Pepsi Cola Chicken Drumsticks!
Who doesn’t love drumsticks? While I don’t make them often, they are fun to serve at parties, or just hone hunkering down in front of the TV.
As a fan of Asian food, I am always looking for a new recipe – and I was surprised one day to find these “unique” potato chips – note the flavor:
Pepsi Chicken Potato Chips!
I discovered that in parts of Asia, cola-flavored chicken is hugely popular – as these “Pepsi Chicken Potato Chips” prove…so it made me want to find out for myself – just how good are “Pepsi Chicken Drumsticks?”
Well, I was determined to find out!
I found a number of recipes online, which gave me some ideas for the flavor combo that would work for me – and I settled on Pepsi, soy sauce and sweet rice wine cooking vinegar…infused with fresh garlic:
Here are the ingredients:
12 ounces Pepsi
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 to 4 tablespoons fresh chopped or grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
The first thing I did was boil down the liquid: I added a bit of garlic powder after 15 minutes to give it a bit of a kick, but as you can see, you just want to gently boil it down until it feels like a syrupy glaze…
There are many recipes online: many use Ketchup, some add BBQ sauce, plus onion, garlic, etc. But I kept mine simple…and after 50-40 minutes of slowly reducing the liquid – stirring regularly, I ended up with a syrupy Pepsi glaze!
Bring On The Drumsticks!
The next part is pretty easy: while the sauce is reducing, turn on your grill or turn on your oven if you plan to cook them that way – and when the sauce is ready to go, put your raw chicken drumsticks on a platter and paint them with your glaze!
I laid the drumsticks out on my gas grill, then closed the cover and let them cook for 5 minutes before I flipped them and glazed them again:
The standard cooking method for these drumsticks is to flip them every 5-7 minutes until internal temp of 185-190 degrees. I didn’t want mine to become too charred, so I moved them to the upper level after 15 minutes and pulled them off after 25 minutes – and here’s what I got:
The Pepsi sauce glistened on the drumsticks, and the crispy char on some was a nice crunchy touch – the sauce was indeed heavily “pepsi-infused” – a bit sweet, a strong cola essence, but the ginger and soy also came through as well – I loved them!
Pepsi Chicken Is A “WIN!”
If you like chicken drumsticks, this is a nice alternative to traditional BBQ sauces.
My wife Alex wasn’t originally thrilled about the concept of “Pepsi Chicken”, but she liked them as well – not a huge fan of the sweetness, but it’s diluted enough by the soy, ginger and rice vinegar to keep it within bounds…now, as I said, I decided to make these because I saw “Pepsi Chicken? potato chips – just one unique Asian flavor – look at this one:
Hot And Sour Fish Soup Potato Chips!
Yes, this is a real potato chip flavor as well! It’s one of many I found – you can see them all here:
I love Asian flavors – in fact, I cooked an entire meal of Japanese Pub food!
Click here to see all of the recipes for this wild pub crawl!
I have also cooked a traditional Italian “Sunday Gravy”, with an interesting assist from Actor / Cookbook Author / Food Travel Host Stanley Tucci:
I learned a fascinating bit of information about how you are supposed to serve this dish, and you can see how I did by clicking on my story here:
As my “52 In 22” cooking challenge continues, I am sharing and storing all of these recipes on my food website “Bite! Eat! Repeat!” – it’s your site for all things food – if you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!
Let me know what you think of my “52 In 22” challenge!
Let me know if you’ve tried “Pepsi Chicken” Drumsticks!
Categories: 52 In 22!, Alcohol And Bars, Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Books / Media, Eat This!, Fast Food, Food, Food Pictures, Food Porn, Food Travel, Recipes, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
Hi John, I’ve only heard of gammon cooked in Coca Cola before but it makes sense you can use it as a glaze for other meats.
It’s surprising good Robbie! Hope you have a great weekend underway!
They look delicious, John.. I have used pepsi in cooking chicken like you have I normally add a splash of fish sauce with mine but the sugar in pepsi always gives a nice sticky glaze.. The kids love them..
The fish sauce is a smart idea! I will do that in the future – thanks!
I’m fish sauce fan I chuck it in everything almost 😂.. I hope you enjoy it in your sauce..