This Apricot Glazed Drumsticks Sheet Pan Meal is perfect for any day of the week and is sure to become a family favorite. The Chicken legs can be changed out for chicken thighs and it has minimal clean up since everything is cooking on a sheet pan!
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Sheet Pan Meals have become a favorite around here the past few years. I love them because they’re easy to throw together and because there isn’t a lot of clean up since everything is pretty much cooked on the same pan.
This Apricot Glazed Drumsticks Sheet Pan Meal is the newest addition to our saved sheet pan meals and it’s delicious!
What do I need to make this Apricot Glazed Drumsticks Sheet Pan Meal?
You’ll need the following for this recipe:
- fingerling potatoes
- green beans
- olive oil
- onion powder
- chicken drumsticks
- salt
- ground pepper
- orange or mandarin orange
- reduced sodium soy sauce
- apricot preserves
- garlic
What are Fingerling potatoes?
Fingerling potatoes are just small, fat, long potatoes.
Normally when you find them at the store they come in a bag that contains purple, red and yellow fingerling potatoes.
They taste just like any other regular potato to make but I love the colors they add to the dish. You could also use small red potatoes if you can’t find fingerling potatoes.
Use a Rimmed Baking Sheet!
Why a rimmed baking sheet?
Well, you’re going to be cooking chicken and you don’t want chicken juices to run off of your pan into your oven while the chicken is cooking, now do ya?
Nope! That is why I think it’s always best to use a rimmed baking sheet for these types of sheet pan meals. I also like to use a rimmed baking sheet because it keeps everything together when its baking and when I’m tossing it together half way through cooking.
Watch out for chubby baby hands!
If you’re making this dish for your family, you may have to watch out for chubby baby hands! They tend to find their way towards fresh vegetables and they love to steal from the kitchen! 😉
Chubby baby hand thanks goes to my son Jackson who loves almost any kind of vegetable. haha.
Use Apricot Preserves, Not Jelly.
I don’t see apricot jelly very often but I have spotted it before. However, I normally find for glazes that thicker products like preserves do better than jelly when I need the glaze to really coat meat.
Grating and Juicing the Orange:
Grate FIRST! Juice SECOND!
If you try to juice an orange and then grate the zest from it you’re going to have a rough time. Save yourself and make sure to always grate the zest from fruit before juicing if you need zest for a recipe.
Also, as for the size of the orange, a small orange will work for this recipe but I have found that a mandarin orange like a “Halo” or a “Cutie” gives you exactly how much juice you need for this recipe.
We always have mandarin oranges at the house so this works out perfectly for us when we make this Apricot Glazed Drumsticks Sheet Pan Meal.
The Glaze:
The glaze is really easy for this recipe and is made up of the following items:
- orange or mandarin orange
- reduced sodium soy sauce
- apricot preserves
- garlic
Amounts are below for you!
Time for the chicken:
When you’re ready to work on the chicken in the recipe, season chicken legs with salt and pepper on all sides.
Place chicken into the vegetables, bottom side up.
You’ll want to bake it bottom side up for the first portion so that when you flip it half way through it’ll be right side up when it’s done cooking.
Brush the chicken legs with half of the glaze.
Bake chicken and vegetables in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and stir the vegetables.
Flip the chicken right side up and brush with the remaining glaze.
Place back into oven and bake for 30-35 more minutes or until chicken is done.
Chicken is done when it is at least 165°F on an instant-read thermometer and the potatoes are tender.
As much as I’ve cooked chicken, I still get nervous about serving raw chicken and sometimes I even over cook chicken trying to make sure it’s cooked. That’s why I suggest using a an instant-read thermometer when you can.
No one wants raw chicken.
Q&A:
- Can I use a different part of the chicken?
Chicken thighs would be great with this recipes but you’ll need to adjust cooking time since chicken thighs are thicker.
- Can I use Apricot jelly instead?
You can try it but I recommend the preserves because it’s thicker.
- Is there a thick glaze on these chicken legs?
Not a super thick glaze. If you want more of a glaze I would suggest making extra glaze and brushing it on about 10 minutes before cooking is done or as soon as it comes out of the oven!
- My Chicken Legs are burning on the top but I’m not sure that they’re done.
If you find that your chicken legs are getting too brown on top for you liking just carefully cover the sheet pan meal with a piece of foil while it finishes up.
More Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes that you’ll love:
- My Favorite Way to Roast a Whole Chicken
- Easy Weeknight Baked Chicken Parmesan
- Cheesy Chicken & Sausage Pasta
More Sheet Pan Meal Recipes to make:
- Oven Baked Salmon and Roasted Carrot Sheet Pan Meal
- Roasted Asparagus Mushroom Shrimp Sheet Pan Meal
- Easy Baked Teriyaki Salmon and Vegetable Sheet Pan Meal
- Caprese Chicken Sheet Pan Meal
Apricot Glazed Drumsticks Sheet Pan Meal
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