Combine all of your dry rub ingredients and rub over chicken thighs. Set them aside while you preheat your gas grill. The instructions here are specifically for the gas grill, but can of course be modified for other types of grills.
Oil your grill and prepare it for indirect heat by turning half the burners to high and leaving half of the burners off. Allow your grill to preheat for around 10 minutes until it reaches 300-350°, and continue to maintain that temperature during the entire cooking time.
Place all of your drumsticks without touching one another on the cool side of the grill. No burners should be on under the chicken. Close the lid and cook for about 40 minutes undisturbed. The exact time will depend on the size of your drumsticks. But cook to about 150° internal temp and the skin of the chicken should be starting to crisp up. Try not to open the grill and if you do, only open it for long enough to check the internal temperature.
After 40 minutes or so, turn down the burners that were previously turned to high to low, move the chicken to the hot side and start brushing it with the barbeque sauce and flipping it frequently. Do this process for good ten minutes. Feel free to put the burners off or down to low. The goal here is to caramelize the barbeque sauce, infuse the chicken with flavour, get some grill marks without burning your chicken as barbeque sauce burns fast because of all the sugar.
During this process, remember you have your "cool zone" and "hot zone." So if one piece of chicken is starting to get charred - move it back to the cool zone.
When you feel good about the caramelization of the barbeque sauce and a good amount of grill marks, the internal temp of your chicken should hopefully be around 155-165, move it back to the cool zone. Turn the hot side burners back to high and close the lid. Finish cooking your chicken on the cool zone to internal temperature of around 175 (although safe to consume at 165, the abundant connective tissue in the drumstick is the most juicy and tender at 175.)
The directions here are designed for a gas grill with 5 burners. However, this recipe can be modified to a charcoal grill or a grill with less burners. If using charcoal, pile all of your coals on one side of your grill.
In this recipe, for juicy chicken with perfect grill marks and flavour, we are setting up 3 heat zones: low heat, medium heat and high heat zones. Most of the cooking is done over indirect heat. Then we dress our chicken with sauce over medium heat zone to let the sauce absorb, caramelize, while getting some grill marks. The timing of this recipe will depend, but aim for about 1 hour 10 minutes: 40 minutes on low heat zone, 10-15 minutes on medium heat zone and another 10-15 minutes on low heat zone again.
Very important thing to keep in mind is that barbeques, even the better ones, do not distribute the heat evenly. The pieces that are closer to the hot zone, may cook quicker. Keep that in mind, and as you cook your chicken and move it between zones, rotate the pieces every so often, so that they get somewhat uniform exposure to heat.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine all of your dry rub ingredients and rub over chicken thighs. Set them aside while you preheat your gas grill. The instructions here are specifically for the gas grill, but can of course be modified for other types of grills.
Oil your grill and prepare it for indirect heat by turning half the burners to high and leaving half of the burners off. Allow your grill to preheat for around 10 minutes until it reaches 300-350°, and continue to maintain that temperature during the entire cooking time.
Place all of your drumsticks without touching one another on the cool side of the grill. No burners should be on under the chicken. Close the lid and cook for about 40 minutes undisturbed. The exact time will depend on the size of your drumsticks. But cook to about 150° internal temp and the skin of the chicken should be starting to crisp up. Try not to open the grill and if you do, only open it for long enough to check the internal temperature.
After 40 minutes or so, turn down the burners that were previously turned to high to low, move the chicken to the hot side and start brushing it with the barbeque sauce and flipping it frequently. Do this process for good ten minutes. Feel free to put the burners off or down to low. The goal here is to caramelize the barbeque sauce, infuse the chicken with flavour, get some grill marks without burning your chicken as barbeque sauce burns fast because of all the sugar.
During this process, remember you have your "cool zone" and "hot zone." So if one piece of chicken is starting to get charred - move it back to the cool zone.
When you feel good about the caramelization of the barbeque sauce and a good amount of grill marks, the internal temp of your chicken should hopefully be around 155-165, move it back to the cool zone. Turn the hot side burners back to high and close the lid. Finish cooking your chicken on the cool zone to internal temperature of around 175 (although safe to consume at 165, the abundant connective tissue in the drumstick is the most juicy and tender at 175.)
The directions here are designed for a gas grill with 5 burners. However, this recipe can be modified to a charcoal grill or a grill with less burners. If using charcoal, pile all of your coals on one side of your grill.
In this recipe, for juicy chicken with perfect grill marks and flavour, we are setting up 3 heat zones: low heat, medium heat and high heat zones. Most of the cooking is done over indirect heat. Then we dress our chicken with sauce over medium heat zone to let the sauce absorb, caramelize, while getting some grill marks. The timing of this recipe will depend, but aim for about 1 hour 10 minutes: 40 minutes on low heat zone, 10-15 minutes on medium heat zone and another 10-15 minutes on low heat zone again.
Very important thing to keep in mind is that barbeques, even the better ones, do not distribute the heat evenly. The pieces that are closer to the hot zone, may cook quicker. Keep that in mind, and as you cook your chicken and move it between zones, rotate the pieces every so often, so that they get somewhat uniform exposure to heat.
