There’s nothing more classic than a roast chicken dinner, and nothing better than one that cooks up with its own veggie sides! Give your next comfort food meal a different & affordable twist, with today’s Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots & Asparagus.
What’s for dinner tonight? Oh, just a little something colorful I whipped up. Asparagus was on sale, drumsticks were on sale, carrots were in my fridge… and that combo inspired today’s Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots & Asparagus. Talk about fresh, easy, and downright tasty!
Full disclosure: This recipe was soooo good, but next time I would cut the carrots and onions larger (and would add more of them). Although deliciously caramelized, some of the veggies did get a bit too charred for my liking — simply because I chopped them a bit too small.
I initially planned to redo this recipe with photos of larger-chopped veggies and post it another time, but then thought, you know what? Let’s be real, here. We are all home cooks, we’re all in this together, and this sort of stuff happens — sometimes you’re distracted and cut the veggies too small, sometimes you forget an ingredient, sometimes things just don’t set up right or brown right or even… taste right.
Not every meal is as perfect and as staged as you tend to see on Instagram or Pinterest, but the important thing is to learn from everything you do, and from every meal you make. In the grand scheme of things, a few of the veggies getting too done doesn’t ruin dinner — but, it’s an opportunity to learn from what I did and change it up a bit when you make these delicious drumsticks for yourself.
Moving on! Let’s also just take a moment to talk about all of the vibrant flavor & color here. You don’t always need a lot of ingredients when you choose ones with a lot of impact; today’s sheet pan chicken dinner keeps things simple, and simply delicious. The balsamic vinegar and a touch of honey help create a beautiful caramelization on the soft carrots and juicy bone-in chicken, while the asparagus stays crisp-tender and picks up all of the flavors from the pan juices. All of the elements in this one pan meal complement each other beautifully.
Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots & Asparagus
Ingredients
2-2.25 lbs chicken drumsticks (6 drumsticks)
3-5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1-2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2.5 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2.5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp minced garlic (about 4 small cloves)
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste.
1 lb fresh asparagus, trimmed
Directions
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, and spray a rimmed baking pan with cooking spray. Trim the drumsticks, and peel & chop the carrots & onion. (Cut yours larger than mine shown here — see the Note, and explanation above!)
Add the chicken drumsticks, carrots, and onion to a large bowl. Toss these gently together with 2 Tbsp olive oil + 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, plus the honey, minced garlic, sea salt, and pepper, just until everything is nicely coated.
Arrange the chicken, carrots, and onion in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. (We’re going to add the asparagus closer to the end of the cooking time, because it doesn’t take long.)
Roast at 425 degrees for a total 40 minutes, or until the drumsticks are cooked through to 165 degrees internal temperature.
While the chicken and carrots are cooking, rinse the asparagus spears, pat them dry with a paper towel, and trim off the woody ends.
After 25 minutes of cooking time, flip over the drumsticks. Stir the onions and carrots, and move them over to one end of the pan to make room for the asparagus.
Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on the same baking pan. Drizzle the asparagus with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil & 1/2 Tbsp balsamic, season it with a little sea salt & pepper, and stir gently to coat. (In the photo above, you can see why I should have cut the carrots and onions larger — or even taken them off of the pan at this point.)
Return the pan to the oven for another 15 minutes.
Give all of the veggies a stir, and test with a meat thermometer to be sure the chicken is cooked through to temperature.
Serve these balsamic roasted chicken drumsticks with their built-in side of carrots, onions, and asparagus, for a spring-y feeling yet ultimately comfort food dinner!
Note: Cut the veggies larger than I did so that they take longer to cook through. As you can see, while they did caramelize nicely, a few of mine scorched a bit. I used three carrots here, but would up that to five next go-round (and maybe add more onion, too), because they were delicious.
Easy and fresh, all on one pan
What a lovely feast, right? Dinner is served, all from one pan! Bone-in chicken does take a while to cook through, but the flavor you get is worth the time investment — and, it’s mostly hands-off once you get it into the oven. As I’m looking outside on a gray rainy day, the fresh crisp-tender asparagus also lends a bit of welcome springtime feel to this comfort food meal.
Today’s delicious sheet pan chicken dinner is naturally gluten free.
Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots & Asparagus, printable recipe
Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots & Asparagus
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2-2.25 lbs chicken drumsticks 6 drumsticks
- 3-5 medium carrots peeled and chopped
- 1-2 medium yellow onions chopped
- 2.5 Tbsp olive oil divided
- 2.5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar divided
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 tsp minced garlic about 4 small cloves
- Sea salt to taste
- Black pepper to taste.
- 1 lb fresh asparagus trimmed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, and spray a rimmed baking pan with cooking spray. Trim the drumsticks, and peel & chop the carrots & onion. (Cut yours larger than mine shown here — see the Note!)
- Add the chicken drumsticks, carrots, and onion to a large bowl. Toss these gently together with 2 Tbsp olive oil + 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, plus the honey, minced garlic, sea salt, and pepper, just until everything is nicely coated.
- Arrange the chicken, carrots, and onion in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Roast at 425 degrees for a total of 40 minutes, or until the drumsticks are cooked through to 165 degrees internal temperature.
- While the chicken and carrots are cooking, rinse the asparagus spears, pat them dry with a paper towel, and trim off the woody ends.
- After 25 minutes of cooking time, flip over the drumsticks. Stir the onions and carrots, and move them over to one end of the pan to make room for the asparagus.
- Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on the same baking pan. Drizzle the asparagus with 1/2 Tbsp olive oil & 1/2 Tbsp balsamic, season it with a little sea salt & pepper, and stir gently to coat.
- Return the pan to the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Give all of the veggies a stir, and test with a meat thermometer to be sure the chicken is cooked through to temperature.
- Serve these balsamic roasted chicken drumsticks with their built-in side of carrots, onions, and asparagus.
Notes
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