It doesn’t get much easier than these savory Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken Drumsticks. They are full of lemon and herb flavor and practically fall off the bone tender and juicy.
Most of my life I’ve been a boneless, skinless white meat kind of girl. I think it’s because meat on the bone freaks me out. But in the past couple of years I have learned to appreciate the flavor packed bone-in dark meat of the thigh and drumstick. That’s probably because my son is pretty much obsessed with chicken on the bone.
Upon hearing that dinner is “chicken again??” his next question is, “Wait. Is it on the bone?” A “yes” is met with a cheer while a “nope, sorry” is met with a rather impressive groan. So I’ve been trying to constantly come up with new ways to serve this favorite meat. Our latest favorite is this Roasted Lemon Chicken.
An overnight marinade makes this chicken practically fall off the bone tender, however if you don’t have overnight, you could go 30 minutes. Just remember that the longer it marinates, the more tender it will be. I have a lemon tree, so lemons are readily available all year round for us so I love to use them in my chicken recipes. The lemon flavor is so subtle and doesn’t overpower the rest of the marinade, which, in case you were wondering, is olive oil, salt and pepper, oregano and paprika. I am also a little obsessed with chopped parsley, partly for the fresh herbiness (yup, totally a word) and partly because it just looks so darn pretty.
Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken Drumsticks Recipe:
Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken
Ingredients
- 10 Chicken Drumsticks skin removed
- 1 large lemon juiced and zested
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry and place into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag.
- In a small bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken and seal the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Massage marinade into the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight. (If all you have is 30 minutes, that's fine - just remember the longer the marinade time, the more tender and juicy the chicken).
- When ready to cook, let chicken come to room temperature (about 20 minutes). Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange chicken on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake, uncovered, for about 20-25 minutes. Flip chicken pieces and cook another 10 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 F and is no longer pink.
- Serve immediately.
Here’s another family favorite easy baked chicken recipe:
For more delicious chicken recipes, try these:
Honey Lemon Chicken and Green Beans
Savory Broiled Garlic Chicken
Kristin, this looks absolutely delicious and just what I’ve been looking for! Only one person in our family like dark meat though. Hate to not follow recipes as written, but dying to try. Do you think this would work with white meat as well and would I need to make more marinade given breaststroke are larger? Any suggestions? Thank you!
Hi Kim, yes this would work with any type of chicken. It makes a lot so would work for probably 3-4 pounds of boneless, skinless breasts. For bone-in it would depend on how large they are, but probably 2-3 pieces.
Lemons are not in season right now in my part of the world so kicked this up a notch and marinated in fresh passion fruit juice. Can you say “Puckerup buttercup”. Was really good. Thanks for this great recipe.
You are so welcome Taylor! Great idea to use passion fruit. Thanks for stopping by.
I love your recipes. Thank you for this wonderful site.
Your so welcome Taylor! Thanks for stopping by.
Can I use this on pork chops bone in baked in oven ?
Yes you could use this marinade for pork.
Very good. Never thought I would like baked chicken without the crispy skin :).
Thanks for the recipe
You are so welcome Darlene! Thanks for stopping by.
Very fond of your recipes. Thank you.
You are so welcome Lois! Thanks for stopping by.
This is so easy. I can’t wait to try these chicken legs. All of your recipes I have tried are great.
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Rebecca.
Made this tonight, but instead of baking we BBQ’d. It was delicious!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Jessica.
This recipe is so simple and so delicious. Highly recommended!
Hi Margaret, thanks for the awesome feedback.
We made this and we LOVED it !! Thank you for such a simple yet tasty recipe…
Much love from India!
Thank you Dupps! Thanks for stopping by all the way from India!
OMG. I wish I found this recipe a long time ago before we grew tired of eating chicken drumsticks all the time. We stock up on a lot of chicken drumsticks mainly because they’re super affordable and well, you can easily feed more people if we have unexpected guests on that day. This is soooo amazing and I could eat this over and over! However, I’m so going to try this marinade out with different kinds of citrus – example, orange, lime, and etc to experiment! 🙂
Different kinds of citrus would be fabulous! Also this marinade will work with any kind of chicken, even boneless.
That’s great to know & thank you for the tip!! I’m going to make them again today, yay!
So excited and i love love the recipes on your website!! Stay safe & healthy! xo
Thank you Daniella, you too.
Chicken is in marinade now but the marinade does not seem to be nearly enough for 10 drumsticks. I am hopeful that it will be tasty as it certainly looks good and has all of my favourite seasonings.