quick, easy, simple smoked chicken legs


 

Matty H

New member
Get a full chimney and a half worth of coals cooking. Add a couple of chunks of fruit wood, I used 2 chunks of apple and 1 chunk of pecan. Hot and fast, no water in the bowl, Line the bowl with foil for easy clean up of drippings. Keep the bowl in the smoker to deflect the heat.

Get the wsm as hot as you can, vents wide open.

While the wsm is coming to temp, prepare your chicken:

Get a pack of chicken legs, rinse em off, apply some rub, I used bone sucking poultry rub, but you can use what ever you want. Spray the grate with some nonstick spray to make life simple.

Throw the legs on, keep the cooker at 300+ degrees. Hot and fast makes crispy skin, low and slow makes rubbery skin.

Drumsticks will take around an hour, leg/thighs will take longer.

You know they are done cooking when internal temp is about 165 for dark meat. The skin will be splitting, and the meat will have pulled away from the bone a bit, but not as dramatic as with ribs.

Next, sauce all the legs, then remove the center section of the smoker, and place the grate directly on the lower portion above the coals. Be ready with tongs and a clean dish before you do this, because they can burn easily if you don't watch it so close to the coals. Turn the legs a few times and maybe add more sauce if you desire until it reaches the level of crispy you want.

Enjoy!!!
 
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As long as you keep the temps up around 350, the legs (the skin that you're asking about ;) will come out great. Not crunchy like potato chips but you'll be able to bite through it (NOT rubber-like at all as long as you maintain the temps).
 
Should be good, might not be as crispy, but, like Len said, just keep your temp high and it'll work. May want to consider saucing them and leaving them on the heat for 10-15 mins or so to get the sauce to carmalize a bit. Its all trial and error, see what works, what you like, what you dont, and go with it. ENJOY !!
 

 

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