Grilled chicken drumsticks, the sticky kind

Without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favorite foods in the whole world is grilled chicken. Whole chicken, chicken wings with devil sauce, chicken drumsticks... ...the spicier and stickier to eat the better.

Since I liked it so much, my mum used to grill a lot of chicken back home. She still does whenever I go home to Sweden to visit. Based on a very simple recipe she makes the most awesome grilled chicken wings.

Tonight I felt like treating me to something good, so I went down to Somerfields, got some drumsticks and made me some marvellously sticky chicken using my own little variation of that recipe my mum taught me when I was younger.

UPDATE: This is actually one of the most visited pages in my site, googling for "grilled chicken drumsticks" apparently serves this page right up. It would be really fun if any of you could drop a line if you tried this and say what you think. Did you like it? Did you improve on it? Do you have any suggestions on something to serve with it?

Anyway, getting on with what you came here for: Usually I don't have the time to marinate the chicken, or  make a proper glaze, so I just make a mixture of the ingredients, add a bunch of honey and brush that generously on the chicken. Maybe it could be called "faux glaze"? Anyway, it's fast and it's easy, very suitable for a mid week treat.

I guess this is enough for two...

Ingredients:

800 gr of chicken drumsticks or chicken wings
150 gr butter
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp powdered ginger
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tbsp crushed chili flakes
Black pepper to taste
Your favorite BBQ spice, to taste

Instructions:

Click the photos to see them in their full glory over at flickr. Maybe even leave a comment? Come on, don't be shy...

1. Set the oven to 200°C and adjust the oven rack so that it is slightly below the middle of the oven (don't want the chicken to be to close to the radiators at the top, especially not if you use drumsticks which require a bit more time in the oven).

2. Mix all the ingredients except the BBQ spice. Just melt the butter in a cup in the microwave and then stir in the other ingredients with a fork. This is just about the only time I think it is ok to use a garlic press, normally I would crush the cloves with the side of my knife and then chop them. In this case however, I want the garlic as minced as possible. Best garlic press in the world must be the OXO Good Grips Garlic Press. Snug fit makes sure as much as possible of the garlic ends up where it should, comfortable handles and has a little integrated gadget to push the peel out of the press once you are done. Loks good too!

3. Take about 1,5 metres of kitchen foil and fold it double. Put it in a pan, creating a "bowl" (I am lazy, this makes cleaning so much easier). Place pieces of chicken on the foil and apply the "faux glaze" with a brush. I use lots of the stuff, making sure all of the chicken is completely drenched. The honey should make it stick nicely. Finally, take your favorite BBQ spice and sprinkle a fair amount on top of the chicken.

4. Place the pan in the oven and grill. For chicken wings I normally allow 25 to 35 minutes, for drumsticks slightly longer, say 35 to 50 minutes depending on how big they are. (Admittedly I am a bit paranoid about grilling chicken. I prefer to leave them in a bit too long rather than discovering as I start to eat that there are still pink areas in the meat.) Every 10 to 15 minutes I take the pan out, flip the chicken over and apply some new BBQ spice. Love that stuff.

5. Chicken is done when you easily can tear off the meat with a fork and there is no pink coloring visible near the bone at the thickest end of the drum stick.

Place chicken on serving plate and serve with a salad and some bread. Feel so not healthy. Schedule date with gym instructor or six kilometers running along South Bank.

Yeah, that's what I'll do tomorrow for lunch, go running.

Comments

[deepa]

I made this for dinner..used the outside grill... was real gooey..nd sticky..just like i wanted it to be...!!..its gonna be a keeper..nd its so easy...

[MM]

could you please tell me what bbq spice did you use or what kind of bbq spices can be used in this recipe.
thanks
MM

[Manne]

I typically use whatever generic barbecue spice I have at home at the moment.

There is a jerk chicken one that Tesco sell which is really nice. They also have a thing called "spicy season-all" which goes really well with chicken.

That said though, play around with different options. Some like it sweet, some like it smokey, some like it hot. ;)