Give your gas grill year-round exercise while grilling these Perfectly Perfect Barbecued Chicken Drumsticks; successful because they are brined before grilling.

There is something about bbq chicken drumsticks that takes each of us back to childhood. You had to call it for example, “I get the drumstick!”

When I think back to picnics and cookouts, it seems silly now. For something that is such an easy recipe, a downright simple recipe, it definitely garnered the most attention from my whole family.

The key to the success of this chicken drumsticks recipe is a quick 30-minute brine. This step is generally reserved for white meat to help achieve a juicier result. But here, briefly brining the dark meat achieves a quickly cooked, fall-off-the-bone, crispy chicken skin, ultimate family barbecue favorite, the drumstick.

Do Drumsticks Need to Be Brined?

In this recipe, I am focusing on the crowd-pleasing chicken drumstick. I mix dry spices that work on all kinds of slow smoked or off-set heat grilled meats and this chicken method is a great example.

Two things are happening here that make this recipe work. First, the brine.

There’s no point in skipping the step that ensures the success of the chicken. This step means juicy and tender meat, no bloody collegians that oftentimes collect around the bone, and perfectly rendered crispy skin.

What Is the Best Way to Cook Chicken Drumsticks On the Grill?

Next, the cooking method matters. Regardless of gas or charcoal, this chicken is cooked completely over indirect heat or off-set heat.

A simple dry rub replaces classic bbq sauce. It’s honestly a little bit like cheating.

Have an instant-read thermometer or meat thermometer at the ready for testing the internal temperature of the chicken before pulling from the grill grates. Chicken is fully cooked when the temperature reads 165°F and the best way to gauge is a thermometer.

How to Perfectly Barbeque Chicken Drumsticks

The Brine

You’ll need a very large container or a brine bucket. Stir 1/2 cup table salt into 2 quarts cold water and whisk to dissolve.

Make sure you dissolve the salt, or this crucial step will be lost. I whisk for several minutes until the water is no longer cloudy from the salt.

A half cup may seem like a lot of salt. Salt is necessary to work at loosening the connective tissue around the bone.

Submerge the drumsticks and refrigerate. You can brine for as few as 30 minutes or for as long as one hour, however, not longer.

ProTip: a brine bucket is an excellent one-time investment that can be used over and over and works especially well at Thanksgiving for the almighty turkey. I linked to the one I like in the recipe card below.

The Dry Rub

These are simple ingredients likely already in your pantry. Combine all the herbs and spices and whisk together ensuring you break up any lumps in the brown sugar.

Pour the rub into a pie plate. You will be coating each drumstick so will want a pie plate large enough to brush off excess rub without it scattering. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easy transport to your grill.

Remove from the brine and pat each leg dry with paper towels. Let them sit on a stack of paper towels for 15-minutes to come to room temperature.

Coat each drumstick, tapping off any excess. You do not need a ton of rub to effectively do the job in this recipe.

Prep the Grill

Fire up your gas grill with all burners on high. Close the lid. YOU WANT A HOT HOT GRILL. We need to establish an off-set heat grilling method.

Wait 10 minutes before raising your grill lid. Turn off at least one (if not two depending on the size of your grill) of your burners.

Using tongs and a paper towel, oil all of the grill grates thoroughly with vegetable oil. Arrange the drumsticks on the cooler side of the grill, the side where you have turned the burner(s) off. Close the lid.

Cooking time is 25 minutes without opening the lid. My grill thermometer reads about 450°F for the entire 25 minutes in this step with two burners going, two burners off.

After 25 minutes, and using the same cooler side of the grill, flip. Close the lid and grill for another 20 minutes.

Hasten Some Grill Marks

Next, achieve a few grill marks. Make sure the grill grates on the HOT side of the grill are oiled with vegetable oil and transfer all to the HOT side of the grill. Do not walk away!

Turn and slightly char the drumsticks on all sides. Transfer to a platter and tent with aluminum foil for 10 minutes.

Cooking Over Charcoal

This grilling step takes on a whole new meaning when using a charcoal grill. Follow this same method with lit coals spread over only half of the base of your cooker. Just be sure your coals maintain a consistent temperature throughout the cooking times.

What to Serve with BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Chicken is economical. And since we’re talking firing up the grill for this method, who doesn’t embrace a grilled drumstick at backyard cookouts?

Serve with green onion sliced thin diagonally. You could also serve over a bed of homemade coleslaw. 

Served with fresh corn, tomato salad, and a hearty loaf of crusty garlic bread, this is a hearty summer supper.

My entire family loves, loves, loves these juicy chicken drumsticks and I kinda think they’ll be a huge hit with yours, too. Pull together everybody’s favorite sides and offer a store-bought favorite bbq sauce or better yet homemade bbq sauce for dipping and dunking tableside.

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