One of the best parts of the chicken is the legs and thighs in my opinion but when smoking the skin often ends up less crispy than what many people enjoy although it does a great job of protecting the delicious juicy meat inside. These bacon wrapped chicken drumsticks are made by removing the chicken skin, seasoning with my very own original rub recipe and wrapping in a stretched piece of bacon.
Chicken lovers and bacon lovers alike will adore this recipe!
These are finished with a Dr Pepper glaze made using Jeff's barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce).
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Smoker Temp: 250°F (121°C)
- Meat Finish Temp: 175°F (79°C)
- Recommended Wood: Hickory
- 12 chicken legs (or more)
- 2/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub)
- 1 lb bacon (thin is best)
- ½ cup Jeff's barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce)
- ½ cup Dr Pepper (not diet)
- 2 TBS honey
Please note that my rubs and barbecue sauce are now available in 2 formats– you can purchase the formulas and make them yourself OR you can buy them already made, in a bottle, ready to use.For this recipe, the skin will be replaced by bacon so we have to remove it. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to do.
Pull the skin down toward the narrow end then grasp it with a paper towel and pull it clean off.
You are left with a skinless drumstick..
When you've done all of them, you'll have a pile of skinless drumsticks
I decided to use Dijon mustard to create a base for the seasoning. About 2/3 cup of my original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub) should be enough for a dozen legs.
Place the chicken legs into a plastic zip top bag first to make it easier and less messy.
Massage the bag to make sure the mustard gets on to all of the chicken.
Now pour about ½ cup of Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub) into the bag and once again roll the bag around and massage it to make sure the rub gets distributed evenly onto all of the chicken.
Once it looks good, the chicken can be removed from the bag at this point or stored in the fridge overnight until you are ready to cook them.
I recommend using the thinnest bacon you can find. Look for pound packages that have 16+ slices.
Lay a strip of bacon on the cutting board or wax paper.
Lay one of the chicken drumsticks on top of the bacon as shown.
Wrap the short end of the bacon over the top of the chicken.
Wrap the remaining bacon around the rest of the chicken.
Repeat this process for all of the chicken legs and place them on a pan/rack, Weber grill pan, etc.
You can sprinkle a little more of the Jeff's original rub (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub) for extra flavor if you like.
The bacon wrapped chicken drumsticks are now ready to smoke.
Set up your smoker for cooking at about 250°F (121°C) using indirect heat.
If your smoker has a water pan, fill it up.
Use hickory wood for smoke. Other smoking woods will work just fine as well.
Once the smoker is preheated, place the chicken into the smoker and let the good times roll!
When the chicken reaches about 145°F (63°C), it's a great idea to glaze the chicken with some delicious sauce. I like to use my barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled sauce) thinned with Dr Pepper and sweetened a little more with honey.
- ½ cup Jeff's barbecue sauce (Purchase formula here | Purchase bottled rub)
- ½ cup Dr Pepper
- 2 TBS honey
Add all ingredients and stir to combine.
Brush the sauce liberally onto all sides of the chicken. Multiple coats can be applied during the remaining time if you want them extra sticky.
You can expect bacon wrapped chicken drumsticks to take a total of about 2 hours at 250°F (121°C). If you have to use a slightly lower temperature, it may take a little longer.
The higher temperatures will help to get a better finish on the bacon.
Use a quality digital meat thermometer such as a Thermopop (reads in 3-4 seconds so you can check all of them quickly).
Chicken is technically done at 165°F (74°C) however, I like to take these on up to about 175°F (79°C) for extra tenderness and because they are not lean like the breast meat, they handle it wonderfully and are better for it in the end.
Serve with warm sauce on the side for dipping and watch everyone licking their fingers and reaching for more. ;-)
You can also order the formulas for my rubs and sauce and make these yourself at home. Grab those HERE and download immediately.
Smoking Meat: The Essential Guide to Real Barbecue – The book is full of recipes and contains tons of helpful information as well. Some have even said that “no smoker should be without this book”!
With more than 1000 reviews on Amazon.com and a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, it comes highly recommended and is a Bestseller in Barbecuing & Grilling books on Amazon.
Smoke, Wood, Fire: The Advanced Guide to Smoking Meat – Unlike the first book, this book does not focus on recipes but rather uses every square inch of every page teaching you how to smoke meat. What my first book touched on, this second book takes it into much greater detail with lots of pictures.
It also includes a complete, step-by-step tutorial for making your own smoked “streaky” bacon using a 100 year old brine recipe.
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Printable Recipe
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 12 chicken legs ((or more))
- 2/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup Jeff's original rub
- 1 lb bacon ((thin is best))
- ½ cup Jeff's barbecue sauce
- ½ cup Dr Pepper ((not diet))
- 2 TBS honey
Instructions
- Remove chicken skin using a paper towel for better grip.
- Place chicken legs into a zip top bag.
- Place 2/3 cup of Dijon mustard into the bag and massage to cover all of the chicken.
- Place ½ cup of Jeff's original rub into the bag and massage/roll bag to coat the chicken evenly.
- Place the bag in the fridge overnight if desired or proceed with wrapping in bacon.
- Lay a strip of bacon on the cutting board
- Place a piece of chicken about 4 inches from the end of the bacon.
- Wrap the short end over the top of the bacon then proceed to wrap the long end around the rest of the chicken.
- Repeat this process on all of the chicken legs.
- Place the wrapped chicken legs onto a Bradley rack or similar.
- Preheat the smoker to 250°F (121°C) using indirect heat.
- To smoke cook the chicken, lay the chicken on the grate and close the lid.
- When the chicken reaches 145°F (63°C) it can be brushed with Dr Pepper glaze made by mixing ½ cup of my barbecue sauce, ½ cup of Dr Pepper and 2 TBS of honey.
- Multiple coats can be applied if you want the chicken to be extra sticky.
- When the chicken reaches 175°F (79°C) it is finished and should be removed from the heat.
- Serve immediately with warm sauce on the side.
I've made this recipe many times and every time it's a hit. My 5 yr old grandson grabs one in each hand and soon puts down empty bones. This recipe is awesome!
I make this fairly often. No soda pop for me – juice instead.
Another variation is boneless skinless chicken thighs. Using a meat pounder, pound them to an even thickness and season them on both sides. Place strips of jalapeno pepper and strips of cheese across them, roll them up and add the bacon…Pretty good eating.
I made this recipe for a big Father’s Day gathering. These drumsticks were the hit of the gathering. Everyone raved about how good they tasted. Definitely a keeper for me.
Hi Jeff. I've made these drumsticks many times and they are delicious. Yesterday I substituted pretty big frog legs for the drumsticks and man oh man. They were awesome. Cooked them on my Country Smoker Traveler.
The glaze is ideal for pork chops!
This recipe has become a favorite around my place. When guests come they expect it and the nice thing is the time from start to finish isnt all that bad time wise. By the time theyve had a few beers and caught up socially, its dinner time.
I did this recipe for mothers day, and had to reheat them a few hours later, meat fell off the bone, and most thought the bacon was the skin!
Great work Jeff thank you!
Jeff,
I've purchased your rub and sauces recipes… both outstanding and I use them often. I'd like to use your bacon wrapped chicken drumstick recipe on (6) turkey legs for Thanksgiving. I have a Blaz-N pellet grill and live the Denver area @6300′. How long would you smoke the turkey legs for at that altitude (things just take longer up here)? I'm considering putting a couple turkey thighs on the smoke too as I'm a dark meat lover and have plenty of room on the smoker grate.
Thanks… Larry
Those turkey legs usually end up taking somewhere around 2 to 2.5 hours depending on how big they are, how cold they are when they go on the smoker and other variables like ambient temperature, wind, etc.
At that altitude, I would figure on an increased cooking time of 25 percent. This brings the estimate up to between 2.5 hours and 3 hours approximately.
I made smoked bacon drumsticks, family loved them smallest child ate 2 he only eats have drumstick usually they said best chicken ever
Hi Jeff. I made the Smoked Drumsticks this past Sunday for some friends. These babys are off the hook! Everyone went on and on about how delicious they were. Thanks for the great recipes. Have you ever made smoked mac and cheese?