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Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks (Low Carb, Gluten Free!)

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks is an affordable take on garlic chicken — and, made easy-peasy in your Crock-Pot!

Do you love garlic? If so, boy do I have just the Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks recipe for you! This one plays off of 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 just finish everything off quickly in the broiler. This adds some nice browning to the chicken, and an extra level of caramelization to the garlic and onion.

Close up of a garlic chicken drumstick

Drumsticks are on sale this week (and are on sale somewhere about every week, but affordable even when not). This makes 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

2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks (about six)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
20 whole garlic cloves (see Note)
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.

cooked chicken garlic and onions in the crock-pot

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 that back (6-10 cloves). It should still be darn tasty, but with less garlic flavor.

Do you love garlic?

Slow cooker garlic chicken drumsticks  on a plate

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 be nicely browned 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

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Drumsticks

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 just uses uber-affordable drumsticks rather than a whole chicken.
Course dinner
Cuisine Dinner
Keyword chicken, chicken drumsticks, crock-pot, garlic, gluten free, low carb
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours 6 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 16 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks about six
  • 1 medium yellow onion sliced thin
  • 20 whole garlic cloves See Note
  • 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

Instructions

  • 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.

Notes

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 that back (6-10 cloves). It should still be darn tasty, but with less garlic flavor.

Recipes in the real world

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Recipe Rating




Edward Ehrhart

Saturday 28th of October 2023

Can I use can of cream of chicken ? Only thing i have. Or chicken noodle soup

rachel

Saturday 28th of October 2023

Hi - Sorry, I just saw this. It's of course worth a try -- let me know how it turns out!

Edward Ehrhart

Saturday 28th of October 2023

Can you use something else besides chicken or veg broth ? I have none and about to start cooking this. Ugh !

Valorie marshall

Tuesday 31st of May 2022

Can you use minced garlic instead of whole cloves?

rachel

Tuesday 31st of May 2022

I've never tried it with minced garlic, which will be a little stronger and sharper without the mellowness you get from slow-cooking the cloves. You could certainly try, but I'd use less than a 20 clove equivalent of minced.

Nutmeg

Thursday 21st of January 2021

Are the garlic cloves peeled or unpeeled?

rachel

Thursday 21st of January 2021

Peeled.

Madeline

Friday 10th of January 2020

If I wanted to add vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, would I need to adjust the recipe at all?

rachel

Friday 10th of January 2020

I'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.

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