Fire up the Flavor with Grilled BBQ Chicken Lollipops

Chicken Lollipops are a delicious, flavorful, fun-to-eat twist on classic grilled chicken! Fire up the grill today and elevate your BBQ game with flame-kissed BBQ chicken lollipops!

I’m A Sucker For Chicken Lollipops

Growing up, drumsticks were a frequent thing in our house. They were cheap and you could easily feed a family of 8 with plenty of leftovers.

Today, they are still fairly inexpensive compared to boneless chicken breasts and still super tasty.

Making them as lollipops is not only fun to eat but I find it so much easier to make them this way! Today I’m firing up my Yoder Smokers Flattop Grill. Man, I seriously love that thing!

Watch The Video

Make sure you watch the video to see how to make these amazing chicken lollipops! I prefer to French the bones for a cleaner look but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’ll explain further down what that means to “French the bones”.

Grab Your Ingredients

This required 3 ingredients:

• Chicken Drumsticks
• Wing Wub Seasoning – it truly is the best
• BBQ Sauce – I went with my Sweet & Tangy sauce but you could use any. Here is a list of 10 BBQ Sauces you could try

Chef’s Tip: French The Bones (Optional step)

I covered this in my Roasted Rack of Pork but let me discuss how to do it to chicken drumsticks.

1. Put on disposable gloves as it’ll be easier to handle the chicken.
2. Using a very sharp knife like a paring knife, cut the leg about 1-2″ from the knuckle. You may need to go around a few times to cut through the skin, meat, and tendons.
3. Once you have a clean cut, push the meat/skin that is closest to the knuckle towards it and, using paper towels, pull it off. If there are any remaining bits, scrape them off with the knife.
4. On the fat side of the drumstick, snip off any tendons. For the remaining, part, pull the skin and meat downwards to form a ball shape – the lollipop!

Foil Wrap

This part is completely optional, just like Frenching the bones are. If you leave the foil off, the bones will get super dark and charred. It doesn’t impact the flavor at all as well, you’re not eating the bones.

When you’re doing competitions, you tend to want a beautiful clean bone with just a mild grilled hue. In my method, I do foil them but remove the foil when I’m dipping them in the sauce and then baking the sauce in.

Equipment Needed

You need this Chicken Drumsticks holder by Flame Fingers. I have been testing this out for months and LOVE IT! It holds 18 legs/wings/thighs/lollipops and even does turkey drumsticks.

Since it’s made out of 304 steel, it’s dishwasher safe!

I made this on my Yoder Smokers Flattop Grill. I set the coals to indirect heat. I also controlled the temp by raising/lowering the coal grate.

How To Make BBQ Grilled Chicken Lollipops

1. The night before (or at least 4 hours before), add the drumsticks to a large baggie or container that will seal. Add in the Wing Wub, close the baggie/lid, and give the bag/container several shakes to ensure that all of the drumsticks are coated. Stick this into the fridge.
2. When you’re ready to fire these up, remove the bag from the fridge as you want to take the chill off of the drumsticks before cooking. This is when I added the foil around the exposed bones.
3. Set up the Yoder Smokers Flattop grill for indirect grilling. Place the Flame Fingers XL Chicken Grill on the indirect side and add the drumsticks to each holder.

   • When you add them, add one and then add the next one on the opposite side of the holder. This will help with better balance and stability.

4. Close the lid and cook for 20 minutes. Open the lid, rotate the drumsticks halfway around, and close the lid again for another 20 minutes.

   • I strongly advise you to use heat-safe gloves when rotating the holder (remember it spins) as it will be hot.
5. At the 40-minute mark, remove the lollipops from the holder, remove the foil, and then dunk the lollipop into your prepared BBQ sauce. Stick the lollipop back onto the holder.

   • I strongly advise you to use these grilling gloves to remove the lollipops from the holder, remove the foil, and dip them.
6. Bake them for another 10-15 minutes to set the sauce AND the internal temp is 165-170F.

Plate & Enjoy

Now my husband, who has never liked drumsticks in his life, ate 4 of these at once! Being fully transparent, when I plated these he gave me the ugh groan. But we had a friend of ours here and he was super stoked about these.

Reluctantly Mr. Fantabulous bit into one and I could see the shock and excitement in his eyes as he pretty much ate this drumstick clean! The guys went nuts over these.

Home Oven Instructions

If you don’t have a grill or smoker, you can absolutely make this in the home oven. The only additional item you’ll need is a rimmed baking sheet to catch the drippings. I’d go with a half or full sheet pan and cover it in foil for easier cleanup.

1. Prep the chicken as written in the recipe including wrapping the bones in foil (if Frenching them).
2. Preheat the oven to 400F with a rack on the lower thrid part of the oven and removing the other racks to allow for the chicken drumstick holder to be put into the oven. Place the Chicken Drumsticks holder on the prepared pan and add the drumsticks.
3. Place the pan into the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the foil (if using) dip the drumsticks into the BBQ sauce and place them back onto the Chicken Drumsticks holder. Pop the pan back into the oven for 10-15 minutes to set the sauce and allow the drumsticks to get to 165-170F.

Recipe Variations

I so love this part! Honestly the only 2 items you need to change is your seasoning and BBQ sauce.

• Buffalo Ranch – coat the wings in ranch powder and bake. Dip into Buffalo sauce instead of BBQ sauce
• Hatch Chili – coat the wings in Candied Hatch Chlie Seasoning and then dip in a hatch or chipotle bbq sauce

Fire up the Flavor with Grilled BBQ Chicken Lollipops

Print Recipe

Save Recipe Recipe Saved

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 17 reviews

Chicken Lollipops are a delicious, flavorful, and fun-to-eat twist on classic grilled chicken! Fire up the grill today and elevate your BBQ game with flame-kissed BBQ chicken lollipops.

• Author: Lori
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1.5 hours
• Category: chicken, bbq, grill, smoker, party foods, finger foods, cookouts, grilling
• Method: grill, smoker, oven, bbq
• Cuisine: chicken, bbq, grill, smoker, party foods, finger foods, cookouts, grilling

Ingredients

• 18 chicken drumsticks, Frenched if desired
• 3 Tablespoons Wing Wub
• 1 1/2 cups BBQ Sauce

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

French The Drumsticks (optional)

1. Put on disposable gloves as it’ll be easier to handle the chicken.
2. Using a very sharp knife like a paring knife, cut the leg about 1-2″ from the knuckle. You may need to go around a few times to cut through the skin, meat, and tendons.
3. Once you have a clean cut, push the meat/skin that is closest to the knuckle towards it and, using paper towels, pull it off. If there are any remaining bits, scrape them off with the knife.
4. On the fat side of the drumstick, snip off any tendons. For the remaining, part, pull the skin and meat downwards to form a ball shape – the lollipop!

Prep & Make The Drumsticks

1. The night before (or at least 4 hours before), add the drumsticks to a large baggie or container that will seal. Add in the Wing Wub, close the baggie/lid, and give the bag/container several shakes to ensure that all of the drumsticks are coated. Stick this into the fridge.
2. When you’re ready to fire these up, remove the bag from the fridge as you want to take the chill off of the drumsticks before cooking. This is when I added the foil around the exposed bones.
3. Set up the Yoder Smokers Flattop grill for indirect grilling. Place the Flame Fingers XL Chicken Grill on the indirect side and add the drumsticks to e
   • When you add them, add one and then add the next one on the opposite side of the holder. This will help with better balance and stability.
4. Close the lid and cook for 20 minutes. Open the lid, rotate the drumsticks halfway around, and close the lid again for another 20 minutes.
   • I strongly advise you to use heat-safe gloves when rotating the holder (remember it spins) as it will be hot.
5. At the 40-minute mark, remove the lollipops from the holder, remove the foil, and then dunk the lollipop into your prepared BBQ sauce. Stick the lollipop back onto the holder.
   • I strongly advise you to use these grilling gloves to remove the lollipops from the holder, remove the foil, and dip them.
6. Bake them for another 10-15 minutes to set the sauce AND the internal temp is 165-170F.

Notes

*time does not include overnight chilling

Save For Later!