Smoked Chicken Legs Recipe
Smoked Chicken Legs on the grill is a quick and easy cook. Makes for a good dinner – kids love chicken legs! Or you could do it for a crowd because you can feed a lot of people with smoked chicken legs – and it’s hard to find someone who won’t eat a good drumstick. I recently found a chicken leg rack at a local butcher. I’ve seen guys turning in chicken legs in competitions and they use this kind of chicken rack and I had to try it out for smoking chicken legs. I started with a pack of chicken drumsticks from the grocery and layered on two different seasonings. I started with a basic AP rub (4 parts salt, 2 parts granulated garlic and 1 part black pepper) and then applied The BBQ Rub on top of the chicken leg.
Once the chicken legs are seasoned, I just hung them on the chicken rack and placed them on the grill. For these smoked chicken legs, I used my Big Green Egg and set it at 275-300 with 2 chunks of pecan wood.
I let the chicken legs smoke until they hit around 165-170 degrees. It’s going to take a little over an hour to get these chicken legs there. Then I mixed a glaze for my chicken legs by using 18oz Killer Hog’s The BBQ Sauce and 2oz pineapple juice. I dunked each chicken leg and placed it back on the chicken leg grill rack so the glaze can set.
It will take between 10-15 minutes for the chicken legs to reach a final internal temp of 175 and for the glaze to set.
I remove the whole chicken leg grill rack and take it inside – allowing the smoked legs to cool for 10 minutes.
Once the chicken legs are cooled, remove them from the rack and serve! You can’t beat these sticky, sweet, juicy and delicious smoked chicken legs – everyone loves them.
Malcom Reed
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How do you get chicken skin to be crispy and not rubbery?
When it comes to smoked chicken, it’s hard to get crispy skin. I try to shoot for soft “melt in your mouth” skin… and I get that by cranking up the heat closer to 300 for the cook so it renders the fat properly.
Malcom – Did you think the skin was “bite-through” enough for the judges? Seems like a lot easier than the thighs and going to practice them this weekend…
yeah, about 1/2 the teams are turning in legs now
Love this site. Thank you for sharing. Following your advice I have been successful in all my smoking too date. Even have my neighbors asking if I will smoke items for them.
Great video
Good God Malcom,
I got an XL Green Egg a few weeks back, and I tried this recipe , but I didn’t have the leg rack you have.
It was probably my 3rd smoked/slow cooked thing I did on it, and hands down it was the best chicken I’ve had in my LIFE. Everyone in my family who had it, wanted me to make this again!!!
Subscribed for LIFE!!
I have a Pitt boss pellet grill. Do you put a thin aluminium pan under your grate to catch the drippings or cover the steel plate with foil
yeah, I usually cover the plates under the grate in foil – just makes clean-up so much easier…
Should I brine the legs before smoking? Would it improve the final product?
sure – you can brine it and it will add even more flavor – just make sure they are really dry before you season and smoke. That will help the skin stay bite-through
Just saw your website when looking for a chicken drumstick grilling rack. I like your straight up style and am looking forward to hearing more from you about other smoking/grilling .
Do you think you could smoke these like your party wing recipe. With the marinade, rub, and same smoking procedure? I make them regularly and the family LOVES them. Maybe have to increase cook time? What are you thoughts, sir?
oh yeah – that would be great – love the idea! Just make sure you cook them until they are done
New at smoking just love it & love your videos
Love all of your stuff and ordered the lack of rubs with your cap as a combo. They are all awesome. One thing I found is I marinate my drumsticks for large crowds overnight in the fridge with Olive Garden Italian dressing, Dale’s liquid seasoning, Texas Pete, then Pat them fry the day of smoking and dust them with your Killer Hogs AP, followed by Old Bay then the Killer Hogs Hot BBQ (or regular BBQ, or a Reaper Salt for extra spicy). Use a smoker rack on pellet grill @ 275 and folks can’t get enough.