Baked Chicken Drummies

• Jaime
• April 23, 2020
• Dinner, Inspiration, Juggling life, Weekly Recipe Wins
• 2

This Easy Baked Chicken Drummies recipe is so simple, and fun!

What do you think of when you are coming up with a basic meal for your family? Easy and simple to make. In our house, when we’ve been eating a lot of elaborate meals – or a lot of junk – I tend to want to get back to basics. I want a meal that reminds me of something I had growing up, which doesn’t fall into the same “comfort food” category some of you may be thinking of!

This is the second in our Weekly Recipe Wins series. Hopefully, these ideas help you if you’re looking for some easy and delicious new things to make for family dinner.

So…baked chicken drummies. Really, I think this is the best food ever. I mean, something that is mostly good for you, and you get to eat it with your fingers?!? This is the best! (Aren’t we all kids at heart?)

Basic Dinner

What is basic dinner? This is an easy meal to make, with endless combinations of meat, veggie and starch possibilities. I think that kids need well-balanced meals, and they still need the big 3 – protein, veggies, and some sort of carbohydrates. Even if you are cutting carbs, your kids still need them!

So, one staple dinner around here includes baked chicken drummies – always a winner with kids – tri-color rotini noodles (or whatever your favorite noodles may be), and steamed asparagus. This meal is so easy to make!

Chicken drumsticks are a low-cost, easy thing to pick up (or order and have delivered with your next grocery order) and I usually buy several of the jumbo packages and divide them up into smaller packages to keep in the freezer.

I hardly ever remove the skin before cooking, but you can do that if you like – my mom always used to when I was growing up. I have people in my house who love crispy skin, and if they don’t they can peel it off and not eat it! (Or if you are worried about the fat, just take it off and don’t eat it).

For this recipe, I am going to highlight using your favorite dressing as the roasting sauce for your chicken – I usually do half with Kraft Zesty Italian and half with Dorothy Lynch (this is a mid-west staple in our house – an amazing French variation with tomato soup as the base) – or I love the Roland Balsamic Fig sauce (which used to be carried in our local home goods store but now I buy on Amazon, here – not an affiliate link). You don’t have to make your own marinade, but you could also do that if you’re feeling ambitious. Remember, we’re shooting for an easy weeknight dinner.

If you want something truly basic, use your favorite seasoning blend and shake it directly on the chicken instead of your favorite dressing or marinade.

That’s it – take the chicken out of the package, lay it in a baking pan lined in aluminum foil, add your dressing or seasoning, and bake at 350˚for 45-50 min.

After you get the chicken in the oven, you have plenty of time to prepare your side dishes.

On the side:

Trim the ends off of your asparagus and discard (the easiest way to do this is to just snap the end off and let it break – this will give you the best part of the stalk to eat).

Do you have a steamer appliance? This is one of my favorite kitchen tools. I keep my steamer in the basement with all of my extra kitchen appliances, but probably use it at least once a week! If you have one, put the asparagus in the steamer basket, add water and set the timer for 25 min or so – that’s it! (If you’re looking for one, try this one from Amazon – again, no affiliate link).

If you don’t have a steamer, do you have a steamer insert for one of your medium/large pots? That works great too!

Or, I just use a large saute pan and add about an inch or less of water with the asparagus, put the lid on and cook for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t over cook!

Then, pull out a medium-sized pot and fill with water, then pour in the noodles when it starts to boil. Turn the burner down a bit so the water doesn’t boil over, and let cook about 8 minutes. Strain the noodles, add a little olive oil, some oregano or basil, and parmesan. 

Circle back to your asparagus, pour it into a serving dish and add butter.

Then, pull out your chicken, and you’re good to go! A great, easy dinner for any week night!