This is just a great, simple baked chicken drumsticks recipe you can get in the oven quickly. A 3-ingredient seasoning adds terrific flavour and colour. Meanwhile, the secret to a lovely crispy skin is a touch of baking powder. Don’t believe me? Read the reviews in my Truly Crispy Baked Chicken Wings which uses the same trick!
Crispy Baked Chicken Legs
If you ask me, on a sheer scale of munchability (new word) chicken drumsticks beat out chicken breasts any old day. I’d rather be grabbing a drumstick with my fingers and chomping that meaty flesh off the bone than daintily nibbling a chicken breast with a knife and fork!
But, maybe that’s just me.
So if you’re in my camp – or actually, even if you’re not (!) 😇 – here’s a terrific everyday chicken drumsticks recipe to try. It’s flavoured with a simple, BBQ rub-like seasoning made with just paprika, onion and garlic powder (bet you’ve got all 3 in your pantry!!) bulked out with flour to coat the legs all over.
As for a little trick to get the skin nice and crispy? A touch of baking powder. Yep, really. Read on!
Seasoning for Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Here’s what you need to make these drumsticks. Baking powder is the secret ingredient that makes the skin crispy. Meanwhile flour is used to bulk out the seasoning mix so we can coat the chicken legs all over.
Chicken drumsticks – While I’m using chicken legs for this recipe, chicken wings and skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs can also be used.
Baking powder (for crispy skin!) – NOT to be confused with baking soda / bi-carb which is different! Baking powder is a tried and proven ingredient used in my baked chicken wings to make chicken skin crispier. There’s a bunch of science behind why it works, but all you need to know is that it does!
For complete transparency, I will be upfront in saying the skin in this recipe isn’t as shatteringly crisp as it is in the wings. This is because the wings have just plain skin whereas these legs are coated in seasoning, which does inhibit crisping (in return for more flavour coating!) However, without any baking powder at all, the drumstick chicken skin is just borderline soggy. Non-crispy chicken skin is fine in itself if you’re baking drumsticks with a glaze, like my Sticky Honey Soy Baked Chicken or Honey Mustard Baked Chicken Drumsticks. But for this recipe, it is SO much nicer when the skin is a little crisp!
Spice mix – We’re using a combination of smoked or plain paprika, onion and garlic powder here. These 3 spices are a classic, American barbecue rub-like seasoning combination I use in many dishes (such as my rub for pork chops and baked chicken breasts). Onion and garlic powder can be substituted with more of the other, if you don’t have both.
Flour – This is used to bulk out the seasoning so we can coat the chicken legs evenly all over.
How to make Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
The trick to crispy baked drumsticks is to stretch the skin over the drumsticks as much as possible (because flesh won’t go crisp!) and then coat the skin evenly all over with the seasoned flour.
Seasoning – Mix the spices and flour together in a bowl. Use a shallow bowl as it’s easier coat the chicken legs in the seasoning.
Coat drumsticks in oil – The oil makes the seasoning stick to the chicken as well as helping the skin go nice and brown as it bakes. I find it’s easiest to rub it all over using my hands to ensure each drumstick is well-coated.
Stretch skin – The more skin that stays put over the flesh, the crispier your drumsticks! So pull and stretch the skin to cover the flesh as best you can. Some of the skin will still shrink back as it bakes anyway, but if you skip this step totally you’ll end up with a mostly naked drumstick 😭
Coat legs in the seasoning – Dip, turn, use fingers for sprinkling on top as needed. Then shake off the excess, otherwise you end up with quite a thick layer of pasty-ish coating on the chicken legs.
Rack on tray – Place the legs on a rack on a foil-lined tray. Why foil-lined? It makes your clean up life easier. Why rack? For crispy undersides! Don’t have a rack? Line with paper instead and turn the drumsticks halfway, and expect to add an extra 5 to 10 minutes to the bake time to make the top crispy.
Spray with oil – Then spray the legs with oil. Be generous! It makes them more crispy and golden, almost like a frying effect!
Bake for 30 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan), rotating the tray once to help them cook evenly. Then crank the oven up to 220°C/430°C (200°C fan) and bake for a further 15 minutes until they’re crisp and golden. You might find you need an extra 5 minutes to get the skin crispy, depending on how evenly the heat is distributed in your oven.
Once they’re ready, serve them up straight away while they’re nice and hot!
What to serve with Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
These drumsticks are pretty universal in character and friendly with a wide range of other dishes. Try these drumsticks with Fried Rice and a simple Garden Salad, as pictured above. Else, make up a big batch of Macaroni Salad or Potato Salad – these are great big batch sides that keep in the fridge for days. For something different, there’s also my marinated Vegetable Pasta Salad (excellent starch + veg side), a Quinoa Kale Salad (the kale is marinated!) or a big Sweet Potato Salad.
For more ideas, have a browse through my collection of Side Dishes (potato, pasta, rice, salads, veg!).
Love to know if you try this – let me know what you think! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Crispy Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 12 chicken drumsticks (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Oil spray
Seasoning (Note 2):
- 3 tsp garlic powder
- 3 tsp onion powder
- 5 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp cooking/kosher salt
- 4 1/2 tbsp plain/all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder (makes them crispier, DO NOT confuse with baking soda / bi-carb) (Note 3)
Instructions
- Preparation: Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced). Line a tray with foil then place a rack on the tray (makes the underside of the drumsticks crispier, Note 4).
- Seasoning: Mix the Seasoning ingredients in a shallow bowl.
- Coat in oil: Toss the drumsticks in the olive oil. Stretch and pull the skin on each drumsticks to cover as much of the flesh as possible.
- Coat in seasoning: Coat a drumstick in the Seasoning then shake the excess off well. Place on the rack. Repeat with remaining drumsticks.
- Spray with oil: Spray the legs generously with oil.
- Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. Increase the oven to 220°C / 430°F (200°C fan) then bake for a further 15 minutes or until the skin is crispy. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
Garlic powder: more onion powder
Onion powder: more garlic powder
Smoked paprika: more ordinary/sweet paprika 3. Baking powder purpose – Not to be confused with baking soda / bi-carb which is like triple strength baking powder and will NOT taste nice!! Baking powder is a secret trick to make chicken skin crispier, a tried and proven method with chicken wings (very popular recipe on my website!). It doesn’t make these drumsticks shatteringly crispy because they’re seasoned rather than being plain skin (like the wings) but if you make these drumsticks without, they are noticeably less crispy. You can’t taste the baking powder. 4. Tray prep – Why foil-lined? It makes your clean up life easier. Why rack? For crispy undersides! Don’t have a rack? Line with paper instead and turn the drumsticks halfway, and expect to add an extra 5 to 10 minutes to the bake time to make the top crispy. 5. Nutrition per serving (ie 5 servings, 2.4 drumsticks per person 😂)
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Self-appointed director of recipe videos. Not much directing going on. Just a lot of staring.
These were really good. I had full chicken legs so I cut them into drumsticks and thighs. So crispy yet soft and moist on the inside. So delicious.
Made this drumsticks for dinner, everyone enjoyed them, The plate was swept clean Thank you for the recipe
Love it, love it, love it!! Made tonight for my toddler (with lees salt) who is recovering from his fever and he ate so well. So good to see him with a good appetite again.
Very very nice & easy recipe.
I can duplicate the look and my boys love the drumsticks.
hi
Chicken palak is a classic Indian curry of chicken cooked together with fresh spinach and spices.
Made these last night and they were beautiful, crispy crust and soft moist inside.
I also made your Emergency dump and bake rice to accompany the chicken.
Very tasty, easy recipes, thanks
Love it, love it, love it!! Made tonight for my toddler (with lees salt) who is recovering from his fever and he ate so well. So good to see him with a good appetite again.
Just made this tonight. Perfect! Crispy on the outside & the meat was so tender. For sure will make it again!
I would love a copy of your book in the UK. My love to Dozer, he’s so lovely.
This was soooo tasty! I air fried the drumsticks for 30 mins on 180 degrees and it worked a treat!
Fantastic. I was hoping someone would have tried them in the air fryer. Thanks.
Although the flavour was good. I found that if you cook something else with high moisture in the oven with the chicken, it doesn’t crisp up.
Made these, they are fabulous but because I overcoated with the flour they had a slight ‘coating’ feel. Would cornflour instead of plain wheat flour make them more crispy?
Attempted this recipe, only used 7 drumsticks and figured it would be ok since you shake the excess coating off.
Boy were we wrong, these did not crisp up at all! They were cooked perfectly inside, however.
One thing we didn’t do was pat the drumsticks dry before coating in oil. But at the same time it wasn’t in the instructions to do this. 🙁
I too cut the recipe in half since I had only six drumsticks! I dried each piece to remove any moisture…but they had the oil coating… I also, shook the extra coating off, they never became crisp they very tasty and tender from inside but never crisped at all! I don’t know what went wrong! I even baked them on a rack as indicated!
Hi Nagi, I made this last night using your exact recipe. Hubby and I have declared that this is the BEST drumstick recipe that we have ever tasted. I am a hobby cook so we have tried heaps of recipes for comparison 🙂 . Thank you.
That’s really nice recipe. I am definitely going to try this in the coming weekend. Looking forward to your more recipes.
Made this tonight with chicken wings. Very fussy husband and son couldn’t get enough!
Thanks Nagi for another super easy recipe that satisfies the hungry hordes.
Hi. I am going to cook this tonight after having my drumsticks marinate over night in buttermilk. Would you recommend drying off the milk prior to oiling and seasoning with the coating. Thanks.
What did I do wrong
Only thing I added was k chilli
It was a soggy mess on the rack
I’ve shared your recipes with everyone
Well loved including chefs re your Korean
Was there a tray directly beneath the rack? That may have made it soggy. Only other things I can think of are too low of an oven temp or too much oil.
Japanese.
Hi Nagi!
Followed this recipe using chicken chops (bone-in thighs) and cooked it in my new air fryer on the drumsticks auto setting
What I did differently was soak the chicken in buttermilk for 6 hours before applying the seasoned flour.. no oil!
The results were nothing short of outstanding!!!
Very very tender and moist inside, whilst the outside was deliciously crunchy
Was a big hit with my daughters
Thank you for the recipe 😊
OMG! Seriously the best ever!!!
Crispy on the outside, juicy and tender inside.
Just demolished a good helping tonight, using chicien nibbles, with Nagi’s pineapple fried rice.
There’s never going to be left-overs with this recipe.
My husband (and I) thank you for bringing so many tasty dishes to our table.
Tried it tonight. My mountain man husband said “This is Good” around a mouthful of chicken! So, it’s a keeper. Less calories for him and less mess than frying for me. Thank you!