How to Cook Lollipop Chicken Drumsticks

How to make lollipop chicken drumsticks in the oven, grilled on your barbecue or smoked is here! Lollipopped chicken legs are so fun for kids.

Chicken Leg Lollipops

Have you ever heard of these? Maybe you went to your favorite bbq joint and they were on the menu. You thought whaaa???? When you see them though the name kinda’ makes sense. I mean talk about two favorite things kids love all lumped into one. I don’t know about yours but typically when I make Ninja Foodi chicken legs are their favorite meat of all time.

Make it super easy to eat and call it a lollipop and believe me, they won’t hesitate to taste them. The sauce and/or seasonings are totally versatile too. You should use your favorite blend. If you just want to go super easy and sprinkle Lawrys seasoned salt on top, that works too.

Want some heat, spicy is always a winner too depending on the person.

How to Make Chicken Lollipop

Ok so how do you prepare these babies at the beginning so they look like they do. Flat on the meatier end so they can sit flat on a baking sheet, grill or Traeger grate. That is easy as long as you have a really sharp knife on hand. That is key or you’ll get frustrated and you won’t get a clean cut either.

Hate wasting food and it kills you to throw the end you cut off in the trash? I totally get you, I’m kinda’ the same way. NO worries because I have the best answer for you, make a pot of homemade chicken broth with them!! This is what you’re going to want to have on hand in order to get started on these;

Lollipopping Chicken

• Chicken legs that are defrosted, I always prefer medium size organic for all of our chicken drumsticks recipes but your choice.
• Olive oil
• Your favorite seasonings like garlic powder, salt and pepper at least
• Cutting board and a sharp knife or kitchen shears
• A brush is handy to have to use with the oil
• Baking sheet that is non stick or lay foil on top
• If you are making marinated chicken before baking you’ll want that sauce and a gallon freezer bag handy for soaking

You could use teriyaki (my preference), barbecue sauce, ginger garlic blend or just soy sauce. If you want these sweet and spicy I would use our chicken dry rub recipe with 1 tsp (or more) of red pepper flakes added. We use this for chicken wings, thighs, all the things and it is great.

If you wanted to make more of a fried chicken creation you could roll in shake n bake. That will give it more of a deep fry crispy taste. I think a rub with some sauce at the end is the best combo we have tried. Yes you could also heat oil and actually fry them to a golden brown in a deep pan as well.

Air Fryer Lollipop Chicken

Want to make air fryer drumstick lollipops? You can do that as well. The cook time isn’t much different than if you left the end on. You would just decrease it by 2 minutes or so. Always have a meat thermometer on hand no matter which one of these chicken lollipops recipe ideas you make.

Grilled Lollipop Chicken Legs

Smoked chicken lollipop recipe is here if you have a Traeger. If you just have a grill we have directions below. Always cook until internal temperature reaches 170°F. This method will take about 30 minutes or so. You’ll want to turn each one at least twice in order to rotate it above the heat source in order to crisp the skin.

1. If you’re using an electric grill I’d set to cook at 350 F
2. For a charcoal grill you always want to lite the coals and wait until they are white before adding food to the grate
3. Set pieces on the grill as you see here until the thickest part reaches 170 internal meat temperature
4. For crispier skin, rotate 2-3 times, set like this at first, then after 10 minutes turn on it’s side, one more rotation after 10 or so final minutes to brown the other side

* Timing will vary depending on how big and thick your pieces are. If you want to brush with your favorite sauce or bbq glaze, do so after it has grilled for about 20 minutes so it can begin to brown and bake on.

How to Lollipop Chicken Drumsticks in Oven

If you want to use your oven to make baked chicken legs you can make them spicy, lightly seasoned, or teriyaki lollipop chicken! With this method you’ll want to have a bit of foil on hand to wrap the ends, then follow these directions;

You should first prepare legs, add into gallon freezer bag with something like a homemade teriyaki sauce, then put into fridge for 6-8 hours before cooking.

• Put 1 chicken leg on cutting board on it’s side and cut off the top 1″ thru the bone and meat so it is now flat on that end. Do this for all the pcs. you want to bake. Push meat down off the long bone as much as possible.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay non stick foil on a baking sheet and set aside.
• One at a time brush olive oil on meat end + sprinkle your dry rub or seasoning all over the skin and your meat. Sit on your baking sheet with the flat/cut end facing down until they are all coated.
• Use small pieces of foil to wrap each bone end, not covering up any skin or meat below.
• How long to bake chicken legs at 400 F? For the most part 20 minutes total or until internal temp. reaches 165 F. at it’s thickest part. * If you want to brush bbq sauce on each one, do so 5 minutes before they are done (at minute 15) so that can brown and get sticky wonderful.
• Remove, allow to cool at least 5 minutes before serving.

The great thing about wrapping the “holder end” in foil at the beginning of lollipop chicken drumsticks is once they are done fingers won’t get burned. If you skip this step the bone will get really hot and it will be harder to just grab and enjoy right away.