Are delicious foods always complicated to make? My mum used to tell me that delicious foods often take time to make, but not necessarily be complicated to make. True that some foods are complicated to make because of the many different ingredients required for the dish. However that doesn’t apply to this dish. I find this dish the simplest to make and also one of the most tastiest dishes that I’ve made.
Before I came across this recipe I would marinate chicken breasts with paprika and a bit of salt and then pan grill them, sided with a nice salad for a basic meal. Paprika has always been one of my favourite spices to add to my cooking, but for some reason I’ve never thought about using it to marinate drumsticks. I honestly didn’t have good experience grilling or shallow frying drumsticks so I stopped adding grilled or roasted drumsticks to the menu until recently. This recipe was shared to us by my partners’ sister in law. We visited them for their daughter’s 10th birthday and this dish was on the menu. The drumsticks were beautifully cooked, so tender that the meat came of the bone while the skin wasn’t too soggy nor too crispy. It was so good we couldn’t help but ask for the recipe.
Before I received the recipe I thought the cooking process would be complicated and maybe there was a lot of ingredients that go in to the seasoning. I was wrong. All they used was paprika, salt, pepper and olive oil. Just that to make the tastiest chicken drumsticks. I can’t stop bragging about how good they are.
Note: the preparation time looks like it’s very long, but it only goes for the marinating and the cooking time. There’s not much work needed to prepare the dish. It’s mostly waiting time which you can do other tasks while waiting. The marination can also be done over night to save time and it will also marinate the meat better. Otherwise 3-5 hours will do.
It needs to be in the oven for at least and hour, but for best result with the temperate I use it’s best to cook it for 1.5 hours. Again it may sound like a long time and you may think it needs a lot of checking. I would recommend doing a check once after it’s been cooked for an hour to make sure it doesn’t burn depending on the oven you have, but mine is electric and I didn’t need to check it at all until it finished.
PAPRIKA DRUMSTICKS
Prep-Time: 5 hrs Serving: 2-4
Cooking Time: 1.5 hrs
Ingredients
4 drumsticks
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Method
Marinate the drumsticks with paprika, oil, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 5 hours or over night for a better result.
Preheat the oven at 180°C Fan Force
Line the marinated drumsticks in a baking dish. Sprinkle more salt and pepper on to the top of the skin, this will help to make the skin somewhat crispy. Place in the oven and leave to bake for 1.5 hours. Check after an hour if needed to be. Serve with steamed rice and a side vegetable dish.
