Description
These easy Smoked Chicken Legs are crispy skin on the outside, juicy and delicious on the inside! Perfect for dinner or game day!
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Rub:
- 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- optional: 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Smoked Chicken Legs:
- 12 chicken legs
Instructions
- Prep: Ensure grates are clean and preheat smoker to 225 degrees F.
- Season Chicken: Pat chicken legs dry with clean paper towel. Combine dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Cover chicken legs in the dry rub, ensuring you get it into every nook and cranny.
- Smoke: Place chicken legs on the preheated smoker and close lid. Let smoke for approximately 1 hour or until chicken legs reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F at the thickest part of the meat (use a digital meat thermometer).
- Optional Sear: Remove chicken legs from smoker and turn heat up to 500 degrees. Place chicken back on the smoker, searing each side for 1-2 minutes. Keep rotating until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
- Rest + Serve: Remove chicken from the smoker and let rest 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Searing Optional: If you want to keep smoking the legs at 225 degrees F until they hit an internal temp of 165 degrees F, you can. Otherwise, pull them off when they hit 160 degrees and then turn the electric smoker way up to 400-500 degrees (or use a hot grill). Sear them on all sides, rotating every minute or two until the skin is nice and charred.
- Dry Rub Alternative: this all-purpose chicken dry rub is more herby, than this one, if you want another option.
- When is Chicken Fully Cooked: chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees F. Remember, chicken will also keep cooking as it rests so don’t overcook the chicken or it will dry out.
- Wood Chips: the type of wood is your own personal preference, we tend to use sweet wood chips or wood pellets, like cherry wood or apple.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 drumstick
- Calories: 155
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 303.9 mg
- Fat: 4.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 0.9 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 25.4 g
- Cholesterol: 115.7 mg