We try to eat a varied diet, but often fall into a rut. Tonight we’re going to do something a little different: simple, easy, barbeque chicken drumsticks.

Technically, this is more like “chicken with barbeque sauce.” We’re not using a smoker or a grill per se to cook these drumsticks, at least not on this round, but we’re calling it barbeque for simplicity’s sake. Anyway.

A couple of hours before cooking, I got out the chicken drumsticks and seasoned them liberally. I like to make my own seasonings when I can but time is short today so we’re using a pre-made mix purchased at our local Aldi, called “kicked-up chicken grill seasoning.” No shame in taking the occasional shortcut, and this mix smells pretty good.

I used my hands and fingers to really rub the spice mix into the chicken. You want to get a good layer of the dry rub on the chicken, and ideally you want to do so well before you cook so the meat can absorb the flavor of the rub. This rub contains salt, so I didn’t salt the drumsticks first; if there’s no salt in the rub, you must salt your meat first.

After seasoning the drumsticks and letting them sit a while, I poured some barbecue sauce into the pan and coated the drumsticks with it. We split this batch between a Carolina-style sauce and a Texas-style sauce, both courtesy (again) of our local Aldi. I’d love to make my own sauce but that’s not happening today — store-bought it is.

After letting the chicken sit in the rub for a solid hour, I slathered the chicken in sauce, then placed it into the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

The result? Moist, flavorful, saucy chicken drumsticks! Serve with some curly fries and your choice of sauce (and maybe a side salad or some green beans, which I forgot to include in this meal), and there you have it: an easy, simple, home-cooked meal that the whole family will enjoy.