Cookin' with Wood

Think up a name for it later Chicken Drumsticks

I went to the grocery store and got a little carried away in the departments where they keep the stuff that you'll want to freeze when you get it home. In fact, I had to empty my freezer and rearrange everything so that I could get most of the stuff in there. I have a big freezer in my basement, but since my wife passed away, I shop for one. Awhile back I realized I didn't need the extra freezer anymore so I emptied it and unplugged it, and now it just sits there, open and lifeless. Well, the only thing I couldn't fit in the freezer upstairs was the chicken. I bought the value pack, so there was a lot of it. All drumsticks. The longer they sat in the refrigerator, the more I thought that I should probably cook them soon, or I could end up throwing them away.

Since there were, in fact, 15 drumsticks (I thought legs came in pairs...), I wasn't sure I had a frying pan large enough to do them all, so I decided to bake them. But how? Some type of coating would probably work. I knew enough to start with breadcrumbs. I used regular, but I also have Italian. Either would work, I suppose. Then I let my nose do the rest of the work. I went to the cupboard, and took a good whif of about a dozen or so spices from the rack. Each time I thought, "Would this go well with chicken?" When all was said and done, I'd arrived at the list of ingredients you've already read.

The one thought that kept going through my head as I made this recipe was, "This better be good, 'cause I'm making 15 of them." As luck would have it, they did turn out good. I made one change to the recipe for you, since there was a little too much curry powder flavor in it. I used a whole teaspoon, but I would recommend using just a half of a teaspoon. When I re-heated some for lunch at work Saturday night, one of my co-workers said he could smell the curry powder. The adjustment should work well.

By now I'm hoping you still want to know how I made it. I'll tell you. Put the milk in one of the bowls, and mix all of the rest of the ingredients except for the chicken and the salt in the other bowl. The reason you need a spoon is to mix the spices. You could use a fork, but if there's anything I know about onion powder it's that onion powder will clump into giant opaque diamonds, and you'd better be able to crush them with something if you're mixing it with anything else. Use the back of the spoon. Or use a mortar and pestle if you have one. In any case, make sure the bread crumbs and spices are mixed well.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degees F. Line your baking pan with non-stick aluminum foil, or regular foil sprayed with cooking spray. Wash the drumsticks and drain in the colander.

One at a time, moisten each drumstick with the milk. Generously coat the drumstick with the spice mixture, and place in the baking pan. Repeat each step until you run out of drumsticks. If you run out of milk or the spice mixture, get more. You should always run out of drumsticks first. Discard any excess milk or spice mixture. Once you have them all in the baking dish, spinkle with salt.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and using the tongs, turn each one over. Sprinkle with the white wine, and bake for another fifteen minutes, or until the juices run clear and there's no pink on the inside. If you don't have any white wine, try beer. I probably will.

In any case, these drumsticks turned out very tasty and aromatic. They reminded me a little of India, but that was probably because of the amount of curry powder I used. I hope it was the curry powder, because I've never been to India. I do know a very nice man there named Sam who helps me fix my computer. I'm beginning to suspect that Sam isn't his real name, but he's really good with computer stuff.

So serve you're drumsticks with whatever you like with your drumsticks. If you can come up with a good name for them, feel free to call them that. I'd be interested to know what you came up with.

Bob is the author of "Don't Fry Bacon with Your Shirt Off!  A Single Man's Guide to the Kitchen" a PublishAmerica book.