This recipe is as easy as grilling gets! With a simple and flavorful seasoning rub, these easy grilled chicken drumsticks are sure to be a hit at your next BBQ. Fire up your grill and let’s eat!
The best BBQ chicken drumsticks
When grilling, I like to keep it simple. You don’t need fancy wood chips, sugary BBQ sauce or an expensive smoker grill. In fact, I love the basic Weber charcoal grill for the best smoky BBQ flavor.
For this recipe, here’s all you need:
- A hot grill
- Some chicken drumsticks
- A few simple seasonings
Looking for more? Check out this roundup of mouthwatering BBQ recipes!
That’s it!
Ok, you’ll probably also want to plan making a side dish to go with your chicken. Some of our favorite sides for grilling are:
Or, simply cut up and grill any veggies you have on hand! For these pictures we sliced up some heirloom tomatoes and grilled some green beans along with the chicken.
Healthy Keto chicken drumsticks
If you’re following the Keto diet or trying to eat low carb with more healthy fats, these grilled chicken drumsticks are for you! Drumsticks are the perfect Keto protein, as the dark meat has more fat than other parts of the chicken.
In addition, the fat helps to keep the chicken from drying out on the grill. You get perfectly grilled and charred chicken skin with tender and juicy meat – grilling perfection!
How to grill chicken legs
Here are some tips for getting the best results for these grilled chicken drumsticks.
- Prepare your grill to about 400° fahrenheit. You don’t want the grill too hot or you’ll get burned skin and undercooked chicken inside.
- Flip the chicken every 10 minutes or so. You want to get grill marks all over the drumsticks but avoid letting them cook on one side for too long.
- Keep the lid closed on your grill. Opening the lid too often allows heat to escape and doesn’t cook the chicken as evenly.
- Watch for flare-ups. When fat drips on flame you’ll get flare-ups. If this happens, move the chicken away from the direct flames and reduce the heat.
- Use a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temperature is at least 165° Fahrenheit.
Your turn to try this healthy chicken drumstick recipe
It’s time to fire up your grill and give this easy recipe a try! I know you’ll love the salty, smoky and juicy flavor packed into these drumsticks. Leave a comment to let us know how it goes and take a pic to share on Instagram. Tag us @realsimplegood, we love to see what you’re making!
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Easy Grilled Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (907.18 g) chicken drumsticks
- 2 tbsp (2 tbsp) avocado oil
- 2 tsp (2 tsp) salt
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) pepper
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) garlic powder
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) chili powder
- 1 tsp (1 tsp) onion powder
Equipment
- Grill
Instructions
- Prepare grill to medium-high heat. (See notes for the instructions for baking in the oven)
- Mix the salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder and onion powder together in a small bowl.
- Lightly coat the chicken drumsticks with oil. Rub the seasoning mix all over the chicken to coat.
- Grill on direct heat for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the drumsticks. Flip every 10 minutes or so. Cook until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches at least 165° Fahrenheit.
- Remove from grill and allow the chicken to rest for at least five minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- To bake drumsticks in the oven, preheat oven to 400° F. Follow instructions above and place drumsticks on a sheet pan or in a baking dish. Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the drumsticks (until they reach an internal temperature of 165° F).
- Nutrition facts are per serving (one drumstick for this recipe) and an estimate provided for those following a Ketogenic or low-carb diet. See our full nutrition information disclosure here.
Simple to make and delicious! I cut back on the salt, added dried coriander, smoked paprika, sumac and cayenne to the spices and rubbed the drumsticks with some of the mix about 4 hours before grilling. 30 minutes before grilling I brushed the drumsticks with the oil and rubbed them with the remaining spice mix, then let them sit at room temperature while the grill preheated. They were perfectly grilled in 20 minutes. The meat was juicy and fell off the bones.
Sounds delicious! Thanks for coming back to leave a rating and review, we appreciate it 🙂
I have not tried this yet but I am going to try on Saturday. What do you think about cooking them in the oven at 400 for 35 minutes and then topping them off on the grill. I will have the grill going for some other things.
That should work, but I’d recommend only about 20-25 minutes in the oven if you’re finishing them on the grill. Enjoy!
Yummy .
Easy and successful
We love hearing that! Thanks for giving our recipe a try and for coming back to leave a review. Appreciate it! 🙂
Great recipe. I’m not on Keto so I brushed mine with BBQ sauce in the last two minutes. Everyone loved them. I use 50/50 Sweet Baby Rays and G Hughes no sugar Original sauce. Just the right amount of sweetness to please a crowd.
Should I use the oil and seasos if I’m going to put barbacue sauce on them too?
I would, it will add more flavor.
When I said don’t over do it. It was not making it too salty!
I just rince them; dry them in a paper towel; rub them with a thin layer of vergin olive oil; after I cut off aii the yellow chunks of fatty bits; sprinkle them Montreal chicken spice. After ensuring they were Left on the grill at 175 long enough to raise the intirior temp was not too low. Turn up the temperature to 350 to start cooking; after the first flip, I sprinkle with Club house Garlic Plus; when I do a second flip; I sprinkle again with garlic Plus and pepper; It’s for a very short period of time this time. Remember; heat is very hard on Garlic. Also you don’t want to over do it.
Found it to be a bit too salty, but maybe I added a little extra after I rubbed it on. And thanks for the excellent grilling instructions. I’ve always been a little scared to bbq chicken, but this came out perfect with your directions. Very good.
You’re very welcome!
I cooked this on my new cuisnart 5 in one griddler/panini maker, and boy was it good! Thanks for this!
You’re very welcome, glad the chicken turned out well for you!
So good!! Perfect amount of spice and so easy. I never make grilled chicken because it seems like a hassle and now I won’t be able to stop!
Yay! You found another recipe to love! We’re glad you gave this one a try. It’s simple enough that grilling feels easy! Thanks so much for coming back to share! We really appreciate it. 🙂
Just made these tonight and they were so good! I was skeptical to be honest because the ingredients are so simple but the family loved them. Thank you so much!
Sometimes keeping it simple is best! Thanks for trying these and I’m happy to hear you liked them :).
can I do it in oven
Absolutely, I just updated the recipe card to note the approximate cooking time for baking.