GrillinFools
Chicken drumsticks are trimmed out to be lollipops and then seasoned and smoked before being dunked in a sweet, garlic, ginger, molasses glaze and smoked some more to make this sweet grilled chicken lollipops recipe. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions for this ooey, gooey, sweet and savory finger food appetizer.
I’ve very pleased to say we’ve done a few recipes with Grandma’s® Molasses this summer. Talk about a dream gig? Molasses is a fantastic addition to so much of what we do and should be a staple in every pantry. So to have them support this website, while we make some amazing dishes for them is a win-win situation.
The other recipes we did in this series:
And now back to the recipe at hand: these chicken lollies. Albeit, this is not my first foray into the chicken lollipop. I did bacon-wrapped chicken lollies a couple years ago. So many people complained that I removed all the chicken skin (only to replace it with bacon) that I decided to do these with the skin on rather than the bacon. I kind of think going with the skin is both better tasting and easier to prep.
Sweet Grilled Chicken Lollipops Recipe Ingredients
Chicken Lollies
- 12 chicken legs, trimmed for lollipops (or not)**
- Salt
- Your favorite poultry BBQ Seasoning
**More on how to do this, and the pro’s and cons down below
Molasses Glaze
- 1.5 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger, minced
- 1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
- 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 8 ounces Grandma’s® Molasses
Garnish (optional)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp finely sliced green onion
Begin by lopping off the base of the chicken legs:
With the bottom lopped off the chicken legs will now stand up on their own as long as it was cut evenly across the bottom.
Trimming the Top of the Chicken Legs
Now comes the option of trimming the skin off the top of the chicken leg. This is purely cosmetic. Nobody is really eating that part. The chicken lollipops will look better without the skin on the bone, but they won’t taste any better. It won’t improve the flavor and it will take quite a bit longer. There are your pros and cons: cosmetically better, but time consuming.
To trim the fat from the top of the lollies, run a sharp knife around the chicken leg just above where it narrows above the meat:
Then grab a paper towel to help gripping the slippery skin and yank the fat off the top. It’s not easy to do this but when it’s done it looks like this:
Also, this is cosmetic as well, but you might want to pull these tendons out and lop them off:
Here’s a trimmed one next to one that isn’t:
It’s up to you if you want to trim them all. Here’s one trimmed and fully cooked:
And here’s one that isn’t trimmed and fully cooked:
The choice is yours
Season the Chicken Lollipops:
I lay them down fat end to skinny and vice versa and hit them with salt and your favorite seasoning:
Prepare the grill for two zone grilling (AKA indirect grilling) with a target temp inside the grill at 275F-300F.
In this case, I have the hot charcoal and a chunk of pear wood on the left side of the grill and the chicken lollipops on the right:
Over the fire I have a cast iron griddle. This is not necessary. Regular grill grates will work. That just happened to be in the grill when I sparked it up. Pretty sure I cooked some steaks the last time I fired up the Primo Kamado. If you could give us a follow on YouTube, we would really appreciate it.
Smoke Wood Options
If you don’t have access to pear wood, here’s the most complete list of smoke woods on the internet and what they pair with.
While the chicken legs are smoking, let’s make that sweet glaze.
Create a Sweet Glaze
Head back inside and chop the garlic and ginger:
To chop ginger, break off a chunk, skin the brown stuff off the outside and then chop away at what’s on the inside:
Then pour some sesame oil into a small pot over medium heat and drop in the garlic and ginger once the oil gets hot:
Then add the soy sauce, teriyaki and finally that Grandma’s® Molasses:
Then drop it down to a simmer. I promise, you don’t want this to boil over:
Let that simmer on the stove and go check on the chicken lollies:
After an hour the chicken is browning up:
After 80-90 minutes, I moved the chicken lollies closer to the fire. They just weren’t cooking fast enough so I sped things up a little.
I also rotated the legs 180 degrees so the chicken facing away from the fire was now facing the heat for more even cooking:
As my chicken hit the 165F-170F mark, about 2 hours in at 300F, I slid them back as far away from the fire as I could:
When is Chicken Done?
Technically chicken is safe to eat at 165F but this milestone is more for chicken breast that is super lean. Dark meat (legs, thighs and wings) can go much higher and still be tender and juicy. Dark meat can be cooked to 180F and still be fine.
These chicken drumsticks are at 165F-170 but still have some cooking to go. Once all my chicken legs are done, I open up my grill and stoke up the coals. When that hot side (in this case a cast iron griddle) is north of 400F, I can sear the chicken and crisp up that skin a bit. This is essentially reverse searing which is often done with steaks but works with chicken too.:
Then simply sear the chicken lollies all the way around:
Just get a quick char around the outside. And once they are charred, place them far from the fire again to stay warm but not cook any more:
Once the legs are all charred, dunk each one in the glaze:
Pro Tip ~ Partially filling a rocks glass makes this job a breeze. Be careful not to over fill the glass though. To much glaze in there and when the drumstick goes in, the sauce flows over the side.
Place the sauced chicken lollipops on the indirect side of the grill with no direct heat and close the lid to tack up that sauce:
Close the lid for 10-15 minutes and then they look like this:
Plate them and garnish with sesame seeds and thin sliced green onions:
Here are a couple more plated shots with a couple different filters of that sweet grilled chicken:
Sweet Grilled Chicken Lollipops Recipe Recap
I won’t sugar coat this recipe (although I gladly sugarcoated the chicken). These are a bit of work if you choose to remove the skin from the top of the chicken leg. Without that part these take 20 minutes to prep and about 2.5 hours to cook so all in all, about 3 hours. The investment is not short or easy, but the payoff is huge in terms of presentation and flavor. Make about three times as many that you think you need. Trust me.
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Big thank you to Grandma’s® Molasses who sponsored this post. I love this stuff and firmly believe it should be in every pantry.
Chicken Lollies Recipe Card:
Sweet Grilled Chicken Lollipops Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken Lollipops
- 12 Chicken legs
- Salt
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
Molasses Glaze
- 2 cloves Fresh garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp Fresh ginger, minced
- 1.5 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Teriyaki sauce
- 1.5 tbsp Sesame oil
- 8 ounces Grandma's Molasses
Garnish (optional)
- 1 tbsp Sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp Green onion, finely sliced
Instructions
Chicken Lollipops (part 1 - cook indirect)
- Lop off the base of the chicken leg so they can stand straight up. Then take a knife and run the sharp edge around the bone just above where the meat tapers down to the bone. With a paper towel, pull that skin away from the knob of the bone (optional). Trim the end of the tendons (optional)
- Season the chicken legs with salt and your favorite BBQ seasoning all the way around.
- Prepare the grill for two zone grilling or indirect grilling with hot coals/smoke wood on one side and no coals on the other. Target temp inside the grill is 275F-300F. Stand the chicken legs straight up on the side with no direct heat and close the lid.
Molasses Glaze
- Trim the ginger of the outer skin and mince. Remove the paper from a couple cloves of garlic and mince. Place a small pot on a medium burner and add the sesame oil. When the oil gets hot, add the garlic and then the ginger. Allow the two aromatics to simmer for a couple minutes. Once the garlic browns a little, add in the rest of the glaze ingredients and reduce to a simmer. Allow the glaze to simmer until the chicken legs are ready to sear
Chicken Lollipops (part 2 - cook direct)
- As each chicken drumstick reaches 165F internal, place as far from the fire as possible. Once all of them chicken has reached 165F open the lid and stoke up the fire until the hot side is north of 400F. Sear the chicken lollipops and get a little char around the outside.
- Once the chicken is charred, dunk it into the molasses glaze and place the chicken lollies back on the grill on the indirect side. Close the lid for 10-15 minutes to thicken the glaze and serve.
- Garnish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions (optional)
Bonus, bonus pics:
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