Crispy Pan-Fried Chicken Drumsticks
Simple, super tasty, and easy — an everyday dish for the whole family! These crispy pan-fried chicken drumsticks come out tender and juicy thanks to a quick marinade. Serve them with any side, even a plain one like boiled rice or buckwheat — especially with a sauce.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make crispy pan-fried chicken drumsticks? Gather the ingredients. You can use any cut of chicken — drumsticks, thighs, breast, or wings. I'm making drumsticks. The most important thing is that the chicken is fresh, with pale pink skin and no sliminess, and that it's dry and clean. Choose chilled chicken. If it's been frozen, the finished dish risks turning out dry and tough.
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Step 2:
To give the finished dish a savory taste and aroma, the chicken needs a short marinade. Use a bowl that's handy for marinating. Pour in the soy sauce and add a little salt, the dried basil, and ground black pepper. Mix everything together. When you use soy sauce in a marinade, go easy on the salt — the soy sauce is salty on its own.
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Step 3:
Add the drumsticks to the marinade and turn them so they're coated all over. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let it stand for 1 hour at room temperature. If you're planning to cook a few hours later, refrigerate the chicken while it marinates.
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Step 4:
Before frying, set the drumsticks on a paper towel and blot off the excess moisture. If the chicken is wet, the hot oil will spatter when you add it, and all that moisture will keep a good crust from forming.
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Step 5:
Heat the skillet until hot and add a little vegetable oil. Add the drumsticks to the hot oil. Sear them over high heat for a couple of minutes per side. This forms a crust — the meat sort of seals on the outside and keeps its juices inside.
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Step 6:
Once a golden crust has formed, lower the heat and keep frying about 10 more minutes per side. To keep the crust crisp, don't cover the pan.
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Step 7:
Serve the chicken hot. Round it out with any side dish or fresh vegetables. Enjoy!
- Keep in mind that the right pan matters: even the best recipe can be ruined by the wrong skillet.
- Remember that soy sauce is fairly salty, so cut back on the total salt or you risk over-salting the dish.
- Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying. Every oil is good only up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, above which it starts to burn and forms harmful compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with few exceptions, have a low smoke point; they contain lots of unfiltered organic particles that burn quickly. Refined oils stand up to heat better and have a higher smoke point. If you're cooking in the oven, in a skillet, or on the grill, make sure you're using an oil with a high smoke point. The most common ones are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Category I chicken - 238 kcal/100g
- Category II chicken - 159 kcal/100g
- Chicken, skinless meat - 241 kcal/100g
- Broiler chicken - 140 kcal/100g
- Fresh basil - 27 kcal/100g
- Dried basil - 251 kcal/100g
- Ground black pepper - 255 kcal/100g
- Soy sauce - 51 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
