Firecracker Fried Chicken Drumsticks

By Addie

"I found this recipe a while back and had to try it. My husband and I fell in love with it. He has to have it at least twice a week. Sometimes I use boneless, skinless chicken breast in place of the drumsticks--the breasts take less cooking time. Enjoy!" — TISHA ANN

Ingredients

• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups vegetable oil for frying

Preparation

Step 1

1. Remove skin from chicken and place in a resealable plastic bag. Pour sauce over chicken, seal bag, and refrigerate to marinate for at least 1 hour, up to 24 hours. The longer the chicken marinates, the spicier it will be.

2. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large skillet to 350 degrees F.

3. Combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt in another resealable plastic bag. Add the drumsticks, seal bag, and shake to coat.

4. Fry the chicken, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until juices run clear. Turn occasionally to brown evenly.
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REVIEWS: (172)

If you have trouble with the breading, it's best to make sure that your oil is very hot. I just got a deep fryer and find it is better to cook them in there. If the breading is still falling off make sure that when you pull the chicken from the hot sauce that you make sure it isn't dripping wet. Let it quit dripping if you have to. Then make sure the flour mixture coats the chicken very well. Oher than that, I don't know why the breading would fall off. next time you make it and kids have some, try cutting them up into strips. That's the way I have made them from day one. And I always marinate them overnight. The longer the better. Thanks for trying the recipe.

I used boneless chicken breasts and cut them in half lengthwise for shorter cooking time. I marinated them 4 hours in a baggie with hot sauce, some cayenne pepper, season all salt and garlic powder. For the coating I made an egg wash with 2 eggs, half a cup of milk and a splash of hot sauce. In another bowl I mixed flour, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. I cut the chicken in strips and coated them with flour, dipped them in egg wash next then flour again. In a frying pan I heated oil then fried them. They were fabulous. Will definitely be on my Fall list for football season finger food.

Overall, great recipe, great flavor, relatively easy prep, the kids loved it. However, my coating was coming off in the oil during frying. I only turned it twice. Not sure what exactly went wrong with breading. If breading would have stayed on better, could have been 4-5 stars. If you have any suggestions about the breading write back. Thanks!

This was vary good it is the best chicken I have ever had. I am only 12 years old, and I was able to make it by myself, with minimal supervision. It is great to marinate it the night before you want to have it. The longer you marinate it, the spicer it gets.

Best chicken ever! I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinated in Cholula hot sauce all day. Then mixed up the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, Tony Chacherer's seasoning, salt and pepper. Then I dipped the chicken breasts into beaten eggs and milk, then flour mixture, eggs again and flour mixture again. Delicious! Will definitely use this recipe for chicken again and probably for chicken fried steak and pork chops.

My oldest son WOULD NOT eat chicken....until I made this recipe. It has a nice kick to it and I would liken the recipe to Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits Chicken Strips. A variation on this recipe would be to dip it into an egg mixture before the flour/cornstarch mixture and deep fry it.

I did as the recipe poster suggested and used chicken breasts cut up into finger like pieces instead of drumsticks. They did cook faster and absorbed more marinade than the drumsticks did. I also added garlic powder, about 1/4 cup white vinegar and cayenne pepper to the marinade (my hubby likes things spicy). Ran low on coating mixture towards the end and thought I had ruined the last batch, but it turned out great regardless. Have made several times and intend to continue!

Good idea, Marinating the chicken beasts in the hot sauce makes the chicken nice and tender. Easy to make and a joy to eat. I have tried it twice and find that adding hot pepper to the dry mix makes it a little hotter then just the red-hot. Also make a dipping sauce with butter and hot sauce goes well. Thanks.

I let it marinate for 4 hours and I was expecting it to be spicer. I really couldn't taste the hot sauce, but it was good fried chicken. Also, I used my deep fryer which cuts the cooking time by 10 minutes.

Easy & delicious. All the kids loved it, as well as the grown-ups.

Unbelievable flavor and fairly simple. If you are searching for a delicious spicy fried chicken recipe, look no further. Let it marinate for at least a day. The hotter the oil, the better the breading stays on.

I will definitely marinate longer next time for more intense flavors, but I really like the coating. I deep fried them and they turned out golden and crispy.

Like another review said, try Tuong Ot Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. My Vietnamese friend introduced it to me years ago and i have been using it ever since to marinade chicken in. Its nice and thick so the breading stays on. I normally use breast meat, but i decided to try it with legs. I didn't like it as much as I thought i would but my husband loved them.

This was good - but I could not taste the spice whatsoever in it after letting the chicken marinate in hot sauce for 4 hours. I will make it again and let the chicken soak in the hot sauce for a full 24 hours to see if that brings in the spice. The outside was perfectly crisp though, and I had no problem with the breading falling off during frying. I dumped the chicken in a colander prior to putting it in the breading to drain any excess liquid, and I made sure my oil was plenty hot before adding it in.

My family said this was absolutely the best chicken I have ever made. It was delicious and easy. I did however switch up the cornmeal for italian breadcrumbs.

My new favorite fried chicken. Made this twice, once with just Asian Hot Chili Sauce and once divided the chicken and made 1/2 with Hot Sauce and the other 1/2 with the Asian Hot Chili Sauce to compare. The adults preferred the Hot Chili Sauce, for it has more flavor. My children prefer the Hot Sauce, for it really isnt very hot at all. I used Tuong Ot Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, its nice and thick and really coats the drumsticks. I prefer it over the plain Hot Sauce, for I have no trouble with the batter coming off, as the Hot Sauce is very thin and doesnt really stick to the meat of the chicken.

Just had these for dinner and it came out okay. I used the Cholula hot sauce and marinated it for about 19 hours and it was not spicy. It could be the hot sauce, next time I will use Tabasco and hopefully it will come out spicy. I didn't have a problem with the flour falling off the chicken as did the other reviewers. The texture of it came out nice and crispy. I used a deep fryer set at 350 and had the chicken fried for about 15 minutes, and it came out golden and crispy. The first batch I made, I fried it for 20 minutes and It was a little overdone. I would suggest to fry it for 15 minutes then check it. Other than that it was good.

I just made these using chicken tenders and they are delicious, although I only had time to marinate for 4 hours. The breading is awesome!

I don't care for spicy, but DBF gave this 5 stars. He said the breading was perfect, although the whole shebang could have been spicier for his taste. I cooked in a deep fryer, and once they were out I tossed them in a mix of half hot sauce/half margarine, with a dash of garlic powder. Relatively quick and easy; I marinated for about 4 hours, next time I will do it overnight. Thanks for a great recipe, my man cleaned his plate!

Simple and great. I marinated mine for two nights so I rinsed the hot sauce off before coating and it was nicely spiced. The amount of cooking time was great. I halved the salt, and used only as much oil as I needed (maybe 1 cup by the end) - this recipe is a keeper!

I guess what I am rating is the breading because I didn't do the hot sauce thing.i just left my chicken overnight in salt water and then followed the recipe for the breading. I had no problem with the breading falling off or sticking. I used wings and drumsticks. It came out really good and flavorful. I will be doing this again. Next time maybe I will try the got sauce if I make it for someone who likes spicy stuff.

I love this recipe! So quick and easy and it has just enough kick to make it extra tasty! I highly recommend you try it out!

I marinated the chicken over night and it was perfect. Not too spicy but very flavorful. Thanks for the recipe!

Turned out GREAT, nice & spicy! Went perfect with some BBQ sauce!

I would give this no stars if i could. I really don't know how so many people liked it. It tasted sour and bitter to me and the coating on the chicken did not stay on and gave nothing to the over all flavor of the dish. My boyfriend thought it was ok but i couldn't even finish mine.

This is a really good recipe. I refrigerated the chicken after coating with the flour for about 25 minutes and the coating did not come off. I kept the oil between 300 and 325 and my chicken was done in just under 20 minutes. I will be making this recipe again.

Good, good, good! We only eat breasts so that is what I used. Did an egg wash w/ few splashes hot sauce in it. Dredged in flour/corn meal w/ cayenne. Marinated all day (8 hours). I've also used boneless/skinless ckn breasts and cut into strips for spicy tenders. Then melt 1/2 stick butter in saucepan, add bottle of tabasco and squirt of honey. I then pour this over the chicken or use as a dipping sauce! DELISH!