Recipes / Chicken
Sticky chutney chicken drumsticks
Drumsticks marinated in fruit chutney, tomato sauce and Worcestershire, cooked slowly over medium coals and basted until sticky.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 35 min
- Plan ahead
- 2 hours marinating
- Serves
- 6
- Done at
- 165°F (74°C)
Ingredients
Chutney marinade
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Close the lid between turns. It cooks a little faster than an open braai, so start checking about 5 minutes early.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Cut two slashes down to the bone on each drumstick. This lets the marinade in and helps the meat cook evenly.
- Mix all the marinade ingredients. Pour a third of it into a clean jar and put it in the fridge for basting.
- Coat the drumsticks in the rest of the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Lift the drumsticks out and let the extra marinade drip off. Throw away the marinade the raw chicken sat in.
- Cook over medium coals for 25 to 30 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. Keep one side of the fire without coals and move any drumstick that chars to it.
- Brush with the marinade you set aside during the last 8 to 10 minutes, turning and basting 3 or 4 times until the glaze is sticky.
Done when: the glaze is dark and sticky, the meat pulls back from the bone at the knuckle and a thermometer next to the bone reads 74°C (165°F). Drumsticks are more tender at 80 to 85°C (175 to 185°F), so there is no harm in an extra few minutes on the cool side.
Tips
- Chutney and tomato sauce burn quickly. Do not baste with the sugar mix until the chicken is nearly cooked.
- Mrs Ball's chutney is sold in many US supermarkets in the international aisle and in South African shops online.
- The same marinade works on chicken wings. Cook them for 15 to 20 minutes.
Fruit chutney is a staple in South African kitchens, and Mrs Ball’s, first made in the Cape more than a hundred years ago, is the jar most families keep in the fridge door. Mixed with tomato sauce and a little Worcestershire it turns into a quick braai marinade that children and adults both like. Drumsticks are cheap, hard to dry out and easy to eat with your hands. Serve them with braaied mielies or a curried noodle salad.