Sweet and Spicy Chicken Drumsticks

*Post by Angela.

Half a cup of sriracha. Yeah, you read that right. HALF A CUP. I love the Thai chile sauce as much as anybody could, but it is a very bold flavor and one I usually use sparingly in recipes. I was skeptical that these sweet and spicy chicken drumsticks from Bon Appetit would turn out well with that amount of rooster sauce. The inclusion of fruit jam/jelly didn’t quell my fears.

But actually, the spice and the sweetness from those two ingredients paired really nicely, particularly with a little help from the acidity from the vinegar and brightness from the mirin. While a little too in-your-face for regular consumption, we polished off these (not insignificantly) hot, sticky drumsticks in no time.

Ingredients:

• 12 large chicken drumsticks
• Kosher salt
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sriracha
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
• your choice of fruit jam/jelly (I used red raspberry jam)

First, I rinsed and patted the drumsticks dry, placed them in a large bowl and salted them generously. I covered the bowl and refrigerated it for an hour.

After the hour was up, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, and whisked together the rice flour and the cornstarch in a large bowl. I dredged each of the drumsticks in the flour mixture and placed it on a rack in a roasting pan. Then I baked the drumsticks for 1 hour (until the skin was brown and crisp), turning every 15 minutes.

In the meantime, I combined the sriracha, rice vinegar, mirin, and jam in a small saucepan, whisked it together, and brought it to a boil over medium high heat. I reduced the heat to simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes, until it had reduced down to about ¾ cup.

When the chicken was ready to come out of the oven, I covered each drumstick with the sauce and placed it back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. This sauce is not messing around. It is as flavorful and spicy as…well, as you’d imagine something with half a cup of sriracha would be.

Comments

[Debb]

How much jam? What kind do you use?

Also, I need this for my mouth hole, stat.

[Angela]

Whoops! Good catch. It's 1/4 cup jam (updated), the original calls for strawberry or red currant, but I used red raspberry and it was very nice. Grape would also probably work.

These are maybe hot enough to satisfy even you, Ms. Debb.

[Evan]

These look great. Never thought to use a preserve or jam on a wing like dish. yum

[Angela]

Evan-

I thought it was weird, but it really worked out. I actually made another savory dish recently that used jam to good effect - slow-cooker meatballs! I may have to look into this more.

[judyonthelake]

I made these just using siracha and honey combined. They were very popular. I had not seen the BA recipe.