In the spirit of old-fashioned, unsubtle, crowd-pleasing recipes, I offer another oldie but goodie from The New New York Times Cookbook (Craig Claiborne, 1979), a recipe my mother pulled out for nearly every cocktail party she hosted and attended for at least two decades. The original recipe calls for wings, which people go gaga over, but the sauce and cooking method work just as well with drumsticks and thighs, if you’re looking for a super-easy dinner adored by children and adults alike.
While the chicken bakes for a fairly long time — an hour to an hour and 15 minutes — in the brief time it takes for your oven to preheat, your chicken can be prepped and smothered with the magic sauce, a mixture of honey, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic and oil, leaving you with an hour of freedom, perhaps to prepare a simple salad or side dish, perhaps to sit down with a good book and a nice cocktail.
As with the honey-baked chicken legs, it’s hard not to play caveman while eating these drummies — a fork and knife just can’t get the job done. What can I say? This is not gourmet cooking, and it’s not gourmet eating — you might just want to break out the moist towelettes for this one.
Don’t be alarmed when you open your oven and find this:
Once the bubbling subsides, your chicken will surface…
…piping hot, meat falling off the bone.
Try not (initially at least) to curse my name during the post-dinner clean-up:
After a quick soak and a teensy bit of elbow grease, just a few burnt edges will remain.
I have been making this a lot recently. When we have visitors, I double up on the drumsticks,
or use a combination of thighs and drumsticks:
Super Easy, Oven-Baked, Honey-Soy Chicken Drumsticks
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hours 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 to 8
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Source: My mother via The New New York Times Cookbook (Craig Claiborne, 1979)
Notes:
- If making a small batch — 5 drumsticks or 4 thighs, etc. — halve the sauce recipe but keep the cooking time the same.
- Wings are perfect for a Super Bowl party. Definitely cook the wings until the sauce is thick, which usually means 1 hr and 15 minutes. Wings are very forgiving — don’t worry about overcooking them (within in reason).
Ingredients
- 18 chicken wings or 10 drumsticks or 4 thighs and 5 drumsticks, etc.
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons oil — peanut, canola, vegetable, etc.
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup honey
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF. If using wings: wash and dry, cut off wing tips and place on a rimmed baking sheet. If using the larger quantity of drumsticks and/or thighs: wash and dry and place in a 9X13-inch pan; if using the smaller quantity, wash and dry and place in a 8×8-inch (or something similar) pan. Season lightly with salt (as soy is salty) and pepper to taste.
- Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Toss chicken (with your hands, if you don’t mind, or with tongs, if you do) and then arrange skin-side down in the baking pan. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove pan, turn chicken over, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.
- Remove pan and turn chicken over once more. I find that the chicken is usually done at this point, but my mother likes to cook hers for another 15 minutes, which is what the original recipe calls for, too, although the original recipe also calls for a 375ºF oven temp. It’s your call — you can’t mess it up. I suggest turning the oven down to 375ºF if you do bake it for an additional 15 minutes.
- If your sauce is not the thickness you like, but the chicken has completed its cooking, you can transfer the sauce to a small sauce pan and simmer it down stovetop till it thickens.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Asian
Keywords: chicken, honey, soy, drumsticks, wings, thighs
Connie says
I made this dish tonight with four chicken thighs (did not wash them, just patted them dry) in an 8×8 glass dish using a half recipe for the sauce and it turned out perfectly! My convection oven adjusts the temps automatically, but I did cut short the second 30 minute cooking by about 10 minutes by turning the heat down to 325 and then turned the oven off leaving the chicken in for a final 10 minutes. The taste is outstanding! And the sauce was amazing. Served it with steamed rice, corn on the cob, macaroni salad & coleslaw – it reminded us of the fantastic food we ate locally while living in Hawaii. We will definitely be making this again! Next time – drum sticks!
★★★★★
alexandra says
So happy to hear this, Connie!
Kim says
These are delish!!! Do you think you can make these in an instant pot?
★★★★★
alexandra says
Your guess is as good as mine! I haven’t experimented too extensively with chicken in the Instant Pot. Don’t want to steer you wrong.
Katie says
I made this dish a few weeks ago & we loved it so much I passed the recipe onto my cousin. She made it this past weekend but she substituted the ketchup with sweet baby Ray’s bbq sauce. Tonight I made it again but I made 1 pan with the recipe as is & another pan w/the bbq sauce instead of ketchup. We all voted the one w/bbq sauce was better.
★★★★★
Julie says
I made this with ckn thighs a few weeks ago and absolutely loved them! Best ever that I am making again tonight but with wings.
This by far is the best ckn recipe I have ever had.
Thank you so much for posting it.
Turned out perfect? ????????????❤️❤️❤️
★★★★★
Marc says
I have made this for years but just using bbq sauce, I like the idea of soy sauce and honey , I will try it this week . thanks for the recipe…
Hudson Jack says
I love this idea… chicken legs and thighs are ALWAYS on sale and I’m always looking for recipes that help with the weekly budget! We’re entertaining for a football party this weekend so I’m going to make these… winning… both reasonably priced and full, of yummy flavors! ???? ???? ????
Macayla Han says
I made this recipe today and it was delicious. Super simple and quick to make. Definitely will be making again!
★★★★★
alexandra says
Wonderful to hear this!
Simone says
This recipe does not at ALL come out like the picture. The sauce is still just watery by the end. It does not carmelize. It does not bubble up to a thick sauce as described. It’s just unfortunate that I wasted so much chicken and honey. Don’t waste your time people.
★
alexandra says
Simone, Sorry to hear this didn’t work out, but it sounds as though something went wrong. Did you make any other changes? did you wash your chicken and not dry it? what kind of chicken did you use?
Sharyg says
What kind of pan did you use? I made it, and made a large batch. Put one half in a glass pan and the other in a disposable aluminum pan. The half in the glass pan, glazed beautifully, but the half in the disposable pan, didn’t glaze at all. You have to use the right pan.
Breanna says
I was a little worried at forst because of the 2 previous comments. But out turned out so good. I did however have to add more of the mixture (i only made 4 drumsticks) halfing the recipe wasnt enough. I will be doing this again with wimgs next 🙂
★★★★★
alexandra says
So happy to hear this Breanna!
Nicole Williams says
Didn’t work for me. Didn’t wash the chicken, made sure the chicken was bone dry, baked at 400 for almost 2 hours. Basically came out boiled chicken with a tiny bit of flavor in watery sauce.
★
Michaela Simmons says
I wish I could show you a picture. The chicken came out exactly like the pics. I halved the sauce because I only had 5 chicken legs. But man!! Perfection! Meat basically falling off the bone. I’m posting to my recipe tried and love album. Thanks so much!!
★★★★★
alexandra says
So happy to hear this Michaela! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Jam says
Did not thicken. Came out watery. 🙁Followed to a T.
★★★
Jam says
Maybe its the type of honey I used 🤔
★★★
Moon says
Is there any substitute for honey
alexandra says
You could try brown sugar.