gimme some oven

For our second day of Cheap Eats Week, thought that it was time to feature a sadly under-appreciated member of the meat department — chicken drumsticks!

These have long been a favorite of mine — not only because they are a fun finger food and have all of that extra-flavorful dark meat, but because they are super-affordable!!  Thankfully, they are also pretty foolproof to bake in the oven.  Just marinate and/or season as you will, pop them in the oven, and voila!  Delicious, moist chicken is yours to enjoy.  :)

For this recipe, I just used some common ingredients I already had on hand.  And the lemon-thyme combination proved true to tradition and was fantastic!  To stick with our budget theme, you could easily serve these with a side of rice (or I used orzo pasta), roasted veggies, baked/roasted potatoes, a side salad, and/or some nice fruit.

So for all of you out there who are in a chicken breast rut, I highly encourage you to rediscover the drumsticks!!  More affordable and more flavorful!

Lemon, Garlic & Thyme Drumsticks Recipe
(Original recipe)

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumsticks (about 1.5 lbs.), rinsed
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• zest and juice of one lemon (about 1 Tbsp. zest, 2 Tbsp. juice)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tsp.)
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Place the first five ingredients (chicken through thyme) in a large bowl or ziplock bag, and mix well so that the chicken is well coated.  Cover/seal and refrigerate to marinate for 1-12 hours.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 375F degrees.  Then remove drumsticks from marinade bowl/bag and place in a greased baking dish, and season with salt and pepper.  Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the juices run clear.  For extra flavor, brush the drumsticks with more of the marinade about 20 minutes into baking.  Serve immediately.

Ali’s Tip:

If you’re in a hurry and don’t have hours to marinate the chicken, hakuna matata.  I actually only let mine sit for about 5 minutes this time, and they were still very flavorful.  But if you can plan ahead and pop them in the marinade in the morning before work, all the better!!