These pellet grill smoked chicken legs are tender, juicy, and have the perfect crispy skin. They are easy to make and guaranteed to make your family smile.
Chicken legs are an underrated food and rarely featured in cooking blogs and food magazines. But they are delicious and great for so many occasions like tailgating, a summer barbecue or to feed a crowd of hungry kids.
Smoking chicken legs on a pellet smoker produces tender, juicy meat with incredible flavor and perfect crackly skin.
Why you will love this recipe
Easy: This is a very simple recipe and only takes a few minutes to prep before your pellet grill does all the work. No pans to clean or complicated fancy chefy techniques
Economical – Chicken legs are inexpensive! They are by far the least expensive cut of meat at the butcher. You can feed your whole family or the whole baseball team for a small amount of money.
Delicious – Chicken drumsticks are all dark meat, which is way more juicy and flavorful than white meat. Also chicken legs are more forgiving to cook, so you don’t have to worry about drying out the chicken if you let it cook a bit too long.
How to make smoked chicken legs on a pellet grill
You only need a few simple ingredients to make these delicious pellet grill smoked chicken legs!
Ingredients
1 pack chicken legs (about 6 legs)
1/2 stick butter or 3 tablespoons olive oil
4 Tablespoons dry rub (I like to use 2 tbsp of Lowrys Garlic Salt and 2 tbsp Tony Chacheres Original Creole Seasoning)
Prep the chicken
Remove chicken legs from the packaging and pat dry with a paper towel. Trim any excess skin
Preheat your grill
Preheat the pellet grill to 300 degrees F. I like to use fruitwood pellet to smoke chicken legs like apple or cherry wood. The chicken is very mild and can absorbs a lot of smoke flavor quickly. Hardwoods like oak or mesquite may overpower the chicken legs.
Season the chicken legs
Melt the butter in a small bowl. Toss the chicken legs in the melted butter so they are well coated. Place the drumsticks on a baking sheet with a wire rack. Lightly coat the chicken legs with with some Lowrys Garlic Salt and then follow it with some Tony Chacheres Creole seasoning. Dont be shy, make sure the rub has coated each chicken leg on all sides. You can also use your favorite rub, but the combo of Garlic Salt and Tony Chacheres is a flavor bomb. Let them sit uncovered as the grill heats up for at least 10 minutes. This helps the dry rub set on the chicken skin.
Smoke
Place the seasoned chicken legs directly onto the grates of your pellet grill and let them smoke for one hour. After one hour, flip the chicken legs over. At this point the chicken legs will start to develop a nice dark color but they will need to cook for another 30 minutes.
Use your digital thermometer to read the thickest part of the meat. Once the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170-180 degrees the chicken is cooked. I like to pull mine at 180 to make sure the dark meat is completely cooked. Now you have two options, serve the chicken legs dry or apply your favorite barbecue sauce. I usually keep half dry and sauce the other half.
If your taste buds prefer sauced chicken legs follow this last step. Before applying a sauce I like to heat it in a small pot on my pellet grill during the last ten minutes of cooking. For this recipe I used up two cups of bbq sauce and added 1/4 cup of apple juice to thin it down a bit. This help give the sauce a nice even coating when applied. I like to dip the legs in the warmed sauce and place them back on the grill for five minutes until the sauce is set.
Serve and enjoy immediately!
Pro Tips
Storage: To store any leftover smoked chicken legs that you have place them in an airtight container like a pyrex bowl or ziploc bag. These smoked chicken legs will keep in your refrigerator for 4-5 days.
Reheat: The best method is to use t an oven set to 350 Degrees F and cook for about 15 minutes until warm.
Variations: You can also change the flavor profile by changing the dry rub and sauce. Experiment and use your favorite spice rub.
Sweet – You can also use brown sugar or another sweet rub
BBQ – Add your favorite barbecue sauce when the drumsticks are finished cooking
Spicy – Dust the chicken legs with some cayenne pepper or chili powder after you apply the chicken rub to add some heat
Teriyaki – marinate the chicken legs in a teriyaki sauce for a few hours before smoking on the pellet grill for a nice asian flavor
Chicken Lollipops: If you want to show off and make smoke chicken lollipops I have another recipe that describes how to prepare them.
Kitchen Tools and Equipment needed
Wood Pellets – Use your favorite type of wood pellets. One of the greatest things about a pellet grill is the ability to quickly and easily change the flavor of smoke you are cooking with. I like to you use fruit wood pellets when smoking poultry like chicken and turkey, but there is no right way. You can experiment with other woods to produce different smoke flavors. Don’t be afraid to try mesquite or oak pellets too.
Pellet Grill – You can use any pellet grill for this recipe from a large premium model to a small portable tabletop.
Silicone Basting Brush – If you plan to add an extra layer of flavor to your smoked chicken legs with your favorite BBQ sauce, then a nice basting brush will come in handy
Meat Thermometer –When smoking or grilling meat, the internal temperature is very important and will tell you when you should take your food off the grill. I recommend buying a good digital instant thermometer.
Tongs – A solid pair of stainless steel tongs are the perfect tool when it is time to turn your smoked chicken drumsticks and when it is time to take them off the pellet grill.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
300 degrees is the best temperature to smoke chicken legs for the best flavor and crispiest skin. 300 degrees is the ideal temperature to render the fat under the chicken skin to ensure that the skin will be perfectly crispy. Also if you use a lower temperature, like 225 or 250 the chicken will take much longer to cook and will often absorb too much smoke.
You should only flip the drumsticks once during the cook, roughly halfway through the smoke. Keep the lid closed to your pellet grill as much as possible. Opening the lid lets out precious smoke and will result in uneeded temperature swings.
I like to cook all dark meat chicken and turkey to 185 degrees F. It comes out more tender, and because of the higher fat content, it will stay juicy.
Yes, a chicken leg and a chicken drumstick are the exact same thing. It’s the same cut of chicken just marketed or labeled differently depending on the region.
The total cooking time will vary depending on how big the chicken legs are. Typically you can expect chicken legs to be done cooking between 1.5 and 2 hours at 300 degrees F.
This recipe is very simple and should expect about 10 minutes of prep time to get the chicken legs ready for the grill.
Smoked Chex Mix
Equipment
- 1 Pellet Grill
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Rice Chex
- 3 Cups Corn Chex
- 3 Cups Wheat Chex
- 2 Cups Roasted Peanuts
- 1 Cup Pecan halves
- 2 Cups Pretzels
- 2 Cups Cheez-Its
- 1 stick butter
- 3 Tblsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 Tblsp Lowrys Seasoned Salt
Instructions
- Preheat grill to 250 degrees over indirect heat using hickory wood. Melt one stick of butter (1/2 Cup) separately. Mix in Worcestershire sauce and Seasoned Salt into small bowl with melted butter.
- In a large bowl or aluminum pan, mix all the dry ingredients – Rice, Corn, and Wheat Chex, mixed nuts, roasted peanuts, pecans, Cheeze-its, and pretzels together.
- Pour melted butter and Worcestershire sauce mix into large bowl and carefully mix altogether.
- Place the pan of seasoned Chex Mix directly on the pellet grill for one hour.
- Remove and serve immediately.