Slow Cooker Chicken Drumsticks — Another Six-Dollar Miracle from the Crock-Pot

Chloe asked me to teach her to cook this week. She is four. She can barely reach the counter. She stood on a step stool and said, "Mama, I want to make something," and I thought about all the reasons to say no — hot stove, sharp knives, the fact that she put a crayon in the microwave last month — and then I thought about Earline teaching Lorraine, and Lorraine teaching me, and how the recipe box on top of my fridge contains not just recipes but a whole lineage of women who fed their families with whatever they had. So I said yes.

We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I know — not exactly a culinary masterpiece. But Chloe spread the peanut butter with the focus of a surgeon, tongue out, brow furrowed, determined to get it to every corner. She put the jelly on too thick — way too thick, grape jelly oozing out the sides — and when she pressed the bread together it squished out and she said, "Oops." And then she ate it and said, "This is the best sandwich I ever made." Baby girl, it's the ONLY sandwich you ever made. But it was the best. Everything first is the best.

Jayden is fifteen months old and has decided that shoes are food. He chewed through the strap of one of Chloe's sandals this week. Chloe was not pleased. I was not pleased. Jayden was very pleased. He has no remorse. He is a shoe-eating machine in a diaper, and I love him more than oxygen, and also I need to buy Chloe new sandals, which I cannot afford, which is the constant refrain of single motherhood: love + broke = figure it out.

I started a summer reading list for the dental hygiene program. The school sent a suggested list of books and articles to read before classes start. I read them during Jayden's naps, sitting on the couch with the window unit blowing directly on me, learning about oral anatomy and periodontal health and the specific way you hold a scaler. It's fascinating and terrifying. These are the tools I'll use to build a career. Tiny, sharp, precise tools. I've been using big, blunt tools my whole life — stubbornness, endurance, Earline's cornbread. Time to learn some new ones.

Mama had a doctor's appointment this week — just a checkup, nothing serious, but the doctor told her to watch her blood pressure. Lorraine's response to this medical advice was to come home and make fried chicken. Because that's what Lorraine does when she's stressed: she cooks the thing that caused the stress. It's a closed loop of delicious self-sabotage. I didn't say anything. You don't tell Lorraine Mitchell what to eat. You just love her and buy her low-sodium seasoning and hope for the best.

I made a slow cooker pulled pork on Saturday. Pork shoulder was on sale at Kroger — $1.49 a pound — and I bought a three-pounder and threw it in the Crock-Pot with BBQ sauce, a little apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and garlic powder. Eight hours later, I shredded it with two forks and we ate it on cheap buns with coleslaw from a bag. Total cost: about six dollars. Meals for three days. Chloe ate hers without the bun. Jayden ate shredded pork with his hands like a tiny, civilized barbarian. I ate mine standing at the counter, watching the sun go down through the kitchen window, and thought: this is good. This right here. This is good.

That Saturday pulled pork taught me something I already knew but needed to feel again: the slow cooker is the great equalizer of budget cooking. You buy the cheap cut, you throw in the sauce, and eight hours later you’ve made something that tastes like effort even when life gave you none. Chicken drumsticks are the pulled pork’s budget cousin — they go on sale just as reliably, they fall off the bone just as beautifully, and Jayden can eat them with his hands with the same enthusiastic barbarianism he brings to everything. Keep this one in your back pocket for the weeks when the pork shoulder isn’t marked down but the leg quarters are.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 6 hours | Total Time: 6 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 4 (2 drumsticks each)

Ingredients

• 8 chicken drumsticks (about 3 lbs)
• 1 cup BBQ sauce, divided (plus more for serving)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Season the chicken. Pat drumsticks dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, mix garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Rub the spice mix all over each drumstick.
2. Make the sauce. In a separate bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup of the BBQ sauce, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar until combined.
3. Load the Crock-Pot. Pour about 1/4 cup of the sauce mixture into the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Arrange the drumsticks on top in a single layer as best you can. Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken.
4. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until the chicken is cooked through and starting to pull away from the bone. Internal temperature should reach 165°F.
5. Finish under the broiler (optional but worth it). Line a baking sheet with foil. Transfer drumsticks to the baking sheet and brush with the reserved 1/4 cup BBQ sauce. Broil on high for 3 to 4 minutes until the sauce is caramelized and slightly charred at the edges. Watch them — they go from perfect to burnt fast.
6. Rest and serve. Let the drumsticks rest 5 minutes before serving. Spoon extra sauce from the slow cooker over the top. Serve with coleslaw, cheap buns, corn on the cob, or whatever you’ve got.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 318 | Protein: 29g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 20g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 694mg