Do you love garlic? If so, boy do I have the Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks recipe for you! This one plays on the traditional 40 clove garlic chicken recipe, but uses uber-affordable drumsticks rather than a whole chicken. Here you’ll take advantage of your slow cooker to infuse your chicken with garlicky flavor — and then finish everything off in the broiler to add some nice browning and an extra level of caramelization to the garlic and onion.
Drumsticks are on sale this week (and are on sale somewhere about every week…), making them the perfect fit for our June 11, 2017 edition of Sunday Scratchups: Your weekly recipe from scratch around ingredients that are either on sale or generally affordable. It’s fun to play off this humble cut of meat with some unexpected elegance, and then you can optionally garnish with fresh herbs from your garden for extra brightness.
Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
2-2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks (6-8 depending on size)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
20 whole garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth
Directions
Place drumsticks, onion, and garlic in large bowl. Combine olive oil, rosemary, paprika, salt, and pepper in a small separate bowl, then pour over the chicken/onion/garlic and toss to coat. Add everything to your slow cooker, pour broth over, and cook on high for 4 hours.
Use a slotted spoon to transfer drumsticks, onions, and garlic to a sprayed roasting pan, then broil on high for three minutes a side until skin is golden brown.
Note: This is pretty garlicky — if you have ever had that 40 clove roasted chicken, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you aren’t a fan of too much garlic, you can cut way back (try 5-6 cloves) — it should still be darn tasty, but with less garlic flavor.
But if you DO love garlic
Garlic fans: This is the recipe for you. Mr. 10 loved the juicy chicken drumsticks, but was also picking out all of the garlic cloves and eating them. (They’re also soft enough that the non-low-carb contingent can also spread them on bread or add them to a baked potato!) Your drumsticks should be falling off the bone, but have a nice browning from their trip through the broiler. Serve your Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks along with their accompanying slow cooked garlic and onion, then add a green veggie or salad for a complete low carb, gluten free, comfort food meal.
I used my seven quart Crock-Pot for this recipe, but a smaller one would also do here.
Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks, printable recipe
- 2-2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks (6-8 depending on size)
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
- 20 whole garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth
-
Place drumsticks, onion, and garlic in large bowl. Combine olive oil, rosemary, paprika, salt, and pepper in a small separate bowl, then pour over the chicken/onion/garlic and toss to coat. Add everything to your slow cooker, pour broth over, and cook on high for 4 hours.
-
Use a slotted spoon to transfer drumsticks, onions, and garlic to a sprayed roasting pan, then broil on high for three minutes a side until skin is golden brown.
This is pretty garlicky -- if you have ever had that 40 clove roasted chicken, you'll know what I'm talking about. If you aren't a fan of too much garlic, you can cut way back (try 5-6 cloves) -- it should still be darn tasty, but with less garlic flavor. Low carb, gluten free.
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Caitlin says
June 12, 2017 at 1:30 pmThis sounds and looks delicious! Thanks so much for sharing ?
Leigh Suznovich says
June 12, 2017 at 1:32 pmI love 40 clove chicken, and this is such a great, more simple take on it!! Can’t wait to try it 😀
Danielle says
August 3, 2017 at 3:05 pmDo you think chicken thighs would cook in the same time? Bone in
rachel says
August 3, 2017 at 7:06 pmYes, that should be fine! 🙂
Danielle says
August 4, 2017 at 8:27 amThanks I’m cooking his today!
Mai says
December 17, 2018 at 6:46 pmI love this recipe, and so does my whole family – even the ones who don’t usually like dark meat! I cannot recommend it highly enough. I make at least once every week or two and it’s always happily received.
This might be the only recipe I’ve ever used where I don’t make any changes or adjustments.
Jennifer says
February 9, 2019 at 9:41 amThis is in my crockpot now. Can’t wait to eat this!
DAVID Thompson says
May 13, 2019 at 10:30 amWhy can’t you show the calories per serving?
rachel says
May 13, 2019 at 10:34 amBecause that is so super variable in recipes — depending on the size of drumsticks, for one thing. People often use happyforks.com or myfitnesspal.com if you’d like to estimate.
Madeline says
January 10, 2020 at 9:44 amIf I wanted to add vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, would I need to adjust the recipe at all?
rachel says
January 10, 2020 at 3:01 pmI’ve never tried, but it’s worth experimenting with. Cut up carrots I think would be fine. Potatoes, especially in the broth, would probably get a bit grainy.