Grilled Chicken Lollipops

Is it chicken or is it a lollipop??

These are called chicken lollipops because, well, they look like a lollipop and are made from chicken drumsticks. The prep is a bit of a pain but they are fun to eat when done and kids love them!

Ingredient list for Grilled Chicken Lollipops.

• Chicken Drumsticks: cut of chicken used in the recipe.
• Olive Oil: will work as the binder for the chicken seasoning.
• BBQ Sauce: use your favorite store bought BBQ sauce as the base.
• Honey: adds natural sweetness and shine
• Worcestershire sauce: adds a savory and umami flavor the BBQ sauce.
• All Purpose seasoning: adds savoriness and BBQ flavors like smoked paprika to the sauce.

Step 1: Prep the chicken lollipops

Start with regular chicken drumsticks and cut around the bone, right above the meaty part. This will allow you to pull off the skin and cartilage from the thiner part of the drumsticks. After the bone is nice and clean, you can push the meat down some more to make a nice, round, lollipop shaped chicken drumstick. And don’t worry, there’s not really any waste here. We’re removing the cartilage, a little bit of skin and almost no meat.

After the chicken is prepped and seasoned, it’s ready to hit the grill. I like cooking drumsticks using this handy dandy chicken holder . It allows them to hang and cook evenly on all sides.

Spray the chicken lollipops with some avocado or olive oil which will work as a binder for the rub. For the seasoning, I used Dad’s All Purpose rub , which is awesome on chicken. It’s a great all around rub with a nice savory bbq taste.

Step 2: How to grill up some chicken lollipops

Fire up the grill and set it up for indirect heat. I like to cook these at a higher temperature, which helps give the skin a much better texture. Set the grill temperature for 350-375 degrees and let these lollipops cook. Check out my Leftover Chicken Pot Pie Biscuits for another tasty recipe.

Step 3: Make your own BBQ sauce

Not all homemade BBQ sauces need to be made from scratch. Sometimes it’s just a matter of altering the flavor of a current bottled sauce.

My go to sauce is Sweet Baby Rays. Its sweet, tangy and always in my fridge. There are days where I just need to make slight changes to the sauce without starting from scratch. For this sauce recipe, I poured a cup of the sweet baby rays bbq sauce into a saucepan, added honey, Worcestershire sauce and some of my All purpose rub for the savoriness. Let it simmer over indirect heat along with the chicken lollipops.

If you want to try making your own sauce, take a look at my Easy Sweet And Tangy BBQ Sauce or my Bold And Spicy Bourbon BBQ sauce. The best part is you can adjust the savory or sweet ingredients to your liking.

Step 4: Finishing dunk on the Grilled Chicken Lollipops

After the chicken hits 175 degrees internal, which should take about 30-45 minutes, it’s ready to get sauced! For best results, I recommend dunking the chicken in the sauce instead of brushing it on. You get better coverage and that beautiful shine after. Pour the sauce into a cup or mug that’s deep enough to submerge the full drumstick.

Take the chicken lollipops one by one, hold them by the clean bone and dunk them in the bbq sauce. Hang the sauced chicken drumsticks back on the wire rack hanger and them for another 10 minutes until they reach 185 degrees internal. Yes, I said 185 degrees. When cooking dark meat, you get a much better texture when you take it above the standard 165 degrees. And don’t worry, they will still be very juicy and delicious.

Once they are done, remove the grilled chicken lollipops from the the grill and rest them for 10 minutes before serving! These are always a hit with the family.

Other Saucy BBQ Chicken Recipes to consider:

Chicken & Turkey

Bourbon Chicken Lollipops

Chicken & Turkey

Spicy Grilled Chicken Lollipops

Chicken & Turkey

Peach and Whiskey Chicken Lollipops

Recipes

Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks

Check out the Recipe page for other tasty dishes.