Simple Smoked Chicken Legs (Drumsticks)
Smoked chicken legs are one of the simplest ways to make tasty, handheld chicken for a crowd. What makes drumsticks such a great choice is how they absorb the flavors from the smoke and dry rub while staying tender and juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside.
This smoked chicken leg recipe is about backyard barbecues, picnics, and parties. The drumsticks can be served straight from the smoker or slathered with your favorite BBQ sauce and crisped up on the grill. This simple recipe is easy to scale up or down, whether you’re having a few people over dinner or throwing a neighborhood party.
Picking Out Chicken Legs
Chicken legs consist entirely of dark meat and are one of the most economical cuts of chicken. In many recipes, the terms leg and drumstick are used interchangeably. The drumstick is the bottom half or calf of the leg, while the upper part is the thigh. This recipe is focused on chicken legs but also works well for quarters and thighs.
Chicken drumsticks are an excellent choice for dinners or parties where people will be eating a full meal and can use their hands to hold the chicken legs as they eat. They’re also a fun choice for kids.
Chicken leg quarters consist of the thigh, leg, and a part of the back and are a better choice if people are using utensils, which is a fancy term for knife and fork. Our Smoked Chicken Quarters recipe has deep, smokey flavors and tons of crispy, crackly chicken skin.
Another popular choice for parties is Smoked Chicken Wings, which are usually served as drummettes and wingettes that are an excellent choice when people are grazing on many different dishes. Although drummettes resemble miniature legs, they are a part of the wing and are much smaller than drumsticks.
When picking out chicken legs, look for fresh pieces that have a clean smell and don’t feel gummy to the touch. Avoid pieces with a grayish or off-color tinge, have a strong smell that lingers, or have a sticky residue that sticks to your fingers.
Smoking Chicken Legs
The key to smoking drumsticks that taste delicious is to use seasonings that infuse them with a smoky flavor and cook them to the point the meat starts to pull away from the bone, but not so long they dry out.
Seasoning Chicken Legs
This recipe uses our Smoked Chicken Dry Rub to help the legs develop complex flavors as they cook. The spice rub has a little sweetness and a little heat from the combination of brown sugar, which promotes caramelization, along with smoked paprika that accentuates the smoke flavor along with chili powder and ground chipotle, adding some heat and pizzaz.
The chicken legs are doused in apple cider vinegar and hot sauce to help the dry rub adhere to the legs and give them a little more pluck. The rub can be applied to the legs up to a day in advance.
For BBQ chicken with more heat, increase the chipotle in the rub by a 1/2 tsp while reducing the brown sugar by a 1/2 tsp.
How Long Does It Take to Smoke Chicken Legs?
The most common question asked about smoking chicken legs is how long does it take to smoke them at 225℉ (107℃), 250℉ (121℃), or 275℉ (135℃). The simple answer is it usually takes an hour and a half to two and a half hours to smoke chicken legs. The amount of time depends on the smoker and other factors like the weather and where the legs are placed in the smoker.
There is so much variation in smokers that internal temperature is a significantly better way to tell when the legs are done than time alone. For planning purposes, we set aside a couple of hours of cooking time while smoking chicken legs.
We recommend smoking chicken legs at 250℉ (121℃) for an hour and a half or so until they have cooked all the way through and their internal temperature reaches 175℉ (79℃).
Smoking at 250℉ (121℃) gives the chicken legs time to develop a nice smokiness and produces juicy chicken with a better texture than lower temperatures, where the meat can develop a slippery texture.
Once the internal temperature of the smoked chicken legs has reached 165℉ (74℃), the USDA considers them safe for consumption. We recommend cooking them until the internal temperature reaches 175℉ (79℃); this lets the chicken develop that lovely mouthfeel that happens when the meat starts to fall off the bone.
To measure the internal temperature, insert an instant read thermometer into the thickest part of the leg. An instant read thermometer makes the process much easier and lets you get stuff done around the house without constantly checking the smoker.
The most commonly recommended temperatures for smoking chicken range from 225℉ (107℃) to 275℉ (135℃). Our testing found that using 250℉ (121℃) allows the chicken to develop a nice smokiness without drying out as it can at higher temperatures or having the skin come out gummy, which regularly happens at lower temperatures.
Chicken legs, unlike quarters or thighs, can hold up to higher temperatures without drying out. During testing, we found smoking legs at 275℉ (135℃) helped them cook faster and still had juicy meat. The higher temp and shorter time in the smoker reduced the depth of the smokiness that developed at lower temperatures with more time in the smoker.
Chicken legs are juicy enough and have enough flavor that there is no reason to brine them before smoking. It is ok to marinate them if it’s done to infuse them with flavor. They can be prepped up to a day in advance and should be allowed to come to room temperature before going into the smoker.
Read our Complete Guide to Smoking Food to learn more about smoking meat.
Types of Wood
Our preferred wood for smoking chicken is hickory or mesquite. There is a tanginess to hickory and mesquite wood chips that complement the dry rub’s sweetness while adding the rich smokiness found in the best smoked chicken. Other good choices are apple, maple, or pecan, which give the dark meat a lighter smoke with more fruit notes.
This chicken leg recipe will work with gas, electric, pellet, or charcoal smokers. If the smoker doesn’t include a water pan, set an aluminum foil pan filled with water below the chicken legs to keep them moist and stabilize the temperature. It can also be done on a charcoal grill using indirect heat and wood chunks.
If you don’t have access to a smoker or in case of bad weather, the drumsticks can be made in a 350℉ (177℃) oven and cooked on a rack placed on a baking sheet for 45 to 55 minutes. They’ll still have a solid barbecue flavor from the rub but won’t have the same deep, smoky flavor that makes them so tasty when smoked.
For more delicious smoked meat recipes and a plethora of helpful tips, check out The Best Meats to Smoke & How to Make Them Taste Delicious.
How to Get Chicken Skin Crispy
In general, legs crisp up reasonably well in the smoker, especially if they are smoked between 250℉ (121℃) to 275℉ (135℃). For those who like their chicken skin super crispy or like to sauce the legs at the end of the cooking process, nothing works better than a couple of minutes on a hot grill.
The best way to get crispy skin when smoking chicken legs is to use a hot grill for a few minutes at the end of the cooking process.
To crisp chicken skin on a grill, wait until the legs have finished cooking, then place them on a medium-high grill for 2 to 3 minutes or until the outside has reached the desired level of crispness. This is also the best time to sauce the legs, using the Flip, Fire, and Paint Method and some Old No. 44 BBQ Sauce.
The legs should rest on a cooling rack for 3 to 5 minutes before serving. They are small enough that there is minimal carry-over cooking while they rest.
Smoked Chicken Leg Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 chicken drumsticks
- ½ tbsp hot sauce
- ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
Smoked Chicken Rub
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp smoked paprika, ground
- 1 tsp Ancho chili pepper, ground
- 1/2 tsp cumin, ground
- 1/4 tsp chipotle pepper, ground
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Make the dry rub by mixing the brown sugar, smoked paprika, ancho chili, chipotle, and ground cumin with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp Ancho chili pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp chipotle pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp Kosher salt, 1 tsp black pepper
- Mix the chicken drumsticks with the apple cider vinegar and hot sauce in a large bowl. Once the legs have been coated, add the dry rub and mix everything until the legs are covered.8 chicken drumsticks, ½ tbsp hot sauce, ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Preheat the smoker to 250℉ (121℃).
- Smoke the chicken legs at 250℉ (121℃) until the internal temperature reaches 175℉ (79℃). This generally takes around 2 hours.
- For crispy chicken skin, finish the drumsticks on a medium-high grill, placing the chicken over the hot part of the grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side.
- The smoked chicken legs should rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Recommended Equipment
What to Serve with Smoked Chicken Drumsticks
There are lots of side dishes that pair well with this recipe. Our favorite sauces and dips include a creamy Blue Cheese Dip and Ancho Chili and Honey BBQ Sauce.
If the legs are the main course at a dinner or a picnic, pair them with this unique Mac and Cheese, some fantastic Creamed Corn, or Grilled Green Beans with Goat Cheese.
When it comes to bigger barbecues and parties, chicken drumsticks go well with our ever-popular Taco Salad, Grilled Sweet Corn when it’s in season, and Quick Pickled Carrots that have a bit of a bite and lots of crunch.
Storing & Reheating
Leftover chicken legs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days after smoking. They’re pretty delicious cold, especially with a little BBQ sauce for dipping.
The best way to reheat a smoked chicken leg is on a medium grill. Warming them through usually takes 10 to 15 minutes over medium heat. The legs should be turned every 5 to 7 minutes to ensure the outside crisps up.
They can also be warmed in a 350℉ (177℃) oven in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet for 15 to 20 minutes.
Mark is an experienced food writer, recipe developer, and photographer who is also Umami’s publisher and CEO. A passionate cook who loves to cook for friends, he can often be found in the kitchen or by the grill testing new recipes.
More Info About Mark Hinds
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