Chicken drumsticks with honey-mustard sauce
Among the most common poultry dishes on dinner tables across the world, chicken is cooked in various sumptuous ways in different countries, cultures and culinary melting pots. Cooked roasted, grilled, fried, poached, baked or in a curry with an array of herbs and spices, chicken indeed makes for a delicious and healthier alternative to red meat the world over.
History has it that the chicken traces its antecedents to red jungle fowl first raised hundreds of years ago in South-East Asia, from where it spread to the rest of the world. Chicken can typically be cooked whole, cut into pieces, as chicken wings and as succulent drumsticks, which are the leg portions of the chicken containing dark meat and substantially more fat content than the rest of the bird.
Owing to the dark meat, drumsticks are thus among the least tender parts of the chicken, requiring longer cooking times. That said, when cooked to a delicious turn, drumsticks are among the most succulent cuts of the chicken well-suited to roasting, stewing, deep-frying and baking, with baking being among the healthiest cooking methods as opposed to frying in oil, which only adds fat and needlessly more calories to the dish. Removing the skin prior to baking further reduces the fat content since most of the chicken fat comes from the skin.
Complexity level: Complexity levels may differ with differing cooking methods.
Time taken for preparation: 20 minutes
Time taken for cooking: 45 minutes
Baked chicken drumsticks
Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks, trimmed with the skin removed
2/3 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
5 tsp canola oil
1 egg
Process:
Oven:
1. Preheat your oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Coat a wire rack with cooking spray and rest the rack on a baking sheet.
Preparing the drumsticks:
1. Prepare a breading mixture by mixing the breadcrumbs, paprika, onion powder and salt in a bowl. Add the canola oil to the mixture and stir well.
2. In another bowl, whisk the contents of the egg.
3. Dip the drumsticks into the egg and roll them in the breading mix till evenly coated.
Baking:
1. Place the breading-mixture-coated chicken drumsticks on the oven rack and bake till golden brown.
Honey-mustard sauce
Ingredients:
1/4 cup yogurt
2 tsp mustard
2 tsp honey
Salt and pepper to taste
Process:
1. Mix the yogurt, mustard, honey and pepper together in a bowl.
2. Serve the sauce with hot drumsticks.
Tips to make breadcrumbs:
1. Breadcrumbs can be prepared at home by trimming the crust off a loaf of bread, shredding the crust and then running it through a food processor till it gains a fine consistency.
2. Bake the crumbs in the oven for some 10-15 minutes till brown.
