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    Home » Recipes » Game Day Recipes » How To Butterfly Chicken Legs

    How To Butterfly Chicken Legs

    Published: Oct 6, 2022 · Modified: Nov 16, 2022 by Jenna Passaro · This post may contain affiliate links.

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    butterfly chicken legs drumsticks recipe with text overlay

    Want to butterfly chicken legs or chicken drumsticks to air fry, smoke, or grill ‘em? I’ve got you covered with this step by step tutorial, plus I’ll share some of my favorite recipes to make with butterflied chicken legs. Let’s do it…

    How To Butterfly Chicken Legs Drumsticks Sip Bite Go
    Learn how to butterfly drumsticks to make tasty chicken dishes. They taste great and cook faster than traditional chicken legs.

    Table of Contents

    • What is a butterflied chicken leg?
    • How to butterfly chicken legs 
    • How long does it take to butterfly chicken legs?
    • Why do people butterfly chicken drumsticks?
    • What to do with butterflied chicken legs
    • Meat thermometer recommendations
    • Are you a foodie, too?
    • How to Butterfly Chicken Legs | Sip Bite Go

    What is a butterflied chicken leg?

    Plate with Cooked Butterflied Chicken Legs

    Butterflying chicken legs is a simple process to make it easy to grab and eat food for game day parties. And butterflied drumsticks are always a hit on backyard BBQ menus. 

    Butterfly slicing chicken legs with a pairing knife

    See the best game day smoker recipes…

    How to butterfly chicken legs 

    Here’s a quick look at the butterfly technique – watch the video if you’re super visual.

    Infographic demonstrating with captions how to butterfly chicken legs and drumsticks for grilling or smoking with Jenna Passaro from Sip Bite Go
    1. Use a sharp knife to butterfly chicken legs. Start by getting a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), and first, find the bone of the chicken drumstick. 
    2. Make your first cut. Gently make one parallel cut down the leg, in the center, touching the bone. This first cut will help open up the chicken leg meat for the next step.
    3. Make two more cuts. Next, you’ll make two cuts. One on each side of the chicken leg bone. You’ll want to use one hand to pull back the leg meat while the other hand makes the cuts. (watch the Sip Bite Go butterfly chicken leg demonstration video). Slicing the meat this way will make it butterfly outwards on each side of the bone. Don’t cut all the way through the meat, that would defeat the purpose. At the end of your cuts, you should clearly see the chicken bone with chicken meat flaps on each side. On the other side, you’ll find the skin side. Smoosh them flat.
    4. Season and cook as desired with help from Sip Bite Go chicken recipes, and enjoy. (we love to make grill them, or put them on the smoker, or air fry them… ).

    Also see how to grill chicken thighs and how to smoke chicken thighs…

    How long does it take to butterfly chicken legs?

    It takes us about 10-15 minutes to butterfly a couple of pounds of chicken drumsticks.

    See how to slow cook chicken drumsticks…

    Demonstrating knife cutting butterflied chicken drumstick

    HEY FOODIES — Follow SBG for new recipes on Instagram / TikTok

    Why do people butterfly chicken drumsticks?

    Well, they’re fun to eat and can be faster to cook (I’m talking about a ​​cooking time combined with prep of 30 minutes or less for some preparations). 

    BBQ Seasoned Butterfly Chicken Drumsticks on a baking sheet

    Plus, there’s more surface area to season and brush bbq sauce on, so you can make very flavorful chicken drumsticks by butterflying them before cooking. 

    Tender BBQ Butterfly Chicken Leg Dinner

    We love to toss these drumsticks on the grill or Traeger smoker for an easy weeknight dinner.

    For a tasty chicken dinner side dish, try smoked mac and cheese or smoked baked potatoes.

    What to do with butterflied chicken legs

    Smoke butterflied chicken legs

    Butterfly chicken legs smoking on Traeger pellet grill

    See the detailed steps to smoking butterfly chicken legs.

    1. Butterfly legs and season them all over.
    2. Smoke butterfly chicken legs (cut side down) first at 250’F for 45 min. 
    3. Then brush on BBQ sauce and smoke for ~30 min more. 
    4. Flip chicken legs so the skin side is against the grates. Increase the smoker temp to 500’F until done (165 – 175’F).

    Grill butterflied chicken legs

    Make grilled butterfly chicken drumsticks on high heat, for about 15 minutes until done. 

    Make air fried butterfly chicken legs

    Recipe coming soon to Sip Bite Go.

    Butterfly chicken legs with seasoning for air fryer

    Roast butterflied chicken legs in the oven

    Recipe coming soon…

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    Meat thermometer recommendations

    Every home chef needs a reliable meat thermometer to cook food perfectly. 

    On Sip Bite Go, you’ll often see me using:

    1. Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
    2. ThermoPro digital thermometer – which has a wire that connects the thermometer to a display box outside the oven/grill. 

    It’s like being psychic! The great thing about either of the thermometers above is that I don’t have to take the food out of the oven to know the temperature. 

    How to use ‘em… What I do is stick the digital thermometer in steak, pork, chicken, whatever… Then put the food in the oven, on the smoker, or grill.

    While the meat cooks, it reads the temperature so I know exactly what temp meat is as it’s cooking. Without having to take it out and check. It’s really difficult to overcook food when you know exactly what temp it is inside!

    steak

    Are you a foodie, too?

    Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about how to butterfly chicken drumsticks. Soon I’ll share a butterfly chicken legs air fryer recipe. 

    Also see how to spatchcock chicken…

    Connect…

    • Instagram / TikTok / YouTube
    • Browse the Sip Bite Go recipe collection
    How To Butterfly Chicken Legs Drumsticks Sip Bite Go

    How to Butterfly Chicken Legs | Sip Bite Go

    Want to butterfly chicken legs or chicken drumsticks to air fry them, smoke, or grill ‘em? I’ve got you covered with this step by step tutorial, plus I’ll share some of my favorite recipes to make with butterflied chicken legs. Let’s do it… | sipbitego.com
    5 from 3 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Appetizer, Main Course
    Cuisine: BBQ
    Diet: Gluten Free
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes
    Total Time: 30 minutes
    Servings: 4 people
    Calories: 223kcal
    Author: Jenna Passaro

    Ingredients

    Ingredients (just examples, scale up or down for your cooking recipe)

    • 2 LB chicken legs skin on, bone in, aka chicken drumsticks
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 2 tbsp bbq rub or any buffalo hot sauce or bbq seasoning you’d like

    Instructions

    • Use a sharp knife to butterfly chicken legs. Start by getting a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), and first, find the bone of the chicken drumstick.
    • Make your first cut down the leg. Gently make one parallel cut down the leg, in the center, touching the bone. This first cut will help open up the chicken leg meat for the next step.
    • Make two more cuts on the sides of the chicken bones. Next, you’ll make two cuts. One on each side of the chicken leg bone. You’ll want to use one hand to pull back the leg meat while the other hand makes the cuts. (watch the Sip Bite Go butterfly chicken leg demonstration video).
      Slicing the meat this way will make it butterfly outwards on each side of the bone. Don’t cut all the way through the meat, that would defeat the purpose.
      At the end of your cuts, you should clearly see the chicken bone with chicken meat flaps on each side. On the other side, you’ll find the skin side.
      Push the meat flat.
    • Season and cook as desired with help from Sip Bite Go chicken recipes, and enjoy. (we love to grill butterfly chicken, smoke it, and air fry it).

    Video

    Notes

    See the recipe: https://sipbitego.com/butterfly-chicken-legs
     
    Watch the full-length YouTube recipe video for how to butterfly a chicken leg on Sip Bite Go’s YouTube channel.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 223kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 118mg | Sodium: 125mg | Potassium: 321mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 0.1g | Vitamin A: 94IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 2mg
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    jenna passaro food blogger from Portland Oregon

    Hey, I’m Jenna Passaro.

    I develop easy recipes that can transform your kitchen into a restaurant – and you into a true home chef.

      

    Where to start?

    Learn the secrets to smoking tasty Traeger recipes and making pizza at home. And cook amazing tri tip steak dinners.

    Or, fall in love with something new to cook with your air fryer, pellet smoker, BBQ grill, sous vide cooker, and more…

    You’ll notice, I kind of geek out over new cooking trends and tools!

    Instagram me @sipbitego & chef hubs @handmodelpatrick

    My story. Growing up, I didn’t learn to cook.

    (I was actually banned from cooking for years)

    And then in my 20’s I didn’t have to cook because my job as an event planner involved a lot of travel and it was easier to eat out. At the time, I was 100% positive that restaurant food would always taste better than cooking at home, and there was nothing I could do about it.

    Until I fell in love with a chef. He would come over and cook me delicious meals right in my own kitchen. My mind was blown.

    Since then, I’ve been on a mission to figure out easy ways to make restaurant style food at home and share it here on Sip Bite Go.

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    Never in a million years did I imagine I’d ditch the 9-5 lifestyle in my late 20’s, move across the country on a whim, start a new life, start a food blog, and write a book.

    But here I am!

    See my book on Amazon: The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook.

     

       

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