This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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!!
Hi Natasha any possibility of using lemon instead of orange?
HI Michelle, I haven’t tested this with lemon but it would change the flavor profile. I’m not sure how that would meld with the rest of the ingredients.
Dear Natasha,
Thank you for sharing the excellent recipe. I have cooked this for my family and it is a real success.
You are very welcome. I am so glad your family loved it and I hope you love all the recipes that you will try!
Oh. My. Wow! Was this a hit and a half! I served this with garlic bread and corn salad and my whole family LOVED it! I doubled the quantity to 30 pieces of chicken (for a family of 8) which included thigh pieces and it still turned out amazing! Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed this! Thank you for that great review!
Have made this before and we loved it can I use chicken thighs instead
That should work too
Hi, if I’m only making half the amount of drumsticks, do I put them in the oven the same amount of time? Thanks.
Hi Joanne, yes it should still take that amount of time to cook through although you can check it towards the end to make sure they are not over cooked.
Really wanna try this but I want to know if it was baked covered or uncovered?
We baked this uncovered. I hope you love this recipe.
You can try injecting the marinade into the meat. If you want it more flavored.
That’s a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Thanks Natasha for your recipe, will be trying out tonight.
Can i keep the balance sauce in the fridge for next marinating or will it turn bad?
Hi Shannon, if the sauce has touched chicken, I would discard any leftover sauce.
Thank you for your advice
I marinate overnight but the inside near the bone didn’t get the flavor. Any advice? My family still enjoyed and find it delicious esp the skin lol..thank you again for you recipe.
Hi Shannon, with skin-on chicken, it is difficult to get the flavor penetrating all the way through and that is expected even with marinating overnight.
Noted, thank you
These were excellent! I let ALL of the water drain off the chicken, then I marinated them overnight (important!). These were a huge hit for my New Year’s dinner with my family. Thanks sooo much for this recipe Natasha. So glad I found your website.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Juanita!
I would l look love to have the adjustments and tips for using boneless, skinless chicken breasts or fillets.
Not a great cook, so I seek out talented cooks for best results.
Love your videos!
Hi Camille, I haven’t tested that but that may work. Here’s what one of my readers wrote for reference: “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.” I hope this is helpful!
Hi! I’m new to cooking, so sorry if this question sounds dumb! When you say you add orange juice to this recipe, is it freshly squeezed orange juice, or would any random store-bought orange juice work?
I’m really excited to try this recipe!
Great question, Em. We used juice from a fresh Orange. I have in the recipe photos for reference. I hope that helps.
Do you think I could cook and then freeze this dish?
Hi Anne, I haven’t tested that to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I made this and it came out delish even though I didn’t have time to marinate the meat as instructed. I added a touch of maple syrup, used honey mustard in lieu of Dijon mustard. Sprinkled with sesame seeds and cilantro. Can’t wait to make this again the right way. I can only imagine how much more delish this will be:).
Thank you so much for sharing that with me Tish! Thank you for that great feedback!
I am going to try your recipe and tried to make chicken lollipop wrapped in bacon for appetizer if you have any appetizer recipe I would appreciate it if you can send it to me I would like to try them
Hi Valeda, you can find our favorite appetizers via this link here.
This was very delicious! I also drizzled some of the sauce on my salad and added the ginger and sesame seeds as garnish for the salad as well!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
These drumsticks look good I can’t wait to make them, but is it ok if I leave the mustard out or do you know what I can substitute for the mustard?
Hi T! I honestly haven’t experimented with anything else so it is difficult to make a recommendation without testing first. The only drumsticks that I have without mustard are my Mom’s chicken drumsticks
Made the honey chicken last night. Super delish. Wish I had used parchment paper as recommended but I was out. Still soaking the pan!
Really quite tasty meal. I garnish’s swith cilantro and scallions and drizzled the rice with sesame oil.
I have had great results with many of Natasha’s recipes!! So happy to have found her blog.
Hi Nikki, I’m so happy you loved the recipe!! Yes it’s definitely way easier to use the parchment paper for easy cleanup 🙂 I’ve been through the scrubbing torture so I line whenever I can 🙂
I recently tried MIKE’S HOT HONEY in a home cooking kit and it was fabulous. I bet it would be great in this recipe to replace the regular honey.
This looks wonderful! I can’t eat mustard as I am highly allergic to it. Do you have any idea what I could substitute? I always leave the mustard out of anything I make, but 2 tablespoons must add some significant flavor to it.
Hi Carol, I honestly haven’t experimented with anything else so it is difficult to make a recommendation without testing first. The only drumsticks that I have without mustard are my Mom’s chicken drumsticks 🙂
Ooh! Just looked at your Mom’s recipe! That looks wonderful! Thanks so much! I’ll be trying that recipe on Saturday!
I’m so glad you’re excited about it. I hope you love it 🙂
Hi Natasha, can I make this recipe with chicken thighs? Also we are only 2 people I need to cut the recipe to 2lbs the most and it is always hard to calculate the right amounts of ingredients.
Thank, Judith
Hi Judith! 🙂 You can definitely cut the recipe down to 2 lbs. In that case, I would do half of the marinade ingredients and just cut the rest of the recipe in half to keep it easier. We are working on adding a feature to all of our recipes where you will be able to scale the ingredients based on how many servings you want and the whole recipe ingredients list (not the instructions because that would be too complicated to do), scales down when you hover over the serving size. You can explore this feature on our most recent 35 posts. It is one post at a time so it takes some to time and we haven’t gotten to this one yet. Thanks for your patience! 🙂
Delicious all your recipe
Thank you Luz, I’m glad you’re enjoying them!