All right, what's happening y'all? It's your favorite uncle, Uncle Bird, and welcome to Uncle Bird's BBQ. Today, we're diving into a backyard classic: how to smoke some of the juiciest, most flavorful chicken drumsticks on a Weber Kettle grill.
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Tools You’ll Need
Before we fire up the grill, let’s gather the essentials:
These tools will make trimming and prepping your drumsticks a breeze.
Trim and Prep for Success
Before we get any smoke rolling, we need to prep and clean these drumsticks. Grab your poultry shears, I use Oxo good grip poultry shears, and your Jaccard Meat Tenderizer.
1 Family Pack of drumsticks.
When you're prepping your drumsticks, the area you really want to focus your cleaning on is the bottom of the drumstick, where it would have attached to the foot. So you want to make sure you remove any feathers that'll remain here, along with any yellow bits. You want to go ahead and get that off of the drumsticks before you put them in your brine or season them up and put them on the grill.
Make sure you remove any feathers that'll remain here, along with any yellow bits.
The Tenderizing Touch
Next, take your meat tenderizer and Jaccard the fat part of the drumstick once or twice. This serves two key purposes:
Seasoning Pocket
For deep flavor later, practice this now: pull the skin back slightly to create a little pocket. You'll drop your seasoning in this pocket after the brine. Inspect the rest of your chicken, and they're ready for the soak!
Pull the skin back slightly to create a little pocket. You'll drop your seasoning in this pocket after the brine.
The Magic of the Brine
Our brine is the key to moist, seasoned chicken. It not only seasons the meat but also tenderizes it and helps prevent overcooking. Even if the cook gets away from you a little bit, you'll still be fine.
Brine Recipe
Our simple brine consists of plain iodized salt in water. This works with any salt, whether it's plain, iodized, or kosher.
Finally, pour the brine over the chicken drumsticks in a Ziploc bag, push out the air, and seal it. You can also use a reusable brine container with a top, which is more convenient, and you don't have to worry about spilling chicken brine in your fridge. Brine for 4-8 hours or overnight.
Setting Up Your Weber Kettle
We’re using a 22-inch Weber kettle with indirect heat. That means the fire is off to the side, not directly under the meat.
Let the wood catch fire, then preheat the grill with the lid on and top vent wide open.
Fuel of choice: Natural Hardwood Briquettes and Hickory wood. Natural Hardwood Briquettes are pressed lump charcoal with a vegetable binder, so they have no chemical taste like regular charcoal. Hickory is good old-fashioned wood and is an essential part of the flavor. Oak is good too. Chicken needs a strong-flavored wood because it doesn’t cook very long. You can use splits or chunks.
Seasoning the Brined Drumsticks
While the grill is preheating, remove the chicken drumsticks from the brine and rinse them off. You don't want them too salty!
Uncle Bird's Golden Rule: Use Salt-Free Rub
Since the brine has already salted the meat, you must use a salt-free seasoning. If your favorite rub has salt, it will end up being way too salty. Check the ingredients list!
If you don't have a favorite salt-free rub, here's a simple starter:
Seasoning Technique
Remember that pocket we talked about? Pull the skin back, season the underside of the skin and the meat with your salt-free rub and a sprinkle of raw cane sugar, then pull the skin back over. Finally, season the outside of the skin. If you want a prettier drumstick that shrinks less, you can skip pulling the skin back, but it won't have as much flavor.
Pull the skin back, season the underside of the skin and the meat with your salt-free rub and a sprinkle of raw cane sugar, then pull the skin back over.
The Smoke and The Spray
When your grill is hot and you see clear blue smoke, it's time to add the drumsticks.
Place the thick end of each drumstick toward the fire for even cooking.
1st check of the chicken. Go ahead and start spraying with vinegar spray.
This is how the chicken should look after checked and sprayed with vinegar a few times.
Use an instant-read thermometer to check for doneness. Pull the drumsticks at 172°F; carryover heat will take them to a safe 175°F. They are ready to pull off the grill.
Resting
Once off the grill, the chicken needs to rest so the juices can redistribute. The best method if you don’t have a warmer is to use a preheated cooler:
This resting method will ensure you have the best chicken you've ever ate in your life.
The Verdict. Juicy as Charged.
Juicy as charged!