Here’s a great party twist to smoking chicken legs! In this perfect recipe for smoked butterflied chicken legs / drumsticks, you’ll learn how to prepare, smoke, and sear chicken legs so you get the crispest, juiciest legs alive. Let’s fire up the smoker!
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Why Smoked Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks are so great…
- Get more flavor coverage of your favorite seasoning by butterflying them first.
- It’s a different cooking method that’s fun to learn.
- Get crispy skin because you create a larger surface area hitting the smoker when the legs are butterflied.
- Cooking time will be quicker than smoking whole legs that aren’t butterflied.
- You can be creative! I kept things pretty simple in this Sip Bite Go recipe, however, if you want to shake it up a bit, you could prepare a little brown sugar rub or chipotle marinade for the chicken legs. You can’t go wrong cooking chicken legs. Choose a rub or marinade and start smoking!
- They kind of present similar to smoked wings.
- Very easy to pick up and eat for a game day smoker recipe.
New to smoked food recipes and Traeger recipes? See my step by step video for beginners (scroll to bottom of page).
See the best game day smoker recipes…
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make Smoked Butterflied Chicken Legs / Drumsticks.
- chicken drumsticks, aka chicken legs, bone-in with skin on or off (about 1 ½ LBs chicken drums)
- BBQ dry rub (any chicken bbq seasoning will work, too, as much as you’d like)
- BBQ sauce
- cilantro, fresh chopped (optional, for serving)
Also see how to make grilled butterfly chicken drumsticks…
How to make Smoked Butterflied Chicken Legs / Drumsticks
Now I’ll walk you through it…
How to butterfly chicken legs for smoking them
- First, find the bone of the chicken drumstick and get a pairing knife ready.
- Make a 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. 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.. 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 the meat flat to butterfly it.
Quick look at smoking butterflied chicken legs / drumsticks
- Preheat the smoker to 250 degrees F
- Butterfly chicken legs (make 3 cuts, see full description) with a paring knife.
- Season both sides with dry rub.
- Use a smoke temp of 250 degrees F (skin side up) for 45 minutes (cut side down) then add BBQ sauce and smoke for another 30 minutes.
- Flip chicken legs skin facing down and finish smoking butterflied chicken legs at 500 degrees F until done when they reached an internal temperature of 165 – 175 degrees F.
- Enjoy.
Detailed recipe steps
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F.
- Season butterflied chicken drumsticks. Sprinkle dry rub seasoning all over the chicken and rub it in with your hands.
- Smoke butterflied chicken legs / drumsticks with bone side (cut side) facing down, directly on the Traeger pellet grill grates. Smoke for 45 minutes FIRST (cut side down)…
- Brush BBQ sauce on butterflied smoker chicken legs. After you smoke them for 45 minutes, brush on BBQ sauce. (at this point of the Sip Bite Go smoked recipe demonstration, the chicken legs measured 140 degrees F internally – it doesn’t matter THAT much, but I’m just sharing incase you want to check how cooked your chicken legs are at this 45 minute mark, compared to the ones in the video).
- Smoke butterflied chicken legs for an additional 30 minutes at 250 degrees F. (Check temperature to make sure they’re not “done” yet, which would be 165 degrees – 175 degrees F.)
- Flip over chicken (so the meaty side is facing DOWN and skin side is up). Brush the skin side with more BBQ sauce if desired.
- Sear smoked butterflied chicken to finish them. To do this, crank smoker up to a temperature of 500 degrees F to finish smoking butterflied chicken legs with a sear until done. They’re ready to remove from the smoker when they reach 175 degrees F as measured with an internal read thermometer.
- Finish smoked chicken drumsticks with a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro and enjoy.
Also see how to grill chicken thighs and how to smoke chicken thighs…
FAQs
This is a simple process which will take only 15 minutes to prepare a couple of pounds of chicken legs like I did in this recipe. Start by getting a sharp knife (I used a paring knife), and gently make one cut down the leg touching the bone. 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. The chicken leg will 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.
In this Sip Bite Go recipe, it took 90 minutes to fully smoke the chicken legs to 165 – 175 degrees F internal temperature.
More Tasty Grill + Smoker Recipes
- Smoked mac and cheese
- Smoked cream cheese
- Smoked brisket flat
- 321 ribs
- Beer can chicken on the smoker
- Smoked wings
- Smoked tomahawk steak
- Traeger tri tip
- Smoked turkey breast
- Smoked turkey legs
- Whole smoked turkey
- Smoked Traeger pizza
- Smoked onion rings
- Traeger smoked ham
- Smoked whole chicken
- Smoked jalapeno poppers
- Smoked corn on the cob
- Traeger beef ribs
- Smoked leg of lamb
- Smoked shrimp
- Grilled chicken wings
- Grilled skirt steak
- Flank steak marinade
- Grilled potato wedges
- Smoked pulled pork
- Want more? See my lineup of easy smoker recipes
See this Traeger Flatrock grill review.
See my favorite smoker tools and seasonings in my Amazon Storefront.
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!
Are you a foodie, too?
Hey home chefs, hope that answers all your questions about making smoked butterflied chicken legs.
See how to get more smoke flavor from your favorite Traeger dishes.
Connect…
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- Browse the Sip Bite Go recipe collection
Traeger Smoked Butterflied Chicken Legs Recipe | Sip Bite Go
Ingredients
- 8 pieces chicken drumsticks aka chicken legs, bone-in with skin on or off (about 1 ½ LBs chicken drums)
- 2 tbsp BBQ dry rub any chicken bbq seasoning will work, too, as much as you’d like
- ½ cup BBQ sauce
- 1 tsp cilantro fresh chopped (optional, for serving)
Instructions
How to butterfly chicken legs for smoking
- First, find the bone of the chicken drumstick and get a pairing knife ready.
- Make a 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. 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.. 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 the meat flat to butterfly it.
How to smoke butterflied chicken drumsticks
- Preheat Traeger Grills or Pitt Boss or whatever pellet grill you’re using to 250 degrees F.
- Season butterflied chicken drumsticks. Sprinkle dry rub seasoning all over the chicken and rub it in with your hands.
- Smoke butterflied chicken legs / drumsticks with bone side (cut side) facing down, directly on the Traeger pellet grill grates.
- Brush BBQ sauce on butterflied smoker chicken legs. Smoke for 45 minutes then brush on BBQ sauce. (at this point of the Sip Bite Go smoked recipe demonstration, the chicken legs measured 140 degrees F internally – it doesn’t matter THAT much, but I’m just sharing incase you want to check how cooked your chicken legs are at this 45 minute mark, compared to the ones in the video).
- Smoke butterflied chicken legs for an additional 30 minutes at 250 degrees F. (Check temperature to make sure they’re not “done” yet, which would be 165 degrees – 175 degrees F.)
- Flip over chicken (so the meaty side is facing DOWN). Brush the skin side with more BBQ sauce if desired.
- Sear smoked butterflied chicken to finish them. To do this, crank smoker up to a temperature of 500 degrees F to finish smoking butterflied chicken legs with a sear until done. They’re ready to remove from the smoker when they reach ~175 degrees F as measured with an internal read thermometer.
- Finish smoked chicken drumsticks with a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro and enjoy.
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