If you’re looking for an easy prep baked chicken recipe that’s sweet, tangy with a little kick of heat, you’ve come to the right place! Today I’m sharing with you a recipe that I whipped together with a few simple ingredients as a delish main for our dinner.
We’re calling this, Jammin’ Chicken as the main ingredient for the sauce is Apricot Jam. You know, now that I think about it…if it was closer to Halloween, we would rename it, the Anti-Vampire Jammin’ Chicken because I made this with an entire head of garlic. Now if you’re not a garlic fan, no worries, skip it and use maybe double the onions instead.
If you are a fan of heat (we’re ok with a little bit of heat) use more red pepper flakes or kick up a notch and add in some of your fav hot sauce or Sriracha! Honestly, just use what you have in your kitchen. I think this recipe would also taste delish with marmalade, but I’m not sure if I would suggest swapping out the apricot jam for strawberry jam (joking of course).
I decided to bake this low and slow. I had it at 350°F and the initial cook time for about 45 minutes before I increased the temp to 400°F for 10 minutes just to give the chicken a bit of colour. I was worried because of the high sugar content from the jam that the sauce would easily burn.
We used chicken drumsticks for this recipe as that is what was on sale at our grocery store, but I’m sure it would work with chicken thighs or chicken breast. We did skin on as it adds loads of flavour and juiciness, but if you prefer boneless and skinless, I’m sure that would work too. Most important is to cook your chicken so that the internal temperature hits a minimum of 165°F for dark meat and 160°F for white meat. I tend to go on the higher end…cooking it until it reaches 170°F as I had a bad round of food poisoning as a teen and the memories of getting sick between routines at our dance competition still haunts me.
Ingredients
- 12-14 Chicken drumsticks, skin on, bone in
- 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- salt & pepper (to your taste)
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 medium onion peeled and sliced
- 1 head garlic peeled and coarsely minced
- 1/2 jar apricot jam (I can’t get over how much it costs on amazon!!)
- 1&1/2 tbsp light soya sauce
- pinch of red pepper flake (optional)
Also need
- olive oil
- parchment paper
- sheet pan
- basting brush
- tongs
- aluminum foil
Preparation
- Marinate the drumsticks with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper for 4 hours or overnight
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Before preparing the sauce, take the chicken out from your fridge to bring to room temperature before baking. Prepare sauce by combining all ingredients except olive oil and mix well
- prepare a baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper.
- space out the drumsticks onto your lined sheet pan
- drizzle chicken with olive oil
- cover chicken with sauce mixture
- Tent chicken with aluminum foil with several holes poked in the foil to release steam
- Place in the middle rack of 350°F oven for 45 minutes
- Baste with sauce in sheet tray and return back to oven at 400°F for 5-10 minutes for some extra colour.
Once you take the chicken out, let it rest for a few minutes before serving smothered with the sauce.
We served it with a side of cheesy potatoes and garlic mixed veggies. It was a crowd pleaser! You may want to add additional salt and pepper depending on your taste, but this suited us perfectly.
I hope you enjoyed this little recipe! Let me know in the comments below if you do or tag me on Instagram @thedancingavonlady
Until next time, xo’s
