This chicken drumsticks recipe is quite amazing. There is no baking required here. This is very helpful as you don’t need to waste time preheating oven. I find that in most cases for best results you need to pan-sear meat on the stove and finish baking in the oven. This way the meat won’t dry out on the inside from unidirectional heat of a pan. But that’s not necessarily the case with chicken wings and chicken drumsticks. As I mentioned in my pan-fried chicken wings post, the trick is to pan-sear over a fairly high heat then cover the pan and finish on low. With the lid on, the steam inside the pan cooks the meat uniformly. This method works really well with chicken drumsticks and wings, which are much more forgiving than, say, chicken breasts. I like my drumsticks fall-off-the-bone tender. This means I have to cook my chicken drumsticks to 185F – 190F. This is the temperature you want for the fall-off-the-bone tenderness. When cooked to lower temperatures, I find chicken drumsticks and wings taste under-cooked. It really is up to you though. 165F internal temperature will yield perfectly cooked and juicy meat, it just won’t be fall-off-the-bone tender.
