4.64 from 255 votes
By Kristy Richardson on | Updated | 39 Comments
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Savory, juicy slow cooker drumsticks only have five ingredients. It’s a delicious tender chicken dinner that is so kid-friendly and is super easy to make.
This is the best way (and my favorite way!) to cook chicken drumsticks, and the entire family will love this recipe.
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Table of Contents
Why We Love Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks
- Quick And Easy Dinner– Low prep, and dinner is ready for you when you want it. This is one of my favorite slow cooker recipes for its quick prep time.
- Juicy Chicken– Cooking dark meat like these chicken drumsticks in the crockpot always makes a super juicy chicken dinner!
- Five Ingredients– Only a few simple ingredients in this recipe, that you likely already have! This recipe has a sauce similar to a savory bbq sauce and is an easy chicken dinner recipe for all home chefs or (kid chefs!)
Love easy chicken recipes? Try these easy slow cooker boneless bbq chicken thighs that are great as is or shredded for sandwiches. This buffalo chicken dip can also be served as a sandwich for dinner. Sweet and savory honey garlic chicken thighs or crispy chicken thighs in the oven are also low prep and delicious!
Ingredients For Chicken Drumsticks
- 3poundschicken drumsticksabout 12 drumsticks
- ½cuphoney
- ½cupsoy sauce
- ½cupketchup
- 1clovegarlicor 1 teaspoon minced
I like to add just a few red pepper flakes at the table, but you could also add them to the sauce if the whole family likes it spicy. I’d start with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon if adding to the sauce.
How To Make Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks
- In a small bowl, whisk together honey, soy sauce, ketchup and garlic.
- Spray the slow cooker with a spray cooking oil I like to use spray olive oil or avacado oil) . Place the chicken drumsticks inside the bottom of the slow cooker, stacking the chicken if necessary.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken drumsticks.
- Cook the chicken drumsticks slow cooking on high heat for 4 hours (or low for 6 hours). Serve and enjoy!
What To Serve With Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks
Try some of these delicious side dishes with your slow cooker drumsticks!
Roasted Honey Glazed Carrots
Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole
Pull Apart Garlic Cheesy Bread With Storebought Biscuit Dough
Dreamy Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Hot German Potato Salad (with bacon!)
Apple Cranberry Salad
Slow Cooker Potato Soup
Cornbread Muffins
Can You Make This Chicken A Freezer Meal?
You can prepare these chicken drumsticks and freeze them into sauce to prepare your dinner ahead of time. To use this recipe as meal prep, you must defrost the chicken and sauce before adding it to the slow cooker.
What’s The Difference Between Chicken Drumsticks and Chicken Legs?
Chicken legs include the chicken thigh attached to the chicken drumstick. Chicken drumsticks are just the bottom calf part of the chicken leg.
How Can I Thicken The Sauce?
Here’s how to thicken the sauce over the chicken drumsticks. I don’t always thicken the sauce though because sometimes I want it to be a super simple recipe and it’s delicious as written in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker.
- Add two teaspoons of cornstarch to four teaspoons of water and mix well with a fork or a whisk to make a cornstarch slurry.
- Place the sauce in a small saucepan on the stove on medium-high heat.
- Add the cornstarch and stir the sauce, cooking for 2-3 minutes or just begins to simmer. Then toss the juicy chicken drumsticks again in the sauce. Serve and enjoy!
How Long Do These Chicken Drumsticks Last?
These slow cooker chicken drumsticks will last for about three days in the refrigerator if stored in an airtight container.
Leftover chicken from this recipe doesn’t freeze well unfortunately, but you could cook a few less drumsticks and the recipe will still work.
Other Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes
Easy Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Slow Cooker BBQ Hawaiian Roll Chicken Sliders
Baked Bruschetta Chicken
Easy Baked Salsa Chicken Breast
Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks
Author Kristy Richardson
Course Dinners
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes minutes
Cook Time 4 hours hours
Total Time 4 hours hours 5 minutes minutes
Saucy slow cooker chicken drumsticks are such a juicy chicken dinner and only needs five ingredients. This family meal is easy and delicious.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken drumsticks about 12 drumsticks
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup ketchup
- 1 clove garlic minced finely or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
Instructions
In a small bowl, whisk together honey, soy sauce, ketchup and garlic.
Spray the slow cooker with a spray cooking oil. Place the chicken drumsticks inside the bottom of the slow cooker, stacking the chicken if necessary.
Pour the sauce over the chicken drumsticks.
Cook the chicken drumsticks on high for 4 hours (or low for 6 hours). Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.
To make sure the chicken has cooked all the way through, check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer. The meat will be fully cooked at 160 degrees, but will taste the most tender when it registers at least at 170-175 degrees.
It’s better to place the chicken in a single layer as it’s the easiest way to ensure the chicken is equally saucy, but they could be stacked as well. If stacking the chicken drumsticks make sure to toss the chicken in the sauce again well before serving.
Chicken thighs or chicken legs can also be substituted easily into this recipe. Chicken wings can be used in this recipe, but may cook quicker.
The chicken can be frozen in the sauce to make a freezer meal, but the chicken and sauce must be defrosted before cooking in the slow cooker.
Nutrition
Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 685mg | Potassium: 203mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 159IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg
Did You Make This?
I would love to see it! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
Created by Kristy Richardson
HI There, I'm Kristy Here you will find ideas for helping kids have fun with food, recipes both kids and parents love, great tips and a little bit of humor. I hope you find an idea your family loves.
Reader Interactions
marilyn wilson wilson says
sound yummy
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Barb says
My husband loved them. I cut the recipe in half and turned out great! I made some rice and put the sauce over the rice. That was good tooReply
Sid Smart says
Very good chicken but needed more sauce.Reply
Gloria says
going to try this
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Jan says
Can I remove the the skin prior to cooking? I prefer crispy skin
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Kristy Richardson says
I have not removed the skin before cooking this recipe in the slow cooker. It should be fine to do so, but I haven’t tried it myself. Let me know how it goes.
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Vicki Duggan says
Hi Kristy
Try putting all the ingredents into an oven bag seal it up & then pop it into the slow cooker no messy clean up just thorw the oven bag awayReply
Kristy Richardson says
Hi Vicky, Yes you could do that if you prefer, or I believe they sell liners that are made for the slow cooker. I usually prefer to just clean my slow cooker, but the liners work too.
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Jessica says
can we put the chicken in the broiler before serving to get the skin crispy?
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Kristy Richardson says
You can, but I would watch it closely as it only takes a minute or two under the broiler before the chicken burns. This chicken is already pretty crispy but you can crisp it up a little more under the broiler.
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Terry H. says
I hv tried this recipe and was pleased! I also recommend trading catsup wth Heinz 57 sauce and drumsticks wth wings. Lots of them! Add to crockpot and cook accordingly (low for 4hrs) Then I pour the wings out on a cookie sheet (wth parchment paper) and put under broiler for bout 5min. to give them some color.
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Linda says
Can I use tomato sauce instead of ketchup?Reply
Kristy Richardson says
Your sauce will be more watery if you use tomato sauce instead of ketchup, and more sweet. You may need to thicken it with cornstarch and water, and sweeten it a little bit.
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Gwendolyn Reed says
All of the meals 😋 look so
Delicious 😋 it makes me hungry ,just reading and looking at them.
The Chicken 🐔 is beautiful.Reply
Tina says
Delicious…will definitely make this recipe again. I used chicken thighs as that is what my husband and I prefer. Halved the sauce recipe. When the chicken was done cooking, I poured the sauce in a pan. When it began to boil added a slurry of cornstarch and water to thicken. Poured the sauce over the chicken and served with green beans and mashed potatoes.Reply
Linda says
Very easy and very tastyReply
Margarita says
Delicious
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Barbara says
I want to make this recipe, but my son can’t have tomatoes. (or anything acidity) Can I used peach or orange preserves instead of the ketchup?
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Kristy Richardson says
I have never tried this recipe with preserves Barbara so I can’t really say if it would work without testing it. I am sure you could make a great sweet chicken with preserves, but the concern would be because they are sweeter and thicker how much could you add while still balancing everything (as it already has sweet honey) plus making sure the recipe overall has enough liquid that it wouldn’t burn.
I would probably default to more of a teriyaki sauce first if that works, as that could likely be swapped cup for cup a little closer without being too sweet.
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Pam says
This was quite good. We cooked it until it was juicy and tender and falling off the bone. The only reason for the 4 star review was that I thought the flavor of the sauce would be more noticeable, more intense. Still, it probably would be agreeable to younger eaters.Reply
Jolene says
Perfect for Sunday dinner. This is an excellent budget friendly recipe that can feed a lot at once. I cooked ramen and the meat just fell off the bone, sautee’d some frozen green vegetables, used the leftover sauce to cover. Delicious!Reply
Lilian says
The chicken look very yummy l give it 10/10
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Eileen says
No rating. I just wish these recipes were adjustable as to serving sizes. When there is only 1 or 2 people living in the household, 12 drumsticks are far too many.
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Kristy Richardson says
Hi Eileen, Unfortunately I can’t set my recipes per serving. When you are baking, or even for many dinner recipes when you start cuttings recipes down by the piece it just doesn’t work out in even measurements without reworking the recipe a little bit.
Slow Cookers in particular work best when they are at least half, if not 2/3 full. Only putting 2-4 drumsticks in the slowcooker just won’t cooked the same as cooking with it half or 2/3 full.
I recommend for two either freezing half of the recipe for another dinner or meal prepping for the week. For example, maybe you serve the chicken as is the first night, then the second night you remove it from the bone and serve it in a wrap. Re-inventing your leftovers can make them stretch further, and can save you time in the kitchen. Also check out http://www.dessertfortwo.com, she focuses on sweets but does have dinner recipes as well, and her recipes are all designed for two people. Hope that helps, Kristy
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Christina Kern says
Made these last week and they were delicious, my husband and daughter said, you can make these anytime 😋 I made 5 drumsticks and instead of 1/2 …I used 1/4 of the ingredients and it was very good and cooked 4hours on low…3 hours would have worked, but meat very tender and fell off the bone😋Reply
Kristan says
All you have to do is cut the recipe in half:
6 legs
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp minced garlic.Reply
Liliane Anderson says
This recipe I honey for monk fruit sweetener and used no sugar ketchup and low sodium soy sauce. Seasoned drumsticks with paprika salt pepper turmeric. They tasted amazing
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Kristy Richardson says
Glad it was delicious for you with the swaps!
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Tammy says
How long to cook if using wings?
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Kristy Richardson says
I have not made this recipe before using wings. I would start with on low 3 hours with wings if fresh, or on high 2 1/2 hours if the wings are frozen, but that is my best estimate since I haven’t tested it myself. Let me know how it goes!
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GILL says
I thought i would give this a try ,so easy to make and to my total surprise my other half who is so fussy with food ate the lot on his plate. Def making this againReply
Kristy Richardson says
So glad you both enjoyed it Gill!
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Rhonda says
In the pictures, some of the legs look like they’ve been “charred” in places which is what I like. Does this occur while they’re cooking in the crockpot or can they be placed on the grill for a few minutes after they’re done cooking in the sauce?
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Kristy Richardson says
That totally depends on your slow cooker, they can develop those bits in places where it touches the bottom of the slow cooker. Some machines run a little warmer then others. Yes you could try to throw the chicken on the grill for that effect, though the chicken is really tender and almost falls off the bone. I might suggest putting it on a thick pan and broiling it for just a minute or two. Keep your eye on the broiler though, it can quickly go from nicely brown to burned as we are working with really high heat when we broil. Hope that helps!
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