Perfectly Grilled Chicken Drumsticks are easy and quick with this never fail recipe. Fall off the bone tender with delicious flavor. They will be the hit of any meal.
Jump To:
Everybody needs great grilled chicken recipes, and this grilled chicken leg recipe is one of the easiest and best for home cooks. Crispy chicken legs that both picky kids and grandma will love.
All you need to do is correct the grill temperature and final internal temperature. With only 10 minutes of preparation and simple seasoning, then about 35 minutes on the grill, you will have an economical meal.
Please enjoy one of our favorite quick and easy grilled chicken recipes. If you want other grilled chicken recipes, check out Grilled Chicken Thighs or Grilled Chicken Breasts. For oven-based recipes, see Baked Chicken Legs or Oven Baked Chicken Thighs.
This grilled chicken drumstick recipe is part of a group of recipes that started with Chicken for a Hundred.
🐓Ingredients
- Chicken legs(chicken drumsticks)—Trim loose skin and joint parts. Try to use legs of about the same size so they will cook in about the same amount of time.
- Seasoning—Just some salt and pepper is fine. But we always use All Purpose Seasoning - 7:2:1 and 7:2:2, which is salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. But use the seasoning you love. Even marinade is fine. If using BBQ sauce, skip other seasoning and brush on near the end of cooking.
👨🍳How to Grill Drumsticks
- Clean, oil, and preheat the grill to a surface temperature of about 450°—important.
- Prepare the chicken legs for grilling by trimming loose parts in the joint area and excess skin. Then pat dry with paper towels and season to your taste.
- Place over direct heat with a closed lid. Flip every 5 minutes until an internal temperature of 185°—about 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes before serving.
⏰How long to grill chicken drumsticks
It will take 35 to 30 minutes, assuming a medium-high grill surface temperature of 450°, to reach a final internal temperature of 185°+, which is best for chicken legs and thighs.
Variables are the drumstick's size, initial temperature, and exact grill temperature are variables. You can use a lower surface temperature, but it will add time and tend to dry more. You can not get acceptable results with a grill temperature over 500°.
Always remember, you are cooking to a final internal temperature and never by time alone. Chick the temperature with an instant-read or meat thermometer.
✔️Tips and Options
- Chicken Tips
- Drumsticks and chicken legs are the same thing. But there are also chicken leg quarters with the chicken leg and chicken thigh attached. If you are doing leg quarters, please follow Grilled Chicken Thighs.
- Just pat dry with paper towels and do not rinse—which is not safe. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse? for more discussion.
- Allowing the chicken legs to rest at room temperature for 15-30 minutes while setting up the grill will help get the final internal temperature without burning the skin.
- Spicing and Cooking Tips
- Spice as you want. I use my All-Purpose Seasoning Recipe, which combines kosher salt, pepper, and garlic powder. A dry rub or seasoning mix can be used.
- Skip the seasoning and brush with your favorite BBQ sauce the last 5 minutes to make great BBQ chicken drumsticks.
- The grill and final internal temperatures are the two most important things needed to get the best results.
- You must use a thermometer to be sure you get to 185°+. Do not guess.
- Grill Tips
- You may use a gas or charcoal grill, but the grill should be 450°-500° surface temperature which is medium or a bit more on most gas grills.
- For a gas grill, see A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill for more details.
- For a charcoal grill, you will need to adjust the venting, not build the hottest fire and have a reserved cooler area.
🌡️The best final internal temperature
The best final internal temperature for chicken legs (and thighs) is 185°. The FDA minimum safe internal temperature is 165°, but there is too much connective tissue in chicken legs and thighs. At 165°, they will be tough and stringy—just not done.
To get moist and tender meat, you need to melt the connective tissue that starts at 170° but is mostly complete at 185°. But cooking up to 195° will still be okay and may be beneficial, according to American Test Kitchen (subscription required).
You must use an instant-read or meat thermometer to get this right.
❓FAQs
Closed will be best and give you more control. Generally, grilling something less than ½ inch thick can be open. Between ½ and 1 inch can be open but is better closed. Over 1 inch should always be closed.
No, you will burn the skin long before the meat is cooked. They must be fully thawed first.
It is not needed. The skin will be crispier without it, but with oil will be softer and feel thicker.
There are two common causes. First, if the chicken is older, the older meat may release some myoglobin which can cause some pinkness. The second reason is if the drumsticks have been frozen, the bone marrow can break down and come out into the meat. Neither is harmful, and as long as the temperature is correct, it is safe.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Preheat the grill to get a surface temp of about 450°. That is medium-high on a standard gas grill and medium on a hot gas grill. Clean and oil the grill grates.
Pat dry the chicken legs (chicken drumsticks) with paper towels. Rest at room temperature for 15-30 minutes before grilling if you have the time.
Trim off excess skin and loose bones/tissue, especially in the joint area.
Season to taste. Just Kosher salt and pepper will be fine, or you can use my 7:2:2 spice mix. Or use the seasoning of your choice. If you are using BBQ sauce, skip the seasoning and brush the chicken legs for the last 5 minutes of grilling.
Check grill surface temperature and place chicken legs on the grill. Close the grill hood. Flip about every 5 minutes until the internal temp of 185° degrees—about 30-35 minutes.
Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. They are way too hot, anyway.
📖 Recipe
Grillied Chicken Drumsticks-Quick and Easy
Ingredients
- 6 Chicken drumsticks
- Salt and pepper - to taste or seasoning of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat the grill to get a surface temp of about 450°. That is medium-high on a standard gas grill and medium on a hot gas grill. Clean and oil the grill grates.
- Pat dry the chicken legs (chicken drumsticks) with paper towels. Rest at room temperature for 15-30 minutes before grilling if you have the time.
- Trim off excess skin and loose bones/tissue, especially in the joint area.
- Season to taste. Just Kosher salt and pepper will be fine, or you can use my 7:2:2 spice mix. Or use the seasoning of your choice. If you are using BBQ sauce, skip the seasoning and brush the chicken legs for the last 5 minutes of grilling.
- Check grill surface temperature and place chicken legs on the grill. Close the grill hood. Flip about every 5 minutes until the internal temp of 185° degrees—about 30-35 minutes.
- Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. They are way too hot, anyway.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Pat dry and season to taste. I like my All Purpose Seasoning - 7:2:1 and 7:2:2. Seasoning mixes or dry rubs work well. A light touch of cayenne pepper adds a bit of heat most adults like but do no use with kids.
- Medium grill with a surface temperature of about 450°. Over 500° will not work well.
- The final internal temperature of 185°+ is the key to this recipe.
- If you are cooking chicken leg quarters, use the Grilled Chicken Thighs recipe.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.
Editor's Note: Originally published June 26, 2011. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Amardeep
Hi Dan.
How would I do this with open grill over hot coals.
Thanks
DrDan
My last experience with charcoal and open grilling is about 40 yrs ago. But here is my best,
You cannot be placing the chicken over high heat. The skin will be burnt black and the meat bloody. So you need to let the charcoal burn down some since it is hottest when it is about 10-15 minutes in so it needs to cool down a bit so probably about 25 minutes after lighting ( a guess) but you will need to cook at least 30 minutes and probably longer, so you need to maintain a temperature. Hard on open charcoal.
On gas, I recommend always to close the lid if the thickness is over 1 inch and you should close the lid if 1/2 to 1 inch. So frequent flipping and a bit longer grilling probably. And remember, you are cooking to a final internal temperature of 185. 165 is safe but stringy and tough.
So charcoal and the open top both present issues. Indirect cooking is possible but I have no suggestions about setup. I would probably cook something else considering the hardware limitations.
Dan
sreno7
I dried the drumsticks and brushed them with oil. It was crispy and didn't stick to the grill.
I enjoyed the spice mix except it was too salty.
amber
Have you ever tried sous-vide the drumsticks ... then throw them on grill for quick char? saves slaving over the grill for 30 min
DrDan
Hi Amber,
No, I haven't. For the readers, the term sous vide is French I believe for under vacuum. The food is vacuum sealed and cooked in hot water to a final temperature and then can be seared or finish however you want. Somewhat like reverse searing a steak but involves the sealing and water. I think it is an interesting technique and if you are so equipped, it would be interesting to try.
Dan
Ron Garstka
Well I just finished my dinner of drummies. Had a bit of a problem getting my grill DOWN to 450 during the first 5 min. Weber Spirit 310. At MEDIUM my grill surface registers in excess of 600. To get to 450 I had to turn all 3 burners to LOW. Had a bit of char after the first 5 min. but they finished up just short of 30 min total and were absolutely delicious. I have to give both the grilled chicken thighs and now the drummies a 5. Also looking forward to some ribs and steaks soon. Great library of recipes. Nice work, continue to enjoy it. Best wishes.
DrDan
Hi Ron,
Thanks for the note. I’m glad it worked well for you.
I have a Weber Summit s470 and it doesn’t run that hot. All burners on low will be about 300 range. Medium is 450 plus minus. I get almost 700 plus on high with long preheat or if I add in the 5th burner. But I’m on natural gas which will be a bit cooler than propane. The variance in grills is tremendous so those cheap little grill surface thermometers are so worth the $10. I go through 2-3 per year since they get unreadable after a while.
Dan
Johnboy
I did this but added one thing: After spicing the chicken, I carefully coated them with spray oil (Pam, etc.) It didn't affect the taste and the chicken was extra crispy.
Jackie Treehorn
Great, really easy recipe. Drummies were perfect. Meat was fall off the bone tender and skin was nice and crispy. Having a meat thermometer and slathering sauce at the end in order to avoid sugar burn was key. 5 stars!
Dave
Made this today, very salty. I'd suggest halving the salt if you're going to add barbecue or any other sauce. Was fine for naked legs.
DrDan
If I add sauce to these, I cook them bare of any spices and add the sauce for the last 5 minutes or so.
Thanks for the note
Dan
Cat
Hello, did you used to have a recipe with the cayenne pepper measurement added in? I could've sworn this was the case as this has been a go to recipe the times I have grilled chicken over the past year. If so, are you able to provide that ratio?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Cat,
Welcome to the blog.
The original recipe, now called Chicken for 100, was for an adult retirement party. This and the oven-baked version are cut down and slightly modified versions. Many readers had problems anytime I specified the amounts of spices in any of these recipes. So I changed to the 7:2:2 suggestion.
For the cayenne, use about 1/8 to 1/4 of the amount of pepper. So if you make a mix of 3-4 teaspoons kosher salt to 1 teaspoon each of pepper and granular garlic powder. Add about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. That is too much seasoning for 6 drumsticks. That is enough for 12-24 drumsticks depending on size and your taste.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Brian
I didn't know food could be this good...
The seasoning was great and I added a light coating of barbecue sauce for the last couple of flips - they were amazing. Will be making these again soon.
DrDan
I have never had fire. During my relatively extensive testing for the correct way to cook legs, I once tried high since one recipe used it... about 550 degrees but I got burnt skin and raw meat but no fire. Must have had a lot o fat or drippings from before. But I do like pizza.
Dan
Andy
I was looking for a quick recipe for the pack of drumsticks I had in the fridge. Stumbled across this one and thought "simple enough". Fired up my webber Q to a med-low heat and threw on the chicken. Left for about 35 mins (turning every 5-7 min). And wow!!! Honestly one of the best chicken I have cooked. So simple yet so tasty! I don't normally comment on recipe sites but just thought I would say thanks and I highly rate this one for anyone thinking of trying!
Thanks!
Tom
OMG this was great, thank you for posting
DrDan
Thanks Andy and Tom
DrDan
John
Going to try this recipe this weekend. I think it's going to solve many issues I've had. Was wondering if seasoning 30 minutes to an hour before (aka dry brining) will mess with the crispy skin?
DrDan
I wouldn't bother. The skin will probably still be crispy but I don't think you will have much of any effect on the meat.
DrDan
Jeff
Bought a extra large sleeve of dummies at the store for this weeks meal prep as I was looking to switch up my chicken. Came across your recipe, used my charcoal webber. I let the coals get to red with out flames, then threw them on, turned every four to five minutes open, and the last five to ten minutes (total cooking time for 18 drummies was right around 40mins) I basted them with Stubbs BBQ sauce. These were probably the best drummes I've ever eaten. So glad this was the first recipe I came across. Thanks for sharing DrDan!
Mike
These rocked my world ;)
Steve Walker
I tried this last night. Turned out pretty well, but I did singe them a bit. Had a lot of flare ups when I first started cooking.
Any way to avoid that?
DrDan
Flare ups are usually from draining fluids with fat hitting flame. So to prevent it generally, trim all fat that is possible and be sure that your flames are covered. The later depends on the grill. My old grills needed lava rock or something similar. I now have metal covering the burners. Also if the drummies were frozen, then they are more juicy so more drainage.
Hope that helps.
DrDan
wayne
great job
jules
Never knew so much in the details.. I learned to use indirect heat in the grill - do you do yours over the flames ? or indirect ?
DrDan
This is direct heat with the top down. You could do indirect but would need the temp in the 450 plus range and a lot of grills can't handle that. Also a lot of people have issues with doing indirect. Since I don't do this indirect I really can't give instructions but would think it would be about 35 minutes give or take some. As always cook to the final internal temperature.
DrDan
eddie.b
Thank you for the recipe.I combined the dry with a little bit of bbq sauce, and it was amazing !
Elle
This was amazing!!! Thank you!!!
DrDan
Thanks for the note.
DrDan
Johnny
Tried your recipe last week, first time grilling drumsticks. On new grill. Turned every 5 min. Med high heat. Put on top rack after 4th turn kept turning every 5 min for total of 40 min .With your recipe and barbecue sauce, they turned out fantastic. Making a bunch again tonight.
DrDan
Thanks so much for the note.
DrDan
Whippy
Thanks for the recipe! I tried your method a little while back and (like others) ended up with burned drummies, but I think I understand where I went wrong.
When you say, "surface temperature," I translated that to mean the temperature that the thermometer in the hood of my grill reads, when I am now thinking that is NOT what you mean and that you actually mean "surface temperature" like you said! lol
The only way I can think of to get an actual surface temp would be to use a laser thermometer (which I don't have) so I'm going to try this again tonight and just cook on low/medium setting (Ducane 3100) to see what happens.
Your tip of drying the skin is good and works really nice for baked drummies too!
DrDan
Thanks for the note.
I use a $8 grill surface thermometer from Amazon but also they are also at Lowes and Home Depot. You are right about the thermometer in the grill lids... usually useless at best or miss leading at worse. Mine seemed right on the first few times only.
I now do the surface temp for posted recipes to helps problems with grill variations.
Thanks again for the note and tonight when I have time I may re-edit a little to be sure other avoid that issue.
DrDan
Ethan
I have never cooked drumsticks on the grill before. Using your guidelines, I was very pleased with the results. Crispy skin, good an moist. I just need to dial in the burners on my grill and they will be perfect. Also used (roughly) your spicing recommendations and I was very pleased with the flavor. Thanks for the right up.
Ethan
*write up
DrDan
Thanks so much for the note and rating.
DrDan
Melody
This is the third time I've used this recipe and each time the chicken just gets better and better(or I just better at grilling)! I'm somewhat new to grilling but with these results I'm encouraged to try more things. My boyfriend raved about them, thanks so much!
Claire
WOW! I just found your recipe and made it tonight, my husband said this was the best chicken ever and wanted to know how I seasoned it. The cayenne pepper kicked it up a notch. It was spicy so I would definitely leave it out or minimize for kids. Thank you for giving detailed instructions, my chicken turned out perfect.
DrDan
Some days I want the cayenne, some days not so much. But is is just a little touch anyways.
Thanks for the note
DrDan
Kira1965
I am so glad I came across this- I usually bake my drummies in the oven, but it is close to 40 c. here today, so too hot to have an oven on. I cannot wait to try this tonight and give feedback. It's just my mom and I tonight so a good time to test the technique. I do not have a surface temp gauge so will preheat the BBQ and will know within a few turns if it is too hot/cold.
Will let you know how we liked them a little later!!!
Kim
Could I prep the chicken the day before or a few hours before then refrigerate until ready to cook?
Also, would a spray bottle be suitable for flare ups?
Also again, sorry. I want to make a lot, could I put
Kim
Phone fail
Could I put cooked ones in a crock pot to keep warm?
DrDan
Yep prepping ahead is fine. See my Chicken for a Hundred post. https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/chicken-for-hundred/ . I used a large cooker to keep them warm after cooking. Now if you are doing a large number, you might want to consider the oven method since it would be easier to do a large number correctly. Again see the chicken for a hundred post.
DrDan
DaisyCat68
O.M.G.! First time grilling chicken w/ the bone. Did not have any thermometers, but followed your advice & comments. Made half w/ Lawry's & onion powder, the other half w/ s/p & Herb de Provence (my husband is obsessed w/ that stuff). Dried the chicken! Took about 40-45 minutes, but then I was opening that lid every 5 mins, so maybe I'll be better next time! Skin was beautifully crispy. My 11-yr-old, who shuns meat of any kind almost always, ate FOUR. At one sitting. Best directions for grilling ever!
Tami
Wonderful chicken! Kudos on the instructions. So delicious. Not dried out, just perfectly cooked.
DrDan
Thanks Tami
DrDan
deb
Thanks for the recipe. I had a problem with the skin getting blackened and burnt. Can you help? ( I have a gas grill that does not indicated temp so I set the heat on medium. ) Thanks.
DrDan
I frequently use a surface thermometer... About $8 on Amazon. I do that frequently so I can tell people what temperature to have. So pick one up somewhere. Second, flip and reposition more often. My old grill had many "hot spots" that ran much higher temp then other spots. Lastly make sure you have no "flair ups"
Hope that help
DrDan