the skin starts to crisp up.
To do this remove the chicken from the marinade and place them onto a lined baking tray. (Lined is best because these sugars are going to caramelize and get delicious...but all that caramelization means more washing up!)
Pre-heat the oven to 355ºF/180ºC and roast the chicken drumsticks for 30 minutes. After this time crank the oven up to 425ºF/220ºC and give them 15 more minutes to get golden and caramelized.
You are looking for some charring, this is the sign of great Indonesian Ginger Chicken! And just because we are baking these rather than grilling them, we still want that color!
How do you know when chicken drumsticks are cooked?
Chicken is one of those meats you don't want to undercook, so ensuring that your drumsticks are cooked through is important. But we also don't want to serve dried up chicken legs!
The slow and low method is the best way to ensure your chicken is cooked through. It gives the chicken plenty of time to get up to the desired internal temperature and doesn't dry out the meat in the process.
Fully cooked safe chicken drumsticks needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165ºF which is 75ºC.
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What to serve with Baked Chicken Drumsticks
These drumsticks are packed full of summery brightness, and deliciously gingery flavors.
There isn't sauce with the chicken, it definitely ends up as a glaze rather than a sauce. So you want to pick sides that don't need the addition of sauce.
For me that has to be Nasi Goreng, the Indonesian recipe dish that is so amazing!!! If you haven't ever tried it then you are in for a treat!
Or if you are serving these with drinks as a Game day snack then check out some of my other game day snacks:
- Vegetarian Mexican Pinwheels
- Baked Mini Meatballs with Sour Cream
- Mini Cheesy Potato Tacos
- Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
- Restaurant Style Mild Salsa
- Individual Fully Loaded Tortilla Chips
Enjoy x
For more great chicken recipes why not try:
- Peri Peri Chicken
- Garlic Chicken Pasta
- Creamy Champagne Chicken
- Dill Pickle Stuffed Chicken Breasts
- Baked Tomato Chicken Breasts
- Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Schnitzel
- Cheesy Baked Fajita Chicken
- Easy Creamy Basil Chicken Breasts
- See all 80+ Chicken recipes
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Get the Recipe
RECIPE - Baked Ginger Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 2 inch piece fresh ginger (about a 5cm piece)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 4 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 3 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon raw sugar
- 10 Chicken drumsticks
Instructions
- Use a teaspoon to scrape the skin from the ginger, then place the ginger and garlic into a food processor and pulse chop until you have a thick paste.
- Scrape the paste into a ziplock bag and add the soy sauce, oil, lemon juice, mustard and sugar.
- Squish it together to mix, then add in the chicken.
- Seal the bag and squish a little more to ensure everything is really well covered.
- Set aside to marinade for 4-24 hours.
- Pre-heat the oven to 355°F/180°C.
- Remove the chicken from the bag and brush off any really chunky bits of marinade. Arrange your chicken into a single layer on a lined baking sheet.
- Cook for 30 minutes. Turn the heat on 425°F/220°C and cook the drumsticks for a further 15 minutes until golden and charred.
- Serve with beer and plenty of napkins - obviously optional but I recommend both 😉
Nutrition
Nutrition is per serving
Recipe Waffle
Do you ever daydreaming so strongly about something?
- A day on a private yacht (every time I visit the marina or see a boat on the horizon!!!)
- A day off from household chores to have a pedicure/manicure and blowout shopping spree (all the time!!!!)
- A nice meal out with high heels that don't hurt (whenever I see pretty shoes in the shops!!!)
- A ski holiday with a log cabin and an open fire (all the time!!!!)
I could go on 😉 But don't get me wrong I love my day to day life. The small stresses that come along with having a family and keeping a home are part of life and part of a life I willing and actively choose. Like I said in this post my stresses exist because I am blessed.
But somedays it would be nice to step away from everyday life, and do something different. Which is what I was daydreaming about whilst I pushed my trolley around the supermarket. Lying by a beautiful pool somewhere in Indonesia, siping a cocktail and smelling the wonderful rich smell of ginger chicken cooking on a BBQ. (No where in this daydream was I cleaning the barbie after 😉 )
Suddenly before I had even managed to wrap my virtual sarong around myself, chicken and ginger were in my supermarket trolley! The fact that we are yet to replace our barbecue didn't factor into my thought process!!! So I came home, marinated my chicken, threw it in the oven rather than on a grill and was rewarded with rich, slightly charred, ginger packed chicken. Moist delicious chicken drumsticks that tasted awesome hot and just as awesome cold in a salad the following day.
I may not have been sat by my own private pool in an Indonesian villa, but I was sat at home with a beer (somehow chicken drumsticks go better with beer than wine!) and my beautiful family. And that is still a pretty perfect place to be!
Priyanka Dutta says
Very nice way to make Ginger Drumsticks... I like this. Also, there were many other methods available to make this, but after reading this I love this one... Thanks for this secret guide.
Claire McEwen says
You are welcome Priyanka, glad you liked them 😀
Allie says
These look SO good. I love the way you styled/photographed them too - just excellent! 🙂
Claire McEwen says
Thank you so much Allie 🙂