These melt-in-your-mouth grilled chicken drumsticks with homemade habanero BBQ sauce are a match made in heaven. If you’ve been looking for an easy grilled chicken legs recipe with the perfect texture and a special flavor, you’ve come to the right place!
When you are looking for those one handed melt in your mouth grilled chicken legs where the sauce drips down your wrist, this is going to be your recipe.
Chicken legs on the grill are a classic weekend BBQ recipe to serve for the 4th of July, Labor Day, and those block parties when you want to flex your grilling muscles to the neighbors.
Because they are considered less desirable, you can often get a package of chicken legs for very cheap. We don’t know why anyone thinks less of them, because this recipe is incredible. But saving money is nice!
🍗 Ingredients
Chicken Drumsticks – Find these at your local grocery store in a value pack. Because the chicken legs are small pieces of dark meat with a high surface area ratio they will absorb more flavor from the rub and sauce. And that crispy skin. Oh my.
Dry Rub – We recommend this all-purpose dry rub recipe for grilling. The Habanero sauce is very flavorful so a mild rub works best here.
Habanero BBQ Sauce – The sauce is made from habanero peppers, onions, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, minced onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, chili pepper flakes, white pepper, and molasses.
⏲️ Equipment and Tools
- Grill
- Blender or Food Processor. I highly recommend a stick blender to puree the sauce.
- GrillGrate. This is optional but comes in very handy to reduce flare-ups and concentrate flavor.
- Instant Read Thermometer
🔥 How to Grill Chicken Legs Instructions
Step One: Carefully mince the habanero peppers, wearing gloves. Do not touch your face.
Step Two: Combine the vinegar, habanero peppers, onion, garlic, red pepper, chili pepper, and white pepper in the pan and bring it to a boil. Add in brown sugar, ketchup, and molasses to the pan and bring to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn the stove to low and allow it to simmer and thicken for 30 minutes.
Step Three: Heat up the grill to medium-high heat or about 450ºF. Take the meat out of the refrigerator and pat it dry with paper towels. Mix the ingredients for the BBQ dry rub in a small bowl. Apply the rub so the drumsticks are evenly coated.
Step Four: Place chicken legs on the grill over direct heat and grill them until the legs are close to the internal temperature of 165 degrees F. This takes about 50 minutes, flipping every 15-20 minutes.
Step Five: For the last 10 minutes, brush the sauce onto the grilled chicken legs.
Step Six: Remove the grilled drumsticks when the internal temp reaches 165ºF and let them rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
⏰ How Long Do You Grill Chicken Drumsticks?
When grilling at a high temp (450°F as we did) it should take about 45-50 minutes. Always cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. as the USDA suggests, using an internal meat thermometer.
See our comprehensive guide on how long to grill chicken and this handy grilled chicken temperature chart for perfect results every time!
❗ Expert Tips
With so many pieces of bone-in meat, you will have a lot of fat dropping into your grill. Use a GrillGrate to reduce flaring and get a beautiful sear on your meat.
Use a pair of tongs to gently lift the chicken off the grill grates when flipping. This will help you avoid tearing the skin in case it sticks to the grates.
Let the sauce cool significantly if you plan to puree it. Puree the sauce with a blender or food processor if desired. A stick blender works great and will puree your sauce directly in the pan.
Do not overcook your meat! Dark meat makes it super hard to tell when the meat is finished and it may remain slightly pink since you are cooking the meat on the bone. I highly recommend you invest in an inexpensive instant-read thermometer probe for grilling and remove your grilled drumsticks when the internal temp reaches 165ºF.
🍱Leftovers Storage
I recommend you pull the meat off of each bone, remove the skin, and place the meat in a freezer-quality zipper bag. You can then either refrigerate the meat for two or three days or freeze the meat for up to three months. Depending on what you will use the meat for, you might want to also dice it up before bagging.
🍲 Meal Prep
Leftover chicken legs can be used in so many other recipes! When you need chicken for stir fry, tacos or tortilla soup, chicken noodle soup, salad protein, or a quick sandwich you’ll have the meat cooked and ready to go. If frozen, quick thaw in the microwave will have it ready to toss in your recipe.
👩🏽🍳 Additions & Substitutions
You can make grilled chicken drumsticks a thousand different ways and that just proves how versatile chicken meat can be. We’re always having fun testing new rubs, barbecue sauces, and marinades. Here’s some inspiration to get you started!
Dry Rubs
If you don’t have time to make our all-purpose dry rub, you can always use a store-bought one. However, making your own is super easy and you can try other recipes like this Yucatan dry rub, or our homemade Java rub.
Creating new flavor blends is such a fun experience! The herbs and spices below are dry rub staples and can be mixed in so many ways:
- Salt (Kosher salt is great but you can use plain table salt)
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Cayenne pepper
- Smoked paprika
- Ground mustard
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Rosemary
BBQ Sauces
Another way to change up these BBQ chicken drumsticks is to use a different barbecue sauce. There are plenty of store-bought options although I highly recommend you make your own.
We made this sweet and spicy BBQ sauce to go perfectly with grilled chicken, and they really are a match made in heaven. I also recommend you try this incredibly flavorful whiskey barbecue sauce, the rich and delicious smoked pumpkin bourbon BBQ sauce, and this tangy cherry bourbon BBQ sauce.
Marinades
Test out some tasty marinades for these chicken legs. They’ll turn out incredibly tender!
We absolutely loved how fresh and simple this honey lemon marinade is. A rosemary thyme marinade or a super easy honey and soy sauce marinade will also tenderize the chicken legs and add amazing flavor.
Other Substitutions
Sometimes habaneros are hard to find depending on the area of the country you live in and your grocery store manager. You can substitute with fresh serrano peppers or fresh jalapenos if needed even though the flavor is slightly different.
The serrano pepper is the best choice if you can find those. Both of these substitutions are milder than the habanero so if you want to get more heat, add a dash of ancho chili powder.
♨️More Grilled Chicken Recipes
Inexpensive, easy to find, and highly customizable. Grilled chicken is yummy and it can be prepared using various methods.
Another way to enjoy drumsticks is as grilled chicken lollipops. It makes for a special presentation perfect for BBQ parties! If you can’t find chicken legs, use this same recipe for wings or thighs.
I’ve also had great success with grilled lemon pepper chicken thighs, and garlic parmesan grilled chicken wings. Grilled chicken livers and grilled chicken burgers are also fast grilling recipes that make it very easy to feed a crowd.
Grilled chicken leg quarters is another budget-friendly recipe since this chicken part is often on sale.
Serving Suggestions
Crispy, flavorful grilled drumsticks as a main dish go well with so many different BBQ side dishes. Whip up this grilled peach and arugula salad, grab a nice crusty bread from your store’s bakery, and you have a well-rounded meal.
Or you can get more elaborate with grilled beer corn on the cob, grilled steakhouse potatoes, and biscuits.
Grilled potato kebabs, grilled parsnips, or some delicious grilled onions will ensure you have a nutritious and healthy meal.
Looking for more side dishes for grilled chicken drumsticks? You’re sure to have some favorites among these BBQ chicken sides!
Recipe FAQ
Dark meat will be the muscles used for walking, running, or flying. In the case of chicken that includes legs and thighs.
Wings are actually white meat because chickens don’t use them much. The color comes from a chemical called myoglobin in these muscles and will darken even more as the meat cooks.
Dark meat has more flavor and moisture.
In this recipe, we recommend direct heat, which will result in a nice crispy skin. You will find other recipes where indirect heat is recommended. It depends on your desired end result.
Yes, you can grill frozen chicken parts, including drumsticks but it will take 50% longer and you need to reduce the heat by 20%. Fully thawed, our drumsticks needed 40-45 minutes at 400-450ºF degrees over direct heat to reach the safe internal temp of 165 degrees.
Grilling frozen drumsticks at 320-360ºF over direct heat will take around 60-70 minutes.
There’s absolutely no need to do that! Some of the flavor will be lost in the boiling water and as long as you don’t overcook the chicken it will be tender and juicy by simply grilling it over direct heat.
Optionally, you can dry brine or marinate the chicken for a few hours if you want to get a more intense flavor and tender meat.
Related Chicken Recipes
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with me through social media by following me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!
Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with Habanero BBQ Sauce
Equipment
- GrillGrate
- Grill
Ingredients
Habanero BBQ Sauce
- 2 cups Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Habanero Peppers minced (always wear gloves!)
- 1 tbsp Minced Onion dried
- 3 tbsp Onion fresh
- 2 Garlic minced
- 1 tbsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 tbsp Chili Pepper dried
- 2 tbsp White Pepper
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Ketchup
- ½ cup Molasses
Chicken Drumsticks
- 4 lbs Chicken Drumsticks
- ½ cup BBQ Dry Rub
Instructions
Habanero BBQ Sauce
- Combine vinegar, peppers, onion, garlic, red pepper, chili pepper, white pepper to pan and bring to a boil.
- Add in brown sugar, ketchup and molasses to pan and bring to a boil for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn stove to low and allow to simmer and thicken for 30 minutes.
- Turn off the stove and allow to cool.
- Two options for using sauce. Serve as is or use blender/food processor to blend AFTER IT COOLS ONLY to make the sauce smooth from the onion and peppers.
Drumsticks
- Heat up grill to 450 degrees. If you have a GrillGrate, this is the time to use it. If not, you can cook straight over the coals.
- Apply rub to drumsticks and place them on the grill over direct heat.
- Grill them until they are close to the internal temperature of 165 degrees. This takes about 40-50 minutes, turning every 15-20 minutes. (Always cook to temperature, not time with poultry)
- During the last 10 minutes, brush on the sauce to the drumsticks. Remove drumsticks when internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
- Let them rest uncovered (so the skin doesn't get soggy) for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.
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