How to cook chicken drumsticks from frozen

If you’re into meal prepping your chicken drumsticks by preparing into easy to manage portion sizes and then freezing them. The question you might be asking yourself is how do I cook chicken drumsticks from frozen to make meal planning easier?

The solution is to first thaw them out and then cook them because if you were to place your frozen drumsticks straight into the oven you have to cook them at such a low heat that you will eventually dry them out and you can’t guarantee that the insides will be cooked which is not safe to eat.

A far better way would be to fully defrost the drumsticks first, and then cooking them in the oven or your preferred way to cook chicken.

This is the method that I use to cook my drumsticks from Frozen by firstly defrosting them using water to speed up the process. This technique will not make the meat mushy and your drumsticks will taste great as if you bought them that day.

How to freeze chicken drumsticks

To successfully cook drumsticks from frozen we need to first prepare them properly and freeze them in such a way that the defrosting process doesn’t take a long time.

1. Wash and Remove any excess skin or fat  from the drumsticks
2.  prepare the zip lock bags by writing drumsticks and the date 
3. Neatly place the drumsticks in a single row and flat in a Ziploc bag. 
4. Place into your freezer flat so the drumsticks are not bunched up, this will speed up the defrost in process

TIP: Large ziplock bags work well to place one row of drumsticks for freezing. Don’t just dump them all in a bag, you need to put them in neatly so they are easy to separate and work with during the defrosting.

How to defrost chicken drumsticks

The day before you are going to cook the drumsticks take them out of the freezer and leave them in the ziplock bag but place them into your fridge in a deep baking tray to catch any liquid that may come from the defrosting process.

Your fridge is naturally warmer than your freezer and by the next morning will notice that your drumsticks will still be frozen but not as much as they were the day before.

The next morning take out the drumsticks from the fridge and depending on how many you have in the bag either leave them in the deep pan dish you had then in or put them in the sink and submerge them in cold water.

Depending on the amount of drumsticks and if they were frozen flat. The defrost process will take a few hours to complete.

Throughout the day check on the drumsticks making sure that they are submersed.  Start to move the drumsticks within the bag so they separate and defrost faster.

Using this method they will slowly defrost the drumsticks while still keeping them at a very cold temperature so the chicken doesn’t spoil.

How to tell if the drumsticks are defrosted

You need to be patient and not rush the defrosting process. 

Depending on how many drumsticks you’re defrosting and how long they’ve been sitting in the cold water the process will take a good part of the day, to tell when your drumsticks are ready to to be cooked.

Start by taking one drumstick out of the bag / water. 

Is the chicken meat and skin soft to touch? 

Are you able to press down on the meat and does it still feel solid in the thickest part of the drumstick?

If it feels solid when you press down firmly, then it is not completely defrosted and should be placed back into the water.

You will need to check all the drumsticks one by one to make sure they have defrosted otherwise the chicken will not cook evenly and you may serve raw chicken which is not good.

How to cook chicken drumsticks from frozen

Now onto the exciting part because as soon as they are cooked we can eat our drumsticks, Oh YA!

Before you can cook the drumsticks, you need to first make sure that they have completely thawed out and that there are no drumsticks that might have any Frozen areas. 

Even if a drumstick is 98% defrosted, the little bit that is frozen will not cook correctly or evenly and you could risk serving raw chicken which would be very bad.

Once your drumsticks have been completely thawed out and they are soft to touch all the way through to the bone that’s how you know they are ready for cooking.

1. Start by preheating your oven to 180 / 350 degrees.
2. Next prepare your work area and place a bowl  and a deep pan dish on the counter top. The bowl is so you can coat the chicken drumsticks with a spice mix.
3. Add a little bit of olive oil at the bottom of the bowl and start mixing the drumstick so they are covered.
4. Rub your spice mix onto the drumsticks, as you massage the drumsticks and move them around the bowl. The olive oil will make the spices stick to the chicken.
5. In the deep dish, place some baking paper at the bottom. Not essential but it will help when cleaning up later.
6. Place the drumsticks into the dish making sure that the drumsticks have a little bit of room in between each other so they can cook evenly.
7. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and place in the oven for 40 – 45 minutes. The foill helps with the cooking process, but does not brown the drumsticks. 
8. Once you’ve had the drumsticks in for 40 – 45 minutes remove the foil and place them back into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes so the drumsticks can get a little bit of colour.
9. Using a meat thermometer check the internal temp is 75C / 165F. If you don’t have a meal thermometer, to check if your drumsticks are cooked, pull apart the meat of the biggest drumsticks, the colour should be brown / white and not pink. Make sure to test a few drumsticks

To successfully cook frozen drumsticks they first need to be defrosted and completely thawed out before you even start the cooking process otherwise the chicken will not cook evenly and risk serving raw chicken.

As you saw it is an easy process, a lot of the time is basically waiting for the drumsticks to defrost but if you follow the instructions I’ve outlined it’s a very simple process that always gets the best results.

FAQ – Cook frozen drumsticks