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These sticky honey glazed chicken drumsticks are finger-lickin’ good!! The honey-soy glaze make the drumsticks so flavorful and completely irresistible. These are amazing served with steamy white rice and vegetables. We LOVE chicken drumsticks in our house – chicken legs are inexpensive and easily feed a crowd.
These baked chicken drumsticks literally show up on the menu every other Sunday! This recipe makes a big batch of chicken legs and you can cut down the recipe for a smaller crew, but I personally always make the big pack of drumsticks and if we’re lucky enough to have leftovers, they make for a great quick lunch the next day.
Ingredients for Honey Glazed Chicken:
5 lbs chicken drumsticks
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce*
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
4 large garlic cloves, minced or finely grated
1 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely grated
Sesame seeds and chives for garnish, optional
*if using low sodium soy sauce, add 1 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe. Use gluten free soy sauce like Tamari to make this gluten free.
How To Make Honey Glazed Chicken Drumsticks:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients: 3/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, 4 grated garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp grated ginger. Reserve 2/3 cup of marinade and refrigerate.
2. Place drumsticks in a large ziploc bag or food saver bag** pour remaining marinade over chicken, remove as much air from the bag as you can and seal. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight, turning the bag a few times while marinating to disperse the marinade for best flavor.
**We are in love with our food saver – we use it to seal all kinds of bags – chips, cereal, anything inside a plastic bag really! (p.s. this is not a paid promotion, we just love this time and money-saving tool). Read more about why we think every household should have one.
3. Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place rack in center of oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet or large roasting pan with parchment***,
***Tip: Trim parchment paper to fit the pan and go up the sides but not hang over the edge (easier cleanup without the paper scorching). Make sure you line that pan or you’ll be scrubbing the caramelized honey from the pan.
4. Arrange chicken skin-side up, so chicken pieces are not touching. Add enough of the marinade to just coat the bottom of the baking pan and discard anything left in the bag. Bake at 400˚F for 25 minutes. Turn chicken over skin-side down and bake additional 20 minutes. If you want your chicken skin caramelized at the end, remove drumsticks from the oven and turn them over again (skin-side-up), and broil on high for 3-4 minutes or until skins are browned.
5. While chicken is baking, pour reserved 2/3 cup marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 7 minutes or until thickened and syrupy. Remove from heat and brush over baked chicken drumsticks. Garnish with sesame seeds and chopped chives if desired.
Mmmm the glaze makes the drumsticks completely irresistible!
⬇️ Print-Friendly Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe:
Baked Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 lbs chicken drumsticks
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup soy sauce*
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced or finely grated
- 1 Tbsp ginger, peeled and finely grated
- Sesame seeds and chives for garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together all marinade ingredients: 3/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 Tbsp dijon mustard, 4 grated garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp grated ginger. Reserve 2/3 cup of marinade and refrigerate.
- Place drumsticks in a large ziploc bag or food saver bag, pour remaining marinade over chicken, remove as much air from the bag as you can and seal. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight, turning the bag a few times while marinating to disperse the marinade for best flavor.
- Preheat oven to 400˚F. Place rack in center of oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet or large roasting pan with parchment***,
- Arrange chicken skin-side up, so chicken pieces are not touching. Add enough of the marinade to just coat the bottom of the baking pan and discard anything left in the bag. Bake at 400˚F for 25 minutes. Turn chicken over skin-side down and bake additional 20 minutes. If you want your chicken skin caramelized at the end, remove drumsticks from the oven and turn them over again (skin-side-up), and broil on high for 3-4 minutes or until skins are browned.
- While chicken is baking, pour reserved 2/3 cup marinade into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 7 minutes or until thickened and syrupy. Remove from heat and brush over baked chicken drumsticks. Garnish with sesame seeds and chives.
Notes
***Tip: Trim parchment paper to fit the pan and go up the sides but not hang over the edge (easier cleanup without paper scorching). Make sure you line that pan or you'll be scrubbing the caramelized honey from the pan.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Is your mouth watering yet? I’m craving these all over again! Enjoy this yummy honey glazed chicken recipe, my friends!!
On your Baked Honey Glazed Chicken Recipe, the link to the Full Nutrition Label is not working. Can I get that information.
Hello Mary! Unfortunately, we have not updated all of our recipes yet to add the nutrition label. But this Recipe Nutrition Calculator online is free and can be useful.
Hi. Won’t not covering the chicken dry it out?
Hi Shanella. No, they aren’t dry at this time/temp. Also, drumsticks/thigh meat is not as lean as breast meat so it remains juicier and is more forgiving than breast meat.
Hi Natasha, love the recipes from your website that I have tried so far ! Would this work with skinless chicken legs? If so do you think the cook time would be altered? I don’t want them to dry out. Thanks!
Hi Mary Ann! I haven’t tested skinless drumsticks. The skin helps hold in the moisture so I worry it may dry out without the skin. Dark meat has higher fat content than breast meat so that works in your favor. I would use a Meat thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to check for doneness.
Only had 4 drumsticks in the fridge. Used half of the marinade on a flank steak to make jerky. Added 1 shot of honey bourbon to the reserve marinade. Going to serve over some Basmati brown rice (saw that in the other comments). In the oven now and the house is smelling terrific. Can’t wait to see how it tastes. I’m confident it will be 5 stars. Your recipes always are
Sounds perfect! I hope you all enjoyed it.
Hi, just wondering if you or anyone has made this with coconut aminos as a soy replacement? My hubby can’t have soy. Subbing aminos is tricky because of the sweetness so I thought I’d see if anyone had tested it.
Hi Carey, I haven’t tried that subsitution personally but let’s see if others have tried it and can share with us.
We had these tonight along with your potatoes. My hubby loved them both regardless of my lack of cooking skills. I’m definitely going to do this one again but probably without the ginger. I’m discovering that I don’t like the taste of it. I just hope that doesn’t alter the overall goodness.
Thank you for the wonderful feedback! So glad they were a hit. I think they’ll still be delicious without the ginger if you prefer. 🙂
I want to make this for a party but would like to make it the day before. Does it reheat well?
Hello Judy, I imagine that will work! You can add the sauce after the chicken drumsticks are done baking or on the day that you will serve it.
I watch most of all your cooking recipes and I have added most in my iPad for future recipes when I am cooking something. Thanks a lot Natasha’s Kitchen. Love your cooking.
That’s perfect! I hope you love every recipe that you will try, thanks for sharing.
Do you have directions on how to make these wings in the Air Fryer?
Hi Barbara, I haven’t tried that yet to advise. I imagine it would but you would have to do an experiment on the timing etc.. Please share with us how it goes if you try that!