Here’s a super budget-friendly (and super flavorful) Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Drumsticks recipe for this April 23, 2017 edition of Sunday Scratchups: Your weekly recipe from scratch around ingredients that are either on sale or generally affordable.
I wanted to try something different this week, and this baked yogurt-marinated chicken recipe is mildly reminiscent of tandoori chicken — but simpler, and oven baked with its own tangy sweet + smoky flavor.
Marinating in yogurt also helps keep the drumsticks juicy and infuses them with flavor. (Try squeezing a little fresh lemon juice on these before serving to really bring that out, too!) And you want to talk about affordable: This whole big pack of 10 chicken drumsticks was just $2.48 on sale, and handily fed all four of us with some left over.
Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1.5 Tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
Generous amount of fresh ground black pepper
sea salt, to taste
3-3.5 lbs chicken drumsticks
Directions
To make your marinade: Combine yogurt, 2 Tbsp olive oil, lemon juice, and spices. Trim excess skin off the drumsticks if necessary, then place them in a large bowl, pour marinade over, and toss to coat. (This is a good time to start the oven preheating to 425 degrees while you let the chicken marinate for at least 20 minutes.)
Drizzle a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet with remaining olive oil, then arrange drumsticks in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake chicken at 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through, flipping over halfway through.
Garnish chicken with chopped green onions (optional) and serve with lemon wedges.
Boom! Change it up with this Yogurt-Marinated Chicken…
Give this yogurt-marinated chicken a try when you want to change up your standard chicken drumsticks recipes and add some new flair to this affordable type of meat. The mix of spices, yogurt, and lemon juice is nice and flavorful without being overly spicy.
By the way: If you don’t yet have smoked paprika in your spice cupboard, it’s worth the investment because it adds an amazing flavor to so many recipes. I’ve started buying very large containers of it in order to save. 🙂
Yogurt-marinated chicken drumsticks are also naturally low carb and gluten free!
Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Drumsticks, printable recipe
This baked yogurt-marinated chicken recipe is somewhat reminiscent of tandoori chicken — but oven baked with its own tangy sweet+smoky flavor.
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1.5 Tbsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
- Generous amount of fresh ground black pepper
- sea salt, to taste
- 3.5 lbs chicken drumsticks
- To make your marinade: Combine yogurt, 2 Tbsp olive oil, lemon juice, and spices.
- Trim excess skin off the drumsticks if necessary, then place them in a large bowl, pour marinade over, and toss to coat. (This is a good time to start the oven preheating to 425 degrees while you let the chicken marinate for at least 20 minutes.)
- Drizzle a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet with remaining olive oil, then arrange drumsticks in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Bake chicken at 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until cooked through, flipping over halfway through.
- Garnish chicken with chopped green onions (optional) and serve with lemon wedges.
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Jane says
April 24, 2017 at 4:11 pmDo you think you could grill these instead of oven baking? I bought some drums on sale at Kroger today and my husband wanted me to grill boneless skinless breasts tomorrow. I was thinking since he doesn’t really like dark meat I’d marinate both overnight in the yogurt mixture and grill tomorrow since it should be nice outside. I was thinking of cooking the legs over the center and the breasts around the edges for indirect heat so they won’t dry out and cook too fast. If not possible, I can always do in the oven? Yours look to die for though!
rachel says
April 24, 2017 at 7:52 pmThanks! 🙂 I think the flavor would be excellent grilled, but the marinade is pretty goopy so you’d want to keep an eye on it. For grilling I would oil the grates really well and make sure there is not a lot of excess marinade on the chicken.
Katherine says
April 25, 2017 at 12:30 pmI am really bad at guessing how much salt to use when a recipe says “to taste.” Can you remember approximately how much you used?
rachel says
April 25, 2017 at 12:38 pmI just used a few grinds of sea salt — go with 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of sea salt depending on how salty you like your food to be. There are enough other flavors going on here that you don’t need a lot of salt. 🙂
Lynn says
April 28, 2017 at 11:34 amI think I might try this with Wings. Probably adjust the cooking time?
rachel says
April 28, 2017 at 11:41 amMaybe check them at 30 minutes?
Lynn M Czapla says
June 14, 2017 at 3:45 pmI finally did make these. I did use drumsticks. The boys and husband really liked, but I thought it was just OK. I think I will play around with the seasonings. I’m not a big fan of cumin (except in traditional chili), so I will probably replace that with something else.
Zuryna says
April 28, 2017 at 11:42 amCan I use the same measurements if I use chicken thighs?
rachel says
April 28, 2017 at 11:45 amYes, that should work if you have about the same amount pound wise.
SuzanneF says
September 28, 2017 at 9:41 amThis was really good and the house smelled fantastic. Next time, I would probably make more of the marinade sauce and use it for dipping sauce.
I had to cook the drumsticks a lot longer because some of the ones I got from Aldi were a lot larger. I had to cook them about an hour because it took that long to get them up to the correct temperature of 165.
Brooke says
March 6, 2018 at 3:11 pmMy Aldi was out of drumsticks, so I’m using breasts for this recipe. Could I do the same just adjust the time?
rachel says
March 6, 2018 at 3:14 pmYes, this should make a great marinade for chicken breast as well. Skin-on will work best, and yes, you’ll need to adjust the cooking time.
Mindi says
January 31, 2019 at 9:56 amDo these have a sour cream-ish flavor at all? My husband doesn’t like sour cream…
rachel says
January 31, 2019 at 9:58 amThey are slightly tangy. I don’t know if I would call it a sour cream-ish flavor, but I do like sour cream, so?
Lori says
January 31, 2019 at 10:42 amCould you use vanilla yogurt or plain yogurt? I don’t typically buy greek yogurt and am trying to be really conscious of what I buy, we use. So far it has been good. I have some chicken thighs that I need to use up from when I made Lemon Oregano Chicken, I had leftover thighs and no room in the pan.
rachel says
January 31, 2019 at 10:45 amI would absolutely not use vanilla yogurt, which is sweetened and would be weird. Plain, maybe, but I haven’t tried and it doesn’t have the same tang or thickness so wouldn’t be quite the same.
There are other recipes in this week’s meal plan that use the Greek yogurt if you are worried about using it up, and you can also substitute it for sour cream. Otherwise, ALDI no longer carries plain Greek yogurt single cups, but other stores do if you just want enough for the recipe.
katie says
January 31, 2019 at 2:06 pmCan these be marinated all day and then cooked in the evening? Or is that too long for this kind of marinade?
rachel says
January 31, 2019 at 2:10 pmI wouldn’t marinate it for more than a couple hours (refrigerated) at most because of the lemon juice in there; the acidity can change the texture of the chicken.
Elizabeth Bond says
July 29, 2019 at 8:38 pmAnother yummy night. Aldi’s didn’t have drumsticks, so I switched in ground turkey, put everything into a ziplock bag, and mashed together, piped it onto the cookie sheet, and baked, then broiled for a few minutes.
rachel says
July 31, 2019 at 3:12 pmI never would have thought of doing that! Glad it turned out well. 🙂