If you’re in the “crispy skin” team like myself, you want as little moisture as possible on the skin. This is known as seasoning ahead of time, and placing the meat in the fridge on a wire rack, uncovered. There are a few important tips that I’d like to point out to make sure you have the most success: There are many ways to cook these butterflied chicken drumsticks, pretty much all of the same ways that you would cook a regular drumstick. Season them generously and allow them to refrigerate uncovered for at least 2 hours up to overnight. If you are grilling your chicken drumsticks later, place them on a wire rack. If you are grilling the butterflied chicken drumsticks immediately, lightly coat them in oil and season them. Open it up and it’s ready to be seasoned for the grill! Grilling the Drumsticks Make sure to keep the meat attached to the bone, do not slice off the top, or the meat from the back of the bone. Make a second cut along the other side of the bone, separating the meat so that it opens up flat. Be careful not to cut all the way through. Using a sharp knife, make 1 slice into the meat along the side of the bone.
Ninja chicken drumsticks skin#
It’s not a game-breaker if you slice the wrong side, but I’ve found the skin crisps up nicer if you do it this way. This is the side to cut, which has less skin. Flip the chicken drumstick to the side with the meat exposed at the top (see images below).
You don’t enjoy this flavor component if you’re using a stove-top range or air fryer. A larger surface area means the drumsticks are catching more smoke, spread out across the grates.
Don’t forget the wood-fired flavor notes that will hit the chicken as well. If you’re a person that enjoys glazing chicken with BBQ sauce, this is your opportunity for more sticky caramelization and flavor. The savory, sweet crispy bits add another level of complexity to the chicken. Another element of flavor is the Maillard reaction, the process which causes the meat to brown and crisp up. Once the meat is exposed and spread out, it is able to be seasoned. Wrapped up tight, the meat in a chicken drumstick is insulated, touching the bone while hiding away from your seasonings. Trust me, this isn’t a trick – opening up the meat from the bone will absolutely add more flavor. More surface, more opportunity for flavor. The added bonus is that you won’t see the odd discoloration of pink and purple meat in the middle after it’s cooked. Slicing the meat open creates a larger surface area with an even layer of meat, eliminating one of the biggest frustrations with thick drumsticks. One of the main benefits of butterflied chicken drumsticks is even cooking temperatures. Have you ever grilled a chicken drumstick and accidentally charred the skin, long before the meat is done? Suddenly you need to move the chicken to a cooler side of the grill, doubling down on the cooking time to slowly cook the inside of the chicken. Smoking can add a little time, but your family will definitely be eating within an hour. Right over the coals, these butterflied chicken drumsticks can be cooked in about 15 minutes, flipping every few to ensure even cooking.
Slicing open the meat to a wider surface area instantly cuts down cooking time, most of the time by half. Slowly smoking them will increase that time by at least another 30 minutes, which ends up being quite a long cook for chicken. Whole drumsticks on the grill can take anywhere between 30-45 minutes, depending on the process you use. We can’t stop making them! Try some of these recipes using the process such as Maple Bourbon Glaze with Chicken Drumsticks, or the Spiked Arnold Palmer Chicken.Ĭut your cooking time in half, at least. Could I actually be the first person to publish this grilling technique for butterflied chicken drumsticks? More meat, a little more effort, but a lot less money. Further research showed that this really hasn’t been published before, this new alternative to the expensive chicken wings. I’ve seen chicken drumsticks split open before but never used in this application. The recipe caught on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, and suddenly I realized I better write this down. Weeks went by, and everyone was making these. Suddenly I was being tagged, over and over again by others trying out the process. Nothing happened at first, my followers are generally very supportive and thought it was neat.
I had just made a recipe for a spatchcock chicken, so it just hit me: Will this work for drumsticks? I didn’t know honestly, but I recorded the process and posted it on Instagram. Chicken drumsticks are always the cheapest, given that they take way less time to process than the rest of the chicken. Part of my content strategy for this year was to start creating new recipes using cheaper cuts.
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