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…
What is a butterflied chicken leg?
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.
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.
- 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. 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. 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.
- 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…
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).
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.
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
See the detailed steps to smoking butterfly chicken legs.
- Butterfly legs and season them all over.
- Smoke butterfly chicken legs (cut side down) first at 250’F for 45 min.
- Then brush on BBQ sauce and smoke for ~30 min more.
- 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.
Roast butterflied chicken legs in the oven
Recipe coming soon…
New recipes and foodie guides….
- Tri tip (it’s so good!)
- Homemade pizza
- Smoked wings
- Traeger pizza
- Pan grilled chicken
- Bacon wrapped hot dogs
- Potato side dishes
- Pasta side dishes
- Baked brisket
- Sous vide frozen steak
- Cooked chicken temp guide
- Jalapeno ranch sauce
- Sous vide pork chops
- Coulotte steak
- GUIDE: How to make hamburger patties
- GUIDE: Aerogarden
- Best restaurants in Portland
- Blackstone griddle recipes
Grill and smoker recipes…
- Grilled chicken wings
- Smoked pizza
- Smoked chicken
- Smoked tri tip
- Traeger pulled pork
- Smoked turkey breast
- Smoked chicken wings
- Smoked ham
- Flank steak marinade
- Skirt steak marinade
- Smoked mac and cheese
- Smoked chicken breast
- Grilled broccoli
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:
- Meater thermometer – a fancy wireless thermometer that connects to a phone app – gifted to me from a Traeger partnership.
- 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 | Sip Bite Go
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).
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