Spicy Pineapple Glazed Drumsticks

This blog has been on quite the pineapple kick lately. Maybe because the weather is getting warmer and we all just want something a little tropical and summery sweet. These chicken drumsticks with a spicy pineapple glaze caught my eye on a blog called Juanita’s Cocina, because I am a sucker for something that pairs heat with sweet. And I love a sticky glaze besides. Although we had a few issues in the cooking of these drumsticks, they turned out really good, and all it will take is a few tweaks to iron out those wrinkles. They are definitely finger-licking good and should be served with a side of damp paper towels. I also think this glaze would be fantastic on wings or chicken thighs, yum!

Ingredients

8 chicken drumsticks

¼ cup flour

1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch

½  Tbs. salt

1 ¾ cup pineapple juice

½ cup brown sugar

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup rice vinegar

1 Tbs. fresh grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 cup Sriracha

Start by preheating the oven to 425. The original instructions had us line a baking pan with foil, but the foil ended up being a huge pain, as the chicken kept sticking to it. So next time I might just spray the pan with non-stick spray instead. It will be a bigger clean up, but it’s worth it to keep the skin on the drumsticks instead of the foil!

In a shallow dish or a plate with a lip mix the flour, cornstarch and salt. Roll your drumsticks around in it until they are covered by the mixture (you may have to sprinkle a little), shake off the excess and put them on the baking pan. Bake them for 15 minutes, flip them, and bake them for another 15.

While the chicken is baking you need to make the glaze. Combine all the other ingredients from the pineapple juice all the way to the Sriracha in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then you want to take the heat down to simmer and keep it there until the first 30 minutes on the chicken is up.

This is where we ran into trouble, I think because we have had trouble maintaining a simmer on our new stove. We’re still figuring out what temperatures do what. So by the time the chicken was ready, the sauce wasn’t thick yet. You’ll want to keep it at a pretty high simmer in order to get it to thicken. Once it’s thick, you want to coat the chicken with the sauce and then bake for another 30 minutes (so it will bake for 60 minutes total), flipping and reglazing at 15 minutes. We actually ended up not being able to glaze until about 45 minutes in, and then we poured the sauce all over the chicken, so if that happens to you, don’t worry—it still turned out great! Anyway, after 60 minutes, the chicken should be cooked through and the glaze will be all sticky and nice. You can always broil your chicken for a minute or two if you want some caramelization, although we didn’t find that we needed any. Towards the end, keep an eye on things as the sugar in the glaze can tend to burn. I bet you could even finish these on the grill for the last 10 minutes or so if you wanted some of that smoky flavor. Serve with a delicious side (we turned to our favorite Spicy Corn Salad) and some wet naps if you have them!