Kirkwood Chicken Stixx Frenched Chicken Drumstick Lollipops

Chicken drumsticks are always a popular option. They’re easy to hold while eating, and you can season and cook them in many different ways. I make a lot of oven fried chicken with drumsticks, or I like to add chicken drumsticks to my slow cooker along with tomato sauce, soy sauce, garlic, and a few other simple ingredients.

One thing I’ve never done with chicken drumsticks is serve them frenched. Frenching involves cutting away tissues and tendons to reveal the bone on the skinnier end of a chicken drumstick. It’s reportedly a way to produce juicier drumsticks. It also just looks cool, and it gives you a less messy way to hold your drumstick while you eat it. Frenching takes some special tools and some practice to perfect the technique, but it’s not terribly hard.

Or, you could buy chicken drumsticks that are already frenched from Aldi as a limited-time special. I picked up a large bag of frenched chicken drumstick lollipops from the Aldi Find freezer aisle at Aldi recently.

Kirkwood Chicken Stixx Frenched Chicken Drumstick Lollipops are an Aldi Find, so they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back. Aldi does not offer online ordering for these if they’re sold out at your local store.

Kirkwood Chicken Stixx Frenched Chicken Drumstick Lollipops cost $9.99 for a 48-ounce bag at the time of publication. That’s about 21 cents per ounce.

The package states this chicken was hatched, raised, and harvested in the U.S. The bag I purchased lists a poultry plant number of P=46255 on the bag, which corresponds to Gemstone Ventures or Gemstone Foods in Florence, Alabama.

The only ingredient is chicken drumsticks, so these are pretty healthy. You can season them however you want or add any sauces you’d like. There’s a lot I like about that, including the fact that these are minimally processed and contain simple ingredients.

One bag contains about 12 one-piece servings. One serving has 180 calories, 10 grams of total fat (13% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 105 mg of cholesterol (35% DV), 120 mg of sodium (5% DV), no carbohydrates or dietary fiber or sugar, and 20 grams of protein.

Nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)

While these are sold frozen, the package states these are beset prepared in a thawed state. To thaw, store a single layer of chicken pieces, covered, in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf for 12 hours.

Once thawed, the package has directions for cooking these in a conventional oven or in an air frying.

To bake in a conventional oven, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the chicken in a single layer on a pan. Season as desired. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes, turn the chicken, and cook for another 30 minutes. Continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit.

To air fry, preheat the air fryer to 390 degrees. Season chicken as desired. Place the chicken in the air fryer. Close the air fryer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken, close the air fryer, and cook for another 10 minutes. Continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit.

Air fried Chicken Stixx.

My bag contained exactly 12 drumsticks. A couple of them were on the smaller side — with less meat on the bone — compared to others. I put all of the chicken in a large, deep covered casserole dish to thaw in the fridge overnight. It did leave some bloody water in the bottom of the dish, so be sure whatever you thaw these in is deep enough to hold some liquid.

I decided to try cooking some of these in the oven and some of them in the air fryer to see how they compared. I seasoned them all liberally with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. I also sprayed cooking spray on the baking sheet for the oven method and I sprayed it on the bottom of the air fryer basket to help prevent sticking.

Oven baked Chicken Stixx.

These turned out well. They taste like … chicken. They had plenty of meat, for the most part. Some of our taste testers preferred the chicken cooked in the air fryer because it seemed juicier, and it’s a lot faster, but both cooking methods worked fine. I thought my seasoning mix worked well, too, although if I make these again, I’d probably use my oven fried chicken recipe.

The Verdict:

Kirkwood Chicken Stixx Frenched Chicken Drumstick Lollipops feature chicken drumsticks that have the skin and tendons cut away on the skinnier end of the drumstick. This method gives them a unique lollipop-like appearance and can also result in more moist drumsticks. The only ingredient in these is chicken drumsticks, so you can season them to your dietary preferences and personal tastes. They’re sold frozen and need to be thawed before cooking, and the bag has directions for cooking them in a conventional oven or in an air fryer. Both turned out well, although we preferred the air fryer cooking method. We recommend these.