Dinner of the Week: Grilled Chicken Drumsticks

 Chicken drumsticks are quite possibly the easiest and cheapest way to feed a crowd.  

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks 

with Baked Beans and Steamed Corn

With a pool in our backyard, we are constantly hosting parties - both planned an impromptu.  It's so fun to have our friends coming and going every day of the week.  But one thing we have learned by having a pool is that swimming makes people hungry, VERY hungry!  The first year or so that we owned the pool, I was scrambling keeping up with all of the hungry bellies!  I was in the kitchen preparing snacks and meals more than I was out enjoying the time with friends.  At the end of those first two seasons, my budget-conscious husband laid down the law about how we needed to find a more cost efficient way to manage our grocery bill during the "pool" months.

Enter Chicken Drumsticks.  Not only are Drumsticks a classic Summer meal staple, but it's easy to cook 20 or 30 of them while chatting with friends and watching the kids splash away in the pool.  And did I mention that they're CHEAP?!  Like $3.00 for 10 of them, cheap?!  We've learned we can now feed a crowd for less than $10 with these delicious little guys!  I always stock up on drumsticks when I find them on sale, and then freeze the packages until we need them.  If we have a planned party at our house, we usually provide the meat (and drinks and desserts - I stock up on ice cream treats too!) and ask our friends to bring side dishes.
The most time consuming part of drumsticks is preparing them.  I've never been a fan of the skin, so I usually start by removing that, and then washing and gently patting each one dry with paper towel.  I then place the chicken on a large platter and drizzle with lime juice and Olive Oil (or in this case, vegetable oil).  

After coating each drumstick with oil and lime juice, I rub the seasoning on, cramming spices into each crevice (this step is not for the faint of heart!).  Steak seasoning mixed with Mrs. Dash's chicken seasoning is our favorite, but I've also used garlic salt and even plain old salt and pepper.

Once oiled and seasoned, I'll usually try to let them sit for at least 15-30 minutes to let the spices really soak in.  If I'm short on time, I'll take them straight to the preheated grill.  I like to cook them on a lower heat for a longer time (30-45 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes or so).
While the chicken is cooking, I prep the side dishes.  My husband loves caramelized baked beans, which happen to be an easy and cheap side dish!  I like Bush's Grillin' Beans - Bourbon and Brown Sugar flavor.  I do stir in just a little more sugar to the beans and then bake them at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.

Once the chicken is done (165 degrees is safe, but I usually just peel off a layer to see if it's cooked through), I take it off the grill and let it rest while I finalize the other side dishes.  My son loves peaches and was willing to slice them up for me, so all  I had left to do was steam some frozen corn.  

This entire meal fed my family for less than $10!  And my husband and I each had a few drumsticks left over for our lunch the next day.  

Here's what else was on our plates this week:

Monday:  "Black & Bleu Pasta Salad" (grilled Flank steak strips, rotini pasta, bleu cheese crumbles, red onion, and romaine lettuce) and Blackberry/Strawberry fruit salad.

Tuesday:  Grilled Chicken drumsticks, caramelized baked beans, sliced peaches, and steamed corn

Wednesday:  Taco salads and watermelon cubes

Thursday:  Oven baked chicken fajitas, cottage cheese, and plum slices

Friday:  Pizza night!