BBQ Honey Chicken Drumsticks

  
Cooking chicken on a traditional charcoal barbecue can often be a risky pursuit, ending in burnt sauce and uncooked meat near the bone. Avoid such disasters in the future with our delicious BBQ honey chicken recipe.

While it may be a noble and understandable desire to cook all the food on the barbecue at your summer garden get together, when it comes to chicken it's far better to use your oven to cook the chicken most of the way first. We want to impress our guests with our outdoor culinary skills, not send them home with food poisoning!

Using our method below you can still enjoy all the lovely char and smokey taste from the barbecue but without the worry of the chicken not being cooked properly. This worry free method also makes life a lot easier and less stressful if you have guests to entertain or a hungry family to feed!

To make BBQ Honey Chicken Drumsticks you will need:

• 1kg of Chicken Legs (around 8-10 legs)

To make the BBQ Honey coating you will need:

• 4 tbsp of Tomato Ketchup
• 3 tbsp Just Bee Honey
• 2 tbsp Tomato Puree
• 2 tbsp Garlic Puree
• 2 tbsp of Mustard
• 1 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp of Smoked Paprika
• ¼ tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp Pepper

You'll also need a medium sized bowl and a roasting tin or lipped baking tray.

Step One: Get the oven on!

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 or 180c. For a fan assisted oven reduce the temperature to 160c. Give it a good 5 minutes to warm up before moving on.

Step Two: Roasting the chicken.

There's not much we need to do to the chicken at this stage, the goal is to just cook the chicken through slowly. We aren't looking to crisp up the skin or add any flavours. Simply space the chicken legs out on the tray or roasting tin and pop them in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes.

Step Three: Making the honey barbecue coating.

While our chicken is gently roasting in the oven, we'll have plenty of time to mix up the BBQ honey sauce to coat the chicken later. It really couldn't be any easier, just put all the BBQ sauce ingredients into a medium sized bowl and give them a good mix with a spoon. You'll now have half an hour to put the kettle on and relax, or if you are feeling a little more productive- prepare and dress some salad to enjoy with the chicken.

Step Four: Coating the chicken legs.

When the 35 minute cooking time is up, take the chicken out of the oven. The best way to coat the chicken in sauce is to just grab the bone end and dip it in the sauce, twisting it around until all the meaty part of the drumstick is coated in a thick layer. Be careful as the chicken bone will be hot! Use a cloth or a piece of kitchen paper to hold the chicken so you don't burn your fingers!

If you'd rather pour the sauce over or spoon it on, you can do that too.

Step Five: Take it to the BBQ.

Once coated, transfer the chicken to the barbecue and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, turning as needed. If you have any sauce left in the bowl take it to the barbecue with you too, then you can spoon on an extra layer of sticky goodness on half way through cooking or add sauce to any bits that didn't get coated very well.

After the chicken is fully cooked you will have delicious, moist, tender and fully cooked BBQ honey chicken for everyone to enjoy.

The 'No BBQ' method.

If you don't have a garden or aren't planning to barbecue don't worry, we haven't left you out. If you need to you can simply halve all the ingredients to make a smaller 4-6 leg meal too!

Simply follow Steps 1-4 as above and replace 'Step 5: Take it to the BBQ' with

Step Five: Return to the oven!

Turn the oven up to gas mark 6 or 200c. Then return the coated chicken to the roasting tin or tray and cook for a further 10 minutes in the centre of the oven.

The chicken will be just as delicious and moist and the coating should even have a few nice dark brown charred patches too! All you really lose is a little of the smokiness from the barbecue and the fun of cooking outside.

Alternatives and options

If you'd like a hotter, spicier coating then you can replace the smoked paprika with chilli powder or ground Cayenne pepper. You can also use regular paprika instead of smoked, but for this recipe we feel the smokiness really enhances the BBQ taste.

You can use any mustard you like or have already, both smooth yellow 'hot dog' mustard and wholegrain mustard give a subtle difference in flavour but both are equally delicious!

If you don't have olive oil to hand, then you can use vegetable oil or sunflower oil as a replacement.

If you don't like garlic then you can leave it out or substitute it for some pureed onion or shallot.