Slow Cooker Saucy Sticky Drumsticks

Oh my goodness, these are AMAZING! Now, when I’ve told you that I love my slow cooker, I really wasn’t joking. I have quite a few favorites I plan on posting here. Chili, roasts, even Thanksgiving Stuffing…ALL IN THE SLOW COOKER! Something about it, things just taste better when cooked in the slow cooker. It gives it all a chance for the flavors to dance and meld with one another and give that wonderful flavor. Delicious!

I’ve played with this recipe quite a bit. One night about a year ago I needed to go grocery shopping, but I wanted to get dinner started. I didn’t really have any meat to make other than some drumsticks I had picked up on sale that were in the freezer. We had gotten rid of our BBQ with plans to get another. Up until then, the husband had been in charge of drumsticks and they were always prepared on the BBQ. I looked at the drumsticks, then looked at my slow cooker and figured why not? I threw a bunch of seasonings and various sauces around on it, and you know what? It came out wonderful! I’ve since changed a few things and added a few more. I don’t really have exact measurements on anything, but that’s the beauty of it. You just throw it all together and it cooks itself! Magnificent! I joke and say I throw everything but the kitchen sink into this dish. Seriously! I made this the other night and my 12 year old 90 pound daughter had 4 drumsticks. My 36 pound 3 year old went back for seconds. Yes, it’s good!! The secret is to make just enough sauce to lightly cover each piece of chicken, the chicken itself is tender and juicy, so you want the outside to be sticky and not soaking wet. The meat is literally falling off the bone. I hope you enjoy this as much as we have!

Ingredients:

• one pack of chicken drumsticks (my pack had 11)
• chili powder
• cayenne pepper
• paprika powder
• garlic salt
• dry oregano
• dry parsley
• Italian seasoning
• lemon pepper
• celery seed 
• a good herb roast rub
• about 2-3 tablespoons BBQ sauce
• about 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
• about 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
• about 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• about 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• about 1/2 tablespoon sherry cooking wine
• splash of terriyaki sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

First, lay all your chicken on a baking dish. Then proceed to take the skin off them all. Unless you like to leave it on, but with this recipe you won’t miss the skin at all and you’ll skip a lot of unnecessary fat this way. This is probably the most tedious part of the recipe, the rest is easy!

Next, you season. I have no method or measurements to this. I just season them all  evenly with each seasoning, but you can do it to your liking. As you can see I like mine seasoned A LOT.

Next, lay the drumsticks in your slow cooker. Try to have the meaty part of each drumstick show, so they all have equal amounts of sauce to share.

If I didn’t know these were uncooked I’d say they look pretty tasty already!

Next, mix your sauces and brown sugar. I have very rough estimates on the sauce and measurements listed above in the ingredients list, but I just eyeball it. Once you’re done mixing the sauce together grab the leftover seasonings in the bottom of the baking dish from the chicken and just throw that in too!

Then you just put it all over each piece so they are coated pretty evenly with sauce.

Looks good! It’s ready for the top to go on, and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or low for 7-8 hours.

And they’re done! Yum! See how they are just falling off the bone? So delicious!

I still can’t get over that my daughter ate 4! They are so tasty though! Enjoy!

It’s a great faux BBQ meal!