HOW TO: cook moist chicken drumsticks a.k.a. legs

Sure, it would be great to cook nothing but ribs all the time. But as affordable as a 8-dollar rack of ribs is, it's still 3.99/pound. That beats the $6/pound steaks and beef roasts, but what about for every day eating?

My last time in Trader Joe's I noticed they were selling all natural chicken legs for $1.29/pound! You can't beat that. But the worry with baked chicken is that it can turn out dry.

Here's what I did. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Set out your legs on a sheet of foil in the roasting dish. I happened to have some orange-mango juice, so I poured a capful of it across the legs just to get them wet. Then I added a capful of extra virgin olive oil, and rubbed each leg so it was covered.

Then I added my seasoning blend. This was a mix of my ribs dry rub, a store-bought chicken rub, and a little chili powder and cumin. This is how they looked, oiled and seasoned:


The recipe I was using as a guide said 35-40 minutes. After 35 minutes I checked on them, and they looked pretty good but I didn't want to risk it with underdone chicken. So I flipped the legs over, turned the oven off, and put them back in the hot oven for 10 minutes. (I might have just put them back in for 5 minutes with the oven still on, but I was in the middle of a board game, and figured this was just as well.)

They turned out great, and based on how moist they were, it seemed like you'd have to screw up pretty bad to get dry legs. Here's what they looked like after I took them out:


Obviously without breadcrumbs or other coating, they won't taste like fried chicken. But in 45 minutes I got delicious, moist legs that tasted like they were in a rotisserie for hours. Also, the skin was awesome. I ended up eating three legs, after I had already eaten a burger on romaine.

Next time, I might try a double batch. These 5 big legs cost less than $2.00, so it would be easy to buy and make for a small group.