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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!!
Would love to try this, but not a fan of ginger. Is there something else I could use, or would leaving it out alter the taste?
Hi Debra, we have always made this recipe with ginger and although it doesn’t have a prominent ginger flavor in the final dish, it does add great flavor to the chicken glaze. If you experiment without ginger, let me know how you like it 🙂
@Debra if you arent a fan of ginger you can try Garlic, Cilantro, Lemons, Thyme, Rosemary, a spicier mix. Pretty much anything will work. i used pickled ginger and garlic
Hi Natasha,
I do wanted to try this recipe. My only concern is what if I only have 1 to 2 hours to marinate and not 6 hours. Would you know if the taste would still be the same?
Michelle, it will tastes good after 2 hours of marinating but the marinate won’t penetrate all the way.
I have made these in my crockpot by cooking them on low for 3 hours when I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to cook them in the oven before dinner. They turned out even better than when I made them in the oven! I have made this recipe several times in the oven, after marinating drumsticks close to 24 hrs, but my husband unfortunately has found the chicken a little too dry. They were very juicy and tender in the crockpot! The skin seemed pretty crispy too though I’m sure the oven does that job better.
That is great to know and thank you for sharing the details of how you slow cooked them. You’re awesome! 🙂
how about if i wanna make this recipe a lil bit spicy? can i add chili powder or do you have any suggestion?
I just read that marinating too long (it would be over 12 hrs) tends to the dry meat out…I am going to also try your slow cooker method..thanks!!
Hi Row, I think it depends on the kind of meat and marinade you are using. We haven’t had an issue with this recipe.
I made this using boneless Chicken breast tenders and Boneless Chicken thighs. Everybody at my Party wouldnt stop raving about the Chicken. My Friend Sai gave me the link to this recipe. Only thing i did was add more garlic to my recipe.
Awesome!! I’m happy to hear the recipe is a HIT! Thanks for sharing your excellent review Jenniffer!
For the Baked Honey Glazed Chicken recipe , do u brush the heated sauce onto the chicken while it is baking or after it is done?
Eileen, I add the sauce after chicken drumsticks are done baking.
Natasha, your recipes are really really good, but the honey glazed drumsticks are on a whole different level. My family absolutely loved them. Thank you!!
You’re welcome! I’m glad to hear your family enjoys the recipe as much as mine does! Thanks for sharing Ronit!
I have made this many times it became a family favorite very quick! I do not have Orange Juice but I do have Pineapple hoping it turns out just as good this time around!
I’m glad the whole family enjoys the recipe! Please let me know how it turns out with the pineapple juice Sara!
Turned out great with the pineapple juice. Husband didn’t even know I had made the change. Thank you again for sharing!
My pleasure Sara! I’m glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are SO good!! So moist and juicy! And so easy to make! Thank you for sharing this recipe! 😁
You’re welcome Julie! I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!
Low sodium soy
NATASH, I ATE SOMETHING LIKE THIS AT A MEXICON RESTRANT AND THAY USE CHICKEN BREAST.I WAS WONDERING IF I CAN USE CHICKEN BREAST WOULD IT WORK ALSO.
Hi Deloris, I haven’t tried this with chicken breast. I think the marinade would work flavor-wise but you will have to make adjustments for baking time, especially if chicken breasts are very large or small – they vary in size quite a bit.
Natasha how long would you bake chicken breast from Costco ?
Hi Natalie, I haven’t tried this recipe with chicken breast only because it would dry out by the time the sauce caramelized this way. Without testing it, I really can’t guess. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Natasha what happens if I skip the orange since I don’t have any on hand.?
Hi Inna, it does add an extra layer of flavor and a little acidity to help balance the flavors and make the chicken more tender. The recipe should still work without it but it’s nice if you can get it 🙂
Natasha, how necessary is the parchment paper? Really want to try this recipe because it sounds so delicious but I’m w/o the paper.
Hi Dee, it will work without parchment – you might try some heavy duty foil instead. The paper is just used to prevent ALOT of scrubbing. The honey in the recipe caramelizes and can stick to the pan badly.
I made this today and it turned out pretty good 🙂 but I have a question. The meat closer to the bone didn’t have that much of the sauce flavor in it… it felt like it was missing something maybe some salt or seasoning. The outside was really juicy and full of flavor. I also marinated it overnight about 15 hours. Do you think if I marinated it longer it would have had more flavor inside? I also used organic chicken drumsticks maybe that had something to do with it?
Hi Vicky, did you possibly use low-sodium soy sauce? You could add a little salt to the recipe if you prefer it to be a little saltier. Also, it helps to turn the bag occasionally while it is marinating to help distribute the marinade a little better. 15 hours should be plenty of marinating time.
Natasha if I forgot to reserve marinade, do you think it’s ok if I boil the marinade that chicken was marinating in and use that or is that gross?
Hi Lulu, even if you omitted the glaze at the end, you will still have enough glaze in the baking pan to take a brush and glaze it onto the chicken. That’s probably what I would do 🙂
Sounds yummy! My family prefers thighs. Can I make this using them in place of the legs?
Hi Nikki, I think that would work fine. I would recommend skin-on chicken thighs. If using boneless, they might be done a little sooner.
Thanks Natasha!
This looks delicious! I love simple one pan meals like this one and I love how brown and caramel-like this must get. On the menu for next week!
It is so EASY and delicious! Please let me know what you think Lindsay! 🙂
Looks good, Its making me get hungry now. Next on my menu. What if I don’t have on hand ginger can I just skip it? Thanks for the good recipes. Be blessed.😃💐
Hi Olga, it will still work without the ginger. You might add an extra garlic clove or two 🙂
Yum! This chicken looks super =)
Thank you Sara!! 🙂
The finished product with the glaze, sesame seeds, and chopped chives is giving me life! Makes me want to crack my screen. I’ll be trying this soonest.
Would this work with chicken wings?
Ha! I’m happy to hear that! 🙂 I think it would work fine with chicken wings – let me know if you test that out! I might just have to do that next! 😉
These drumsticks with some basmati rice…. no words! Hmmmm…
Mmmm yes! My favorite combination!! 🙂