See Results of an Easy Honey Butter Chicken Recipe
Trying a baked chicken recipe with honey and butter resulted in a nice and light flavor on the outside. Although it required little effort, which was a plus, the sweetness didn’t carry through to the meat.
Below are some links to more details, including photos:
My Story
I had some chicken drumsticks available in the refrigerator, so I went searching online for some ideas on how to cook them. What I found was a recipe with all the ingredients already in the kitchen, so I was excited about that!
Inspiring Recipe
The recipe that I found was Honey Butter Roasted Chicken Drumsticks from The Spruce Eats website.
First Try
After buying a package of chicken drumsticks with a $3 discount, making them $.95 per pound, I didn’t have to buy any extra items to make this dish, so I was able to start once I had time.
Ingredients to Use
With 2.73 pounds of chicken, I increased the remaining ingredients on the recipe to the following amounts:
- 5 tablespoons of butter
- 1/3 cup of honey
- 2 tablespoons + 1/2 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 2/3 teaspoon of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon of pepper
Also, I substituted the following three ingredients based on what was handy at home:
- Salted butter instead of unsalted butter
- Sea salt instead of kosher salt
- Rainbow pepper instead of black pepper
Steps to Prepare
When it came to the instructions, I made minor adjustments to a few of the steps.
In step 2, I placed the chicken on my go-to baking pan instead of a baking sheet because it was big enough to hold all the drumsticks.
In step 4, I spooned half the sauce mixture onto the chicken since I didn’t own a brush.
Lastly, in step 5, I baked the chicken for another 20 minutes after adding the remaining sauce, instead of 15 minutes, because my oven historically required more time to cook something than was noted in a manufacturer’s recommendation.
Time to Eat
After the oven timer went off, the chicken drumsticks had reached 165 degrees Fahrenheit, so I plated them for dinner.
Recipe Rating
Below were the results of the recipe after the first try:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰 | 🙂 |
For more context to the above results, the meat was not as soft as I would have liked it and it didn’t absorb the flavors from the sauce.
Second Try
For the second attempt, I was hoping for softer and more flavorful chicken.
Ingredients to Use
With 3.37 pounds of chicken this time around, I used the following amounts of the other ingredients:
- 7 tablespoons of butter
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 7 cloves of garlic
- 2/3 teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Steps to Prepare
To address the flavor of the chicken, I swapped Step 3 and Step 2 and used the ingredients from Step 3 for a marinade. First, I punctured the drumsticks, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and repeated the process after flipping the chicken in a bowl. Secondly, I marinated the chicken for about 1 hour and 20 minutes with the remaining sauce mixture.
Next, in Step 4, I poured all the marinade over the chicken in the baking pan.
Regarding the texture of the drumsticks, I tried to keep them moist and soft by scooping some sauce over the chicken after turning them over and decreasing the baking time to 15 minutes for the second side.
Time to Eat
After the chicken drumsticks were done baking, I couldn’t wait to bite into one of them!
Recipe Rating
Below are the results of the recipe from the second attempt:
| Number of Ingredients | Effort (Low🤏, Medium🤏🤏, High🤏🤏🤏) | Cost per Serving (<$2💰, $2-5💰💰, >$5💰💰💰) | Taste (Not for me🤔, Trying Again🙂, Eating Regularly😋) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7️⃣ | 🤏 | 💰 | 🤔 |
The changes that I made to the process did produce softer meat that was less bland inside. However, the chicken still wasn’t tasty enough for me to try this recipe again.
As there are many chicken recipes out there to try, I’m not planning to use the one above as a basis in the future, but if I change my mind, below is what I would do next time:
Continuous Improvement
- Marinate the chicken for at least four hours and take the recommendation from the recipe to add brown sugar to the sauce mixture for more taste.
Altering the directions in the original recipe reiterated the following lesson for me:
Lesson for Dumber Self
- Decreasing the level of effort in an action will sometimes decrease the quality of a result, but finding the right balance is the key.
What will you do now?
Next Step for You
- Try the Honey Butter Roasted Chicken Drumsticks recipe from The Spruce Eats website?
- Share your favorite honey butter chicken recipe?
- Read another post on this site? (Go to the menu at the top of the page.)