One of my favorite chicken parts are the drumsticks. They have the meatiness of breast but the juicy flavors of wings because it’s still boned in that allows better flavor. Why? It’s because it’s working dark meat, the fat that attaches the bone to the meat and with bone marrow goodness versus plain chicken breast that usually comes off bland and dry if overcooked. I usually don’t make something like this because the marinating time takes a while if you want to do it the correct way, or you can do it like we did when doing this and only let it sit for 3-4 hours before grilling it.

While having spicy flavors are nice, sometimes I just want to eat without having to struggle with a fiery mouth from hell. Especially since I’m sensitive to spicy stuff (although I still love a good spicy dish)! So I usually opt for non-spicy flavors when ordering drumsticks at restaurants as I will with this dish. Now, I ended up going with a chipotle chicken recipe. I love me a good chipotle flavored anything (well not egg plants or some weird combo LOL), but that sweet and smokiness of chipotle peppers is SO DELICIOUS. Did you know that a chipotle pepper is a fully ripe, smoke-dried jalapeno pepper? It’s not a type of pepper, rather it’s how it’s prepped and made. The unique combination of smoky flavor with peppery heat makes these perfect for so many uses!

So for our dish, we bought a pack of drumsticks, ideally you should marinate this over night to get the best flavor. We were on a time crunch so we ended up only marinating it for two hours before we threw it in the oven.

Ingredients Needed:
4 lbs of chicken drumettes
1 tsp garlic powder
1.5 cups Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 lime juice
2 tsp salt

We first made sure to poke some holes into the chicken drums (a large metal fork will work) so that the marinade seeps in faster and deeper. We then dumped in the chipotle adobo sauce, lime juice, honey and salt into a processor so that the peppers weren’t so large. After, we placed the sauce into into a large mixing bowl and mixed in the drumettes into it as well, mix well with hand so that you get it nice and thorough. Let it sit for overnight if not at least two hours before cooking.

If grilling, preheat grill to medium high heat. Grill wings until just starting to brown on the underside, about 5 minutes, then flip and repeat. If baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a basting brush, coat the wings with chipotle puree. Cook until exterior just starts to brown and crisp. Remove wings from heat and let cool for at least 5 minutes. Voilá! All done! It takes some time, but the overall prep is easy and simple enough for a great chicken dish. The meat was tender and juicy with wonderful smoky and sweet flavors that went so well with the dark meat. It was definitely an enjoyable recipe, although a bit timely– not exactly recommended if you’re on a really tight schedule, or else plan accordingly!