Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Drumsticks. How to cook delicious chicken drumsticks in the instant pot pressure cooker from frozen. Grab your frozen chicken drumsticks and transform them into delicious crispy chicken drumsticks that are tender, juicy, and delicious.
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Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Drumsticks
This week has been so fun on Recipe This, showing you some delicious new ways to cook frozen meat in the instant pot.
I have loved making instant pot frozen pork chops, instant pot frozen chicken wings and instant pot frozen chicken thighs.
I am naturally a frugal home cook. My grandparents were poor and when Dominic and I got married our household income was less than $1000 a month.
It taught me to cook on a budget and how delicious cheap family meals can be.
Even now (17 years later) I still love saving money on groceries. What these frozen meats have in common is that they are very cheap to buy and ideal for making incredibly tender and delicious in the instant pot pressure cooker.
We buy our chicken drumsticks from either our local Portuguese supermarket or Lidl. We go to Lidl maybe once a month and stock up on chicken drumsticks, chicken breasts, chicken legs and chicken wings.
Get home, load them into our large chest freezer and then cook them from frozen later.
When making these instant pot chicken drumsticks for you, we experimented with a few different cook times, a few different seasonings and also compared them to the air fryer to get you the best results.
Can You Cook Chicken Drumsticks From Frozen?
Absolutely. But do note, that you want to cook your frozen chicken drumsticks on a medium temperature, or pressure cook them.
Otherwise you can end up with dry overcooked chicken drumsticks.
Plus, never cook frozen chicken drumsticks in the slow cooker as it doesn’t get hot enough to fight off the bacteria.
Can I Put Frozen Chicken In My Instant Pot?
Yes you can! We have cooked frozen whole chicken, chicken thighs, chicken wings, chicken legs and even diced frozen chicken breast in our instant pot. Each time the chicken has been juicy and tender and never dry.
Can You Cook Frozen Chicken Drumsticks In Instant Pot?
Yes you can. Though do note that frozen chicken drumsticks don’t come out as firm compared to air fryer chicken drumsticks.
Instead instant pot chicken drumsticks are more like slow cooker ones that fall off the bone.
Then you will need an air fryer lid to crisp up your chicken drumsticks. This will ensure that they are perfectly crispy.
I have eaten many rounds of frozen chicken drumsticks in both the air fryer and the instant pot and the instant pot ones are better. This is because of how tender the meat becomes.
Frozen Chicken Drumsticks In Instant Pot
The ingredients for instant pot frozen chicken drumsticks, are simple everyday ingredients that you can source, without having to go grocery shopping.
- Frozen Chicken Drumsticks – Direct from my freezer and loaded straight into the instant pot. You can use any size, sometimes I will chop thighs and drumsticks in half and load both in.
- Seasoning – This depends if you want your skin blackened or not. You can go with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil. Then swap balsamic for honey for the blackened look. Or if you love chicken drumsticks with barbecue sauce, then replace with this.
- Steamer Basket – The steamer basket is where I recommend you place your frozen chicken drumsticks. I recommend you read through our best instant pot steamer baskets to make sure you have the right type for instant pot cooking. Or a Plan B is to use your air fryer shelf inside of your instant pot.
Any electric pressure cooker will do a good job at instant pot frozen chicken drumsticks, though we are using our Instant Pot Duo 8 Quart.
How To Make Frozen Chicken Drumsticks In Instant Pot?
The quick version of cooking frozen chicken drumsticks in instant pot goes as follows:
- Pour water into the inner pot and add your steamer basket.
- Load it with frozen chicken drumsticks.
- Pressure cook.
- Crisp chicken drumsticks skin.
- Eat!
There is a little more to it than that, but those are the simple basics!
Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Drumsticks Cooking Time
I have experimented a few times with our instant pot frozen chicken drumsticks before I found the ideal cooking time.
I started with 25 minutes and found that they fell off the bone slightly more than I would like. Then I reduced it down to 20 minutes and found that they were perfect.
Then add an extra 10 minutes for the air fryer lid to crisp up your chicken drumsticks.
Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Instant Pot Frozen Chicken Drumsticks Ingredients:
- 4 Medium Frozen Chicken Drumsticks
- 1 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tsp Garlic Puree
- 1 Tsp Grainy Mustard
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Parsley
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- Place a cup/240ml of water into the bottom of your instant pot inner pot. Add your steamer basket or air fryer shelf. Add frozen chicken drumsticks. Season the frozen drumsticks with salt, pepper and parsley. Place the lid on the instant pot, set the valve to sealing and cook for 20 minutes on manual pressure cook.
- Load seasonings into a small bowl and mix.
- When the instant pot beeps, manually release pressure. Brush your seasoning over the skin of your just cooked chicken drumsticks.
- Crisp. Replace the instant pot lid with the air fryer lid. Set the time to 10 minutes with a temperature of 260c/500f. Then you will have crispy skin. If it is not crispy enough for you, add a little extra virgin olive oil spray and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Finish. Use kitchen tongs to remove the chicken drumsticks as they will be very hot. Load onto plates and serve with your favourite sides.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
5/5 stars!
Everyone loved it!
Amazingly tasty, easy to make, highly recommend.
Winner winner chicken drumsticks dinner!! Thanks Recipe This
Yet another super delicious meal with minimal effort. The “crispy skin” was sooo good. Hubby is raving about it and the kids loved it. Thanks again, your recipes never fail to impress.
I have an airfryer 360 so I wont have the option of a crisper lid. I am guessing I will need to set my airfryer at 400 for about 15 mins.
Hi Toni
Yes if you have not got a crisp lid just transfer them over to the air fryer on high for between 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the drumsticks 🙂
What do I do if I don’t have an air fryer lid for the instapot? Do I just cook longer?
Hi Shannon,
The drumsticks were already cooked before we crisped them up. We just used the instant pot lid to put some colour on them, you can just put them under your grill if you have one for the same amount of time 🙂
My instapot only has high and low for pressure which do I use?
Hi Laura,
We only use the low pressure for rice and nearly all of our recipes we use high pressure 🙂
I’m trying this for the first time, do you drain the water in the bottom before using air fryer?
Hi Sarah,
Sorry for the late reply, yes you do drain water before air frying 🙂