Instant Pot Chicken Drumsticks (with gravy)

Instant pot chicken drumsticks is a mostly hands-off recipe where you get moist, juicy chicken with crispy skin and a gravy to dip the chicken in. It’s a quick and easy weekday recipe that comes together in just 35 minutes. Serve over a bed of mashed potatoes for a hearty meal! 

Do try this Mexican chicken salad and this lemon chicken tray bake if you like easy chicken dinners.

Don’t have time for a fussy dinner in the middle of the week? I hear you. I can’t bear to spend more time in the kitchen than I have to after a full day’s work, and I’m sure I’m not alone! That is why I’m always on the look-out for easy dinners that don’t take a ton of effort to make. When it comes to protein, I mostly reach out for chicken over anything else, as you can guess from the number of chicken recipes on the blog.

Anyway, these chicken legs are made in the instant pot and broiled very briefly in the oven to crisp up the skins. You can absolutely skip that trip to the oven, but because they don’t take more than 5 minutes in the oven, and the result is quite delicious (crispy skins, remember?), I don’t skip this step.

And the best part? The gravy gets cooked at at the same time as the chicken. You don’t have to make it separately at all. Just add the cornstarch mixed with water and a dollop of butter to the liquid that’s left behind after pressure cooking the drumsticks and voila! You have a delicious gravy ready in a couple of minutes!

Ingredients

Note: exact amounts are mentioned in the recipe card further down.

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken legs and pat them dry. You don’t need to remove the skins.

2. Add the powdered spices and salt to the olive oil and make a paste. Rub all over the chicken.

3. Pour the chicken broth in the steel insert of your instant pot and keep a trivet in it.

4. Keep the chicken legs on the trivet. You can stack them if you want to. It won’t make a difference.

5. Secure the lid and make sure the pressure valve is set to sealing. Press the pressure cooking button (high) and set the timer to 10 minutes. Walk away.

6. When the timer beeps, wait 5 minutes before releasing the pressure. Remove the lid and carefully take out the chicken onto a greased baking sheet. Remove the trivet too. You will be left with a lot of liquid at the bottom which you will use to make the gravy presently.

7. Switch on your oven and push the ‘broil’ button on high. Place the tray of chicken in the middle rack and allow it to broil for 4-5 minutes or until the skins are brown and crispy. Like so:

8. While the chicken is broiling in the oven, press the sauté button on your instant pot. Allow the liquid in the pot to heat up again and add the cornstarch slurry (2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 3 tbsp water) to it. Stir until the liquid thickens into a gravy. Add butter and stir again. Cook until the gravy is shiny. The whole process of making the gravy will take 3 minutes only. Remove the gravy into a bowl and serve with the chicken.

Top tips

• Make sure the chicken is dry before rubbing the paste all over.
• I recommend keeping the skins on. Saves time and yields delicious results!
• You can marinate the chicken for a couple of hours before pressure cooking it, but this is optional. By all means do it if you have the time, but if you don’t, forget it.
• Chicken broth can easily be substituted with vegetable broth or stock if that’s what you have.
• In place of cornstarch, you can use all-purpose flour or arrowroot powder for making the slurry.

More chicken recipes

• Instant pot chicken thighs and rice
• Crispy chicken fajitas
• Pan-fried jerk chicken quesadillas
• Instant pot chicken stroganoff