Grilled Chicken Drumsticks (2024)

These melt-in-your-mouth Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with homemade habanero BBQ sauce are a match made in heaven. If you’ve been looking for a grilled chicken legs recipe, you’ve come to the right place!

When you are looking for those one handed melt in your mouth grilled chicken legs where the sauce drips down your wrist, this is going to be your recipe.

Chicken legs on the grill are a classic weekend bbq recipe to serve for 4th of July, Labor Day and those block parties when you want to flex your grilling muscles to the neighbors.

🍽️ Why This Works

Simple, direct heat grilling instructions. You won’t need any special equipment, complicated steps, or hours of time to make these BBQ chicken legs. Just a grill. Any grill.

A little heat, please. The habanero sauce adds just the right amount of heat without sacrificing any of the incredible barbecue flavor.

Inexpensive. Because they are considered less desirable, you can often get a package of chicken legs for very cheap. We don’t know why anyone thinks less of them, because this recipe is incredible. But saving money is nice!

🍗 Ingredients

Chicken Drumsticks – Find these at your local grocery store in a value pack. Because the chicken legs are small pieces of dark meat with a high surface area ratio they will absorb more flavor from the rub and sauce. And that crispy skin. Oh my.

Dry Rub – We recommend this all-purpose dry rub recipe for grilling.

Habanero Sauce – The sauce is made from habanero peppers, onions, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, minced onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, chili pepper flakes, white pepper, and molasses.

Grill. Even if you live in a cold-weather climate, you can use your grill year-round to keep a mess out of the kitchen. We use our Big Green Egg but you can definitely rely on a gas grill, charcoal grill, or a pellet grill like the Traeger works great for these legs.

Blender or Food Processor. I highly recommend a stick blender to puree the sauce.

GrillGrate. This is optional but comes in very handy to reduce flare-ups and concentrate flavor.

Instant Read Thermometer. An essential grilling tool, a thermometer will allow you to grill your meat to exactly the right temperature to be safe without overcooking your meat.

🔥 How to Grill Chicken Legs Instructions

Step One: Carefully mince the habanero peppers wearing gloves. Do not touch your face.

Step Two: Combine vinegar, peppers, onion, garlic, red pepper, chili pepper, white pepper to the pan and bring it to a boil. Add in brown sugar, ketchup, and molasses to the pan and bring to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn the stove to low and allow it to simmer and thicken for 30 minutes.

Step Three: Heat up the grill to medium-high heat or about 450º F. Take the meat out of the refrigerator and pat dry with paper towels. Mix the ingredients for the BBQ dry rub in a small bowl. Apply the rub so the drumsticks are evenly coated. Place chicken legs on the grill over direct heat.

Step Four: Grill the meat until the legs are close to the internal temperature of 165 degrees f. This takes about 50 minutes, flipping every 15-20 minutes.

Step Five: For the last 10 minutes, brush the sauce onto the grilled chicken legs.

Step Six: Remove the grilled drumsticks when the internal temp reaches 165ºF and let them rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

I love to rub the grill grates with a bit of olive oil using paper towels before I place the chicken legs on to prevent them from sticking.

⏰ How Long Do You Grill Chicken Drumsticks?

When grilling at a high temp (450°F as we did) it should take about 45-50 minutes. Always cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees f. as the USDA suggests, using an internal meat thermometer.

See our comprehensive guide on how long to grill chicken and this handy grilled chicken temperature chart for perfect results every time!

❗ Expert Tips

With so many pieces of bone-in meat, you will have a lot of fat dropping into your grill. Use a GrillGrate to reduce flaring and get a beautiful sear on your meat.

Use a pair of tongs to gently lift the chicken off the grill grates when flipping. This will help you avoid tearing the skin in case it sticks to the grates.

Let the sauce cool significantly if you plan to puree it. Puree the sauce with a blender or food processor if desired. A stick blender works great and will puree your sauce directly in the pan.

Do not overcook your meat! Dark meat makes it super hard to tell when the meat is finished and it may remain slightly pink since you are cooking the meat on the bone. I highly recommend you invest in an inexpensive instant-read thermometer probe for grilling and remove your grilled drumsticks when the internal temp reaches 165ºF.

Also, it’s super important you know how to tell if chicken is undercooked. Once again, an instant-read thermometer is the best tool to use for measuring the chicken’s internal temperature, but there are other signs you can watch out for.

🍱Leftovers Storage

I recommend you pull the meat off of each bone, remove the skin, and place the meat in a freezer-quality zipper bag. You can then either refrigerate the meat for two or three days or freeze the meat for up to three months. Depending on what you will use the meat for, you might want to also dice it up before bagging.

🍲 Meal Prep

Leftover chicken legs can be used in so many other recipes! When you need chicken for stir fry, tacos or tortilla soup, chicken noodle soup, salad protein, or a quick sandwich you’ll have the meat cooked and ready to go. If frozen, quick thaw in the microwave will have it ready to toss in your recipe.

👩🏽‍🍳 Grilled Chicken Drumsticks Additions & Substitutions

You can make grilled chicken drumsticks a thousand different ways and that just proves how versatile chicken meat can be. We’re always having fun testing new rubs, barbecue sauces, and marinades. Here’s some inspiration to get you started!

Dry Rubs

If you don’t have time to make our all-purpose dry rub, you can always use a store-bought one. However, making your own is super easy and you can try other recipes like this Yucatan dry rub, or our homemade Java rub.

Creating new flavor blends is such a fun experience! The herbs and spices below are dry rub staples and can be mixed in so many ways:

• Salt (Kosher salt is great but you can use plain table salt)
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Smoked paprika
• Ground mustard
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Rosemary

BBQ Sauces

Another way to change up these BBQ chicken drumsticks is to use a different barbecue sauce. There are plenty of store-bought options although I highly recommend you make your own.

We made this sweet and spicy BBQ sauce to go perfectly with grilled chicken, and they really are a match made in heaven. I also recommend you try this incredibly flavorful whiskey barbecue sauce, the rich and delicious smoked pumpkin bourbon BBQ sauce, and this tangy cherry bourbon BBQ sauce.

Marinades

Test out some tasty marinades for these chicken legs. They’ll turn out incredibly tender!

We absolutely loved how fresh and simple this honey lemon marinade is. A rosemary thyme marinade or a super easy honey and soy sauce marinade will also tenderize the chicken legs and add amazing flavor.

Other Substitutions

Sometimes habaneros are hard to find depending on the area of the country you live in and your grocery store manager. You can substitute with fresh serrano peppers or fresh jalapenos if needed even though the flavor is slightly different.

The serrano pepper is the best choice if you can find those. Both of these substitutions are milder than the habanero so if you want to get more heat, add a dash of ancho chili powder.

♨️More Grilled Chicken Recipes

Inexpensive, easy to find, and highly customizable. Grilled chicken is yummy and it can be prepared using various methods.

Another way to enjoy drumsticks is as grilled chicken lollipops. It makes for a special presentation perfect for BBQ parties! If you can’t find chicken legs, use this same recipe for wings or thighs.

I’ve also had great success with grilled lemon pepper chicken thighs, and garlic parmesan grilled chicken wings. Grilled chicken livers and grilled chicken burgers are also fast grilling recipes that make it very easy to feed a crowd.

Grilled chicken leg quarters is another budget-friendly recipe since this chicken part is often on sale.

The humble breast can be transformed into a 5-star BBQ experience with very little effort. You can make the juiciest grilled chicken breast without marinating if you prepare and cook the meat correctly.

If you’d like to try other flavors the grilled honey sriracha chicken is perfect for spicy food lovers! The citrus notes of this grilled honey orange chicken will be well appreciated even by fussy eaters.

Let’s not forget this iconic grilled beer can chicken that lets you enjoy it in its whole form! It takes a bit longer to cook but the results are totally worth it! On that note, a grilled spatchco*cked chicken will cook much faster and the same goes for grilled half chicken.

Serving Suggestions

Crispy, flavorful grilled drumsticks as a main dish go well with so many different BBQ side dishes. Whip up this grilled peach and arugula salad, grab a nice crusty bread from your store’s bakery, and you have a well-rounded meal.

Or you can get more elaborate with grilled beer corn on the cob, grilled steakhouse potatoes, and biscuits.

Grilled potato kebabs, grilled parsnips, or some delicious grilled onions will ensure you have a nutritious and healthy meal.

Looking for more side dishes for grilled chicken drumsticks? You’re sure to have some favorites among these BBQ chicken sides!

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