I am a vegetaran, so please be gentle with me...

[georgiemum]

DS eats everything - absolutely everything. If he wants to go veggie later then that;s OK too.

I am not squeamish and have gutted fish, chopped up little furry things and love the smell of frying bacon.

But how the hell do I cook a lovely chicken drumbstick a la Tom and Jerry? You know the type, where it looks beautiful and is cooked throughout and the skin in moisty and tasty? I know it should be easy, but I trend to nuke them to avoid poisoning the poor little chap.

No no no - nuking is bad!

Best way is to grill them.

Mix up a marinade with :

tomatoe sauce
olive oil
balsamic vinegar and/or splash of wine and/or lemon juice
Mixed herbs
salt/pepper

Marinate chicken pieces (in my world, that involves tossing them in the bowl and mixing it up - no soaking for me), then put under a hot grill. Turn regularly (every 3 minutes or so)- they'll burn a little (or the tomatoe sauce will) but it makes them delicious and they only take about 15 minutes anyway. .

You can also do similar things but then just put into the oven to roast for around 20 - 30 minutes.

You can tell when it's cooked by sticking a knife or skewer in - the juices should run clear.

You can roast drumsticks, but sounds like your oven is too hot. How many are you roasting at once? Just the one? If it's jst one or two I'd recommend grilling them instead

You could cover them with foil for first half of cooking time, and they really won't need long in the oven.

If juices run clear, it is cooked.

Of course, the easiest way to get a perfect chicken drumdtick is to cook it still attached to the rest of the chicken!

Oops. Nuked them again. Quite hard and crunchy.

I lovingly dotted them with butter then poped them in the oven then forgot about them as I made my bread, did the launcre and did some research for a job interview later this week. And joined the gym (special offer this week). And had a cup of tea.

Must stop trying to multitask.

Am also a veggie and I made this at the weekend (not the salad just the drumsticks) and dd and her friends ate all of them, so they can't have been too bad!