Name: Smoked Barbecue Chicken Legs
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 110 min
Ingredients: 6 to 12 Chicken Legs; Your favorite Dry BBQ Rub; Salt; Pepper; Your favorite wet BBQ sauce (or sauces); Smoke Wood Chips (can be found in the grilling section of your local stores); A foil pan (such as a foil baking bread pan); Aluminum foil

Jump to Recipe

In this post I’ll be sharing a recipe for Smoked Barbecue Chicken Legs – On the Grill.

If you’re like me, chicken legs might not be your first choice of chicken pieces. These smoked barbecue chicken legs are so good you’re gonna love them. Then you’re gonna go tell everybody how good they are and not be able to wait til you can shove one of these in their mouth to taste. Yea, it’s that good.

I used to sort of be afraid of grilling. That all changed years ago when we got a gas grill that had a thermostat on it. Well I’ll be, this grill is nothing more than an outdoor oven. That’s the thinking that changed it all for me.

I love the flavor that smoking meats give. This recipe is worth the bit of extra effort. The effort is not really in the work but cooking time.

So here’s how you do it and make sure you have plenty of napkins on hand……well unless you plan on licking your fingers clean.

Ingredients

6-12 Chicken Legs
Your favorite Dry BBQ Rub
Salt
Pepper
Your favorite wet BBQ sauce, or sauces
Smoke Wood Chips

Table of Contents

Smoked Barbecued Chicken Legs

You’ll also need a foil pan, such as a foil baking bread pan and aluminum foil.

An hour or so before you plan to start cooking, add some of the smoke wood chips to a bowl and cover with water and soak for an hour.

When you are ready to grill, drain the water from the wood chips and add them to the foil pan. Cover with foil, and use a tooth pick or skewer to poke holes in the foil.

Take your chicken legs out of the fridge and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a bowl or plate and cover all sides with the dry rub. Allow chicken to sit with dry rub for 20 minutes or so to come to room temperature.

Melt in Your Mouth Chicken Legs

seasoned chicken legs ready for smoking on the grill

While the chicken is hanging out with the dry rub, go ahead and start the grill. Turn all burners on high and place your foil smoking pan over to one side. By the time you’re ready to put the chicken on you should see smoke coming out of the grill.

Turn the burner off on the side you’ll be cooking the chicken on, or the side and center burners if you have a larger grill. Turn the heat down to medium on the side where your wood chip smoker pan is sitting so it keeps the smoke going during the cooking process.

Add the chicken to the grill, make sure it’s no where near the grill flames. The flames can cause the dry rub to burn since most rubs likely have some brown sugar or ground peppers that don’t do well over direct flames.

Grilled Chicken

Smoked Barbecue Chicken Legs on a gas grill

The thermostat should read around 300 degrees during cooking. You’re gonna smoke/grill the chicken legs for 1 and a half hour. Turn the chicken every half hour.

The last 15 minutes of cooking, add your wet sauce.

Remove the most delicious chicken legs ever from the grill and allow them to rest for 15 minutes before serving. The low and slow smoking cook method really tenderizes the chicken legs. They are moist and delicious too.

Budget Meals