Your family will love these nutty and cheesy chicken drumsticks!
Finger Lickin’ Good
I love me some chicken, but even more I love me delicious chicken.
So when I found this recipe, I suspected it would be a winner and a keeper. The original comes from Genius Kitchen, which is one of my go-to sites when I’m looking for a recipe. Most of the time I make adaptations to the ones I find on there, but the basic recipes come from real people–not recipe developers–and lots of folks tell you how they changed it in their comments. It’s a nice community and you really won’t find anything fancy there. It’s “real food for real people.”
Skin On/Skin Off
The original recipe calls for you to remove the skin. However, I read in one of the comments that one person used this recipe to make wings and they didn’t remove the skin (that’s awfully hard on wings). Anyway they said it tasted a lot better with the skin on so I left it on my drumsticks. The skin gets nice and crispy and has that wonderful nutty and cheesy flavor that makes this chicken a really big hit.
Also, the original recipe called for quite a bit of cayenne pepper for the amount of coating. I’ve made this a range in my recipe. I went with the least amount because I didn’t want the heat to overpower the other flavors. If you’re not a fan of any heat, I’d suggest you substitute the cayenne pepper called for in the recipe with a nice smoky paprika. On the other hand if you love you some heat, then add more cayenne!
No Need To Toast
Since the sesame seeds bake along with the chicken, there is no need to toast them first. But if you have any toasted ones left over, sprinkle them as an addition right before serving–like a garnish!
The Recipe
- 3⁄4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1⁄3 cup parmesan cheese, dry, grated
- 1⁄4 cup roasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tbs butter, melted
- ⅛-1⁄4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1⁄4 tsp onion powder
- 8 chicken drumsticks, if preferred you can remove the skin
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove skin from drumsticks.
- In a large plastic bag (or deep bowl) shake/mix together bread crumbs, parmesan, sesame seeds, salt, pepper, cayenne and onion powder.
- Melt butter.
- Brush chicken with melted butter and shake in bag / roll in deep bowl.
- Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper for easy clean up.
- Bake for 30 min at 350 degrees; turn chicken and bake another 5-10 minutes
- You can also broil the last few minutes if you like the chicken really crispy.
nice post