Easy Hoisin Glazed Chicken Drumsticks

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This is chicken at its best: sweet, messy, sticky and meant to be eaten with your hands.  That's the key part here → Eat. With. Your. Hands. ← It's so much more fun that way.

Growing up my mom used to make the best chicken drumsticks (Shake n' Bake, anyone?) that my sister and I would devour using our hands as cutlery. We'd slurp up every delicious morsel and then go back for another. And another.

My dad, on the other hand, would insist that my sister and I use a knife and fork, like civilized people. But we were tomboys, not civilized ladies, and the task of getting all the meat off the bone was next to impossible. It was not fun. Not fun at all.

{Ps. Love you, dad, but eating chicken with mom was way more fun! 🙂 }

Have I mentioned how sweet and sticky and insanely delicious these hoisin glazed chicken drumsticks are? Oh right, I already told you that. They're just so good that I need to keep saying it.

The key here, and with all chicken, is to not overcook it.

I highly recommend that you use a meat thermometer every time you cook chicken to avoid over cooking it. {Holy overboard with the bold type! I just wanted to stress how important I think this is. }

The baking time I've listed here is much less than most other baked chicken drumstick recipes, but I find that chicken drumsticks take a much shorter time to cook than most recipes indicate. The ‘looking for pink test' is not reliable when you're cooking drumsticks as dark meat often looks pink even when fully cooked. To avoid dry, overcooked chicken please please please always check the temperature of your chicken as you are cooking it. I bet you'll be surprised at how much less time chicken takes to cook than most recipes say. {And how much juicier your chicken will be when you don't accidentally overcook it.}

To test if your chicken is done insert an instant read meat thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken, making sure to avoid the bone. When the thermometer reads 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the chicken is fully cooked.

If you make these Easy Hoisin Glazed Chicken Drumsticks, make sure to snap a pic and tag @theendlessmeal on Instagram so I can like and comment on your photos. I love seeing TEM recipes you create.