Apricot Chicken Drumsticks

These Apricot Chicken Drumsticks will have you coming back for more!

I was introduced to a recipe for Apricot Chicken Drumsticks by a friend. My husband, kids, and I were invited to her home for a lovely meal where she served a huge dish of sticky, sumptuous chicken. My husband ate eight drumsticks, my son inhaled three, even my picky daughter had one! My friend happily gave me her recipe, and I started making it for my family.

After making it several times, I started dissecting her recipe as I always do: trying to figure out what I could tweak, how to change it more to suit my tastes, while using ingredients I always keep on hand. If you know me, you know I truly enjoy breaking convenience foods down to their scratch components, which is exactly what I did here.

These Apricot Chicken Drumsticks are the perfect contrast of acid and sweet. The tomato, apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice, balance beautifully with the brown sugar and apricot jam, and there is an umami element from the soy sauce and caramelized chicken skin. It is a beautifully complex dish completed within an hour and 10 minutes. Despite the many ingredients in this recipe, it is extremely easy to put together and prepare. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as my family does!

TOTAL TIME

• Preparation Time – 5 minutes
• Cooking Time – 1 hour and 5 minutes
• Total Time – 1 hour and 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS FOR APRICOT CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

All the ingredients for these chicken drumsticks are easy to source from any local grocer.

Apricot Sauce

• 1/2 cup Passata
• 1 tsp Apple cider vinegar
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1/4 cup Lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 cup Brown sugar
• 1 cup Apricot jam
• 1/4 cup Soy sauce

Chicken

• 2 lbs Chicken drumsticks
• 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT CUT OF CHICKEN?

You could use bone in, skin on chicken thighs or breasts in place of drumsticks if you wish. However, if you use either of those cuts it will take longer to cook your chicken. I use drumsticks because my kids enjoy eating this meal with their hands, and it makes it more fun.

ARE APRICOT PRESERVES THE SAME AS APRICOT JAM?

The main difference is in the texture of the two: preserves have whole or large chunks of fruit, while jam has crushed or pureed fruit. For the purposes of this recipe, you could use either. I use jam because my family prefers a smoother sauce. If you prefer a sauce with chunks of fruit in it, you can certainly use preserves instead.

INGREDIENT SUBSTITUTIONS

CAN I USE WHITE SUGAR INSTEAD OF BROWN?

You want dark brown sugar for this recipe. Brown sugar (which is readily available from multiple brands) is simply white sugar with the molasses added back in. It’s the flavour from the molasses that adds extra depth to this delicious apricot sauce for chicken, so make sure to include it for best results.

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT KIND OF OIL?

You can substitute any oil you prefer in this recipe. I like using olive oil because it adds a bit of extra flavour to the chicken.

CAN I USE CANNED TOMATOES INSTEAD OF PASSATA?

I would recommend using passata in this recipe over canned tomatoes. Passata is crushed, strained, tomatoes. There are many brands and styles of passata, but I like to buy Mutti which is bottled in Italy. It is smooth and brightly flavoured with fresh tomatoes. Be sure to buy passata that has no spices or herbs so that it will not change the flavour of the sauce.

Canned tomatoes can be purchased whole, diced, or crushed. The two products are mostly interchangeable in terms of taste, but the resulting texture is quite different. I like to use passata because it results in a smooth and velvety sauce that is preferred by my family. If you like a chunkier sauce, use canned tomatoes and simply squish them with your hands before adding them to your pan.

I AM ALLERGIC TO SOY: IS THERE A SUBSTITUTE?

Soy sauce adds salty umami flavour to this recipe. I once ran out of soy sauce while making Apricot Chicken Drumsticks and needed a substitution in a pinch. I found that a one to one substitution of Worcestershire worked well as it has a similar salty umami flavour.

EQUIPMENT FOR APRICOT CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

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Below is a list of the main equipment/kitchen tools needed to make Apricot Chicken Drumsticks:

• Braising Pan – My most used pan by far is my Le Creuset Braising Pan. It is made of heavy cast iron and coated in ceramic as all Le Creuset cast iron pans are. It’s large and deep which makes it perfect for everything from frying to making sauces. I can’t recommend it enough. If you don’t have a Braising Pan you can use a heavy bottomed pan.

• Small Sauce Pan

• Tongs

• Wooden Spoon

COOKING DIRECTIONS

This sticky, sweet, savoury sauce is what you never knew chicken was missing. This meal is very easy to prepare as long as you remember three things:

1. Prepare the Apricot Sauce while you are browning the chicken to allow the flavours time to blend, and the solids time to break down.
2. Give the chicken time to brown. Twenty minutes may seem like a long time to brown drumsticks, but I promise you it’s needed. This time will build a beautiful golden skin on the chicken, and will also start to cook it allowing for less time in the oven.
3. Take the extra five minutes to thicken the Apricot Sauce after removing the drumsticks from the oven. This thickened sauce is lovely to pour over the chicken while serving, along with any accompanying potatoes.

MAKE AHEAD STORAGE

This sauce can be prepared in advance, but it will not save you any time as you will still need to brown the drumsticks before placing them in the oven.

These Apricot Chicken Drumsticks can be kept in the fridge for up to three days, and can be frozen in an airtight container and reheated easily.

FINISHED DISH

Enjoy your Apricot Chicken Drumsticks!

OTHER CHICKEN DISHES

Delicious Breaded Chicken Pasta

Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Farfel

Chicken and Bacon Orzo with Mushrooms

Instant Pot Butter Chicken with Cauliflower

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?

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Did you try these Apricot Chicken Drumsticks? Did you manage to stop at just one? Let us know in the comments!