This buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks recipe features the best of both worlds—it’s easy to prepare and is delicious, but doesn’t taste like your average chicken drumstick.

This one is a twist on the classic buffalo wing. So make these if you are feeling like chicken wings, but want a bit more smoky, tender flavor. Make these as an appetizer for your next gathering, or even as a main course with a few sides.

If you’re a fan of spicy, smoked chicken—then buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks are for you. I call these buffalo wings, but they’re really drumsticks. The recipe is simple and fun. The result is juicy, smoky drumsticks, flavored with a simple mixture of ground peppers, garlic, and salt then tossed in a buffalo sauce. The perfect recipe for game night or tailgating!

This recipe is great if you’re looking for something a little different as an appetizer or for the main course and want to serve up some delicious drumsticks.

Using a Dry Rub to Season the Drumsticks

Chicken is ubiquitous. It’s delicious and can be nutritious, and healthy. But maybe a little bit less health-conscious with our preparation today.

However, we’ll be focusing on a little less popular cut of chicken – the drumstick. And thankfully, because they are a little less popular, chicken drumsticks can usually be found on the cheap. I got the ones for this recipe at just 99 cents per pound.

To season the chicken drumsticks, we’ll use a dry rub. A dry rub is a mixture typically consisting of salt and various powders and seasonings.

I love using dry rubs to season my chicken drumsticks. They are fast, cheap, and give me more control over the flavor profile of my finished chicken. As a bonus, most people will have the ingredients needed to make a dry rub in a decently stocked spice pantry.

Dry rubs can be very useful for adding flavor to meats. It can help to impart flavor and tenderness to your meat. For smoking, dry rubs tend to be easier than wet sauces. Wet sauces can burn and change the flavors unless added much later in the cooking process.

For this rub, we’ll combine salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, ancho chili powder, and chipotle powder to make a spicy, smoky flavor. Before applying the rub, brush a bit of melted butter on the drumsticks.

How to Smoke Chicken Drumsticks

Smoking chicken drumsticks is a pretty straightforward process. You may want to check out my top ten summer grilling tips for a few helpful hints.

The smoking process will help the chicken stay moist and become tender. Smoking is easy to do if you own equipment. Preheat your smoker to 225 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then lay the drumsticks out on the grates with some space in between for smoke to flow.

We’ll cook the chicken for about an hour. You can flip halfway through to try and give both sides some grill marks.

Smoking is an easy way to prepare chicken. You should remember that smoking does take time, so you should start cooking early. Once you have everything prepared, it is time to put the chicken on a rack over the pan. The chicken should be above the smoke, so it shouldn’t touch it. Smoking is all about cooking low and slow. You should remove the chicken from the smoke before the skin turns black.

Use an instant-read thermometer to make sure that the chicken is cooked properly. When the temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, the chicken is done. Then we will turn up the heat to 400 degrees to try and crisp up the skin a bit.

Saucing Your Drumsticks

After you have smoked your chicken and ensured they are cooked through and crisp, it’s time to add some buffalo sauce. This adds even more flavor to the chicken. If you want a few different flavor options, look to the next section for some good ideas.

I highly recommend following my classic hot buffalo wing sauce recipe. But you can also prepare or buy whatever buffalo sauce you prefer.

To mix the smoked chicken drumsticks with the buffalo sauce, you will need to put them in a bowl and pour buffalo sauce on top. Pick the bowl up and toss the drumsticks around in the sauce. Depending on the size of bowls you have available and how much you want to handle at once, you may want to do this in batches.

Once you have fully coated the drumsticks, remove them from the bowl and out of any excess sauce. Now, you’re ready to serve them however you’d like.

Variations on the Drumsticks

Now, I had always planned on saucing these drumsticks after smoking them on the Traeger. But after they finished cooking I knew I had to give them a try without any sauce whatsoever. Just straight smoked chicken drumstick with the homemade dry rub.

And they are certainly delicious straight from the smoker with no added sauce. So if you want something a little simpler, then just omit saucing the drumsticks altogether.

The regular recipe calls for turning the heat up to 400 for 15 minutes at the end of the cooking time. But, you can crisp up the skin a few different ways. Try using an air fryer or deep fryer set to 400 to crisp the skin for 2 to 5 minutes. You can also use the oven to crisp up the skin at 450 degrees if you don’t want to keep using the smoker to cook.

Finally, you can try using a different sauce entirely on these drumsticks. Try any of the following options to flavor your chicken:

• Black Cherry BBQ Sauce
• Honey BBQ Sauce
• Sticky Sriracha Soy Sauce
• Parmesan Garlic Wing Sauce

What to Serve with Buffalo Smoked Chicken Drumsticks

They’re small enough to eat while standing up at a bar but hearty enough to satisfy a big appetite. So, they make a great appetizer at a party or as a main course for dinner. These are a great appetizer and you can serve them up just about any time of day.

Now that you’ve got the buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks all cooked, it is time to decide what to serve on the side.

If you are serving these as an appetizer, then consider some dip options and maybe some veggie options. Give these a try:

• Creamy Ranch Dressing
• Carrot and Celery Sticks
• Blue Cheese Dip
• Blistered Shishito Peppers
• Jalapeño Cream Cheese Poppers

There are many different foods that you can serve with buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks when serving it as a main course. So if you are looking for something to serve with your drumsticks, here are a few ideas that you might want to consider:

• Comfort Food Mac and Cheese
• Homestyle Mashed Potatoes
• Simple Cornbread and Butter
• Baked Sweet Potatoes

This is a chicken drumstick recipe with a unique flavor and aroma that you will surely enjoy!

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try making buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Buffalo Smoked Chicken Drumsticks

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: Appetizers, MainDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

45

minutes

This is the perfect buffalo smoked chicken drumsticks recipe, with a smoky, tangy flavor on tender, juicy chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp kosher salt

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

• 1/4 tsp ancho chili powder

• 1/4 tsp chipotle powder

• 8-10 pounds chicken drumsticks

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1 and 1/2 cups buffalo wing sauce

Directions

• Preheat the smoker to around 225°F (110°C)
• Make the dry rub by combining the salt, garlic powder, paprika, ancho powder, and chipotle powder in a small bowl and mix thoroughly
• Lay the drumsticks out on a large baking sheet, brush them with the melted butter, and sprinkle both sides of the drumsticks with the rub
• Place the drumsticks on the preheated smoker and cook for about 1 hour, until they reach an internal temperature of 165°F (75°C)
• Once the drumsticks are at 165°F, turn the heat up on the smoker to 400°F (205°C) for about 15 minutes to crisp up the skin, or take them inside and fry or air fry them until crisp
• Place the cooked drumsticks in a bowl with the buffalo sauce and toss them to coat, doing so in batches if necessary
• Remove the coated drumsticks from the bowl, serve, and enjoy

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This classic hot buffalo wing sauce recipe is literally finger-licking good. It’s the perfect blend of spice and flavor with that special tang that is unique to buffalo sauce.

Last year it was sometimes difficult to find buffalo wings available on any menu because of a wing shortage. But there were still a lot of options for the home cook, as long as you have a good buffalo sauce of your own. If you can’t find buffalo wings on the menu at your favorite restaurant, this recipe will turn you into a master wing maker.

Every once in a while my wife and I will have friends and family over for what we call a “wing party.” With everyone over, we fry up some chicken and then sauce it all up with 6 or 7 different flavors. Without fail we always have a classic buffalo sauce to serve.

The best part is how simple this sauce actually is to make.

When you make hot buffalo wings, you really want to make sure that the sauce is on point. Sure, it’s all about the chicken and you really want that smoky hot flavor to be the star of the show, but without a proper wing sauce, you’re really missing out on some serious flavor.

You can use this recipe for chicken wings or as a sauce for all sorts of things: pizza, nachos, fries, salads, burgers, grilled cheese, etc. So let’s dig in.

Buffalo Wing Sauce Ingredients

There are a few ways to mix up the ingredients in a buffalo wing sauce, but it always starts with a base of hot sauce and butter. Vinegar, ground peppers, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce are then commonly added to help round out the flavor of the sauce.

For the hot sauce, the true classic original is Frank’s RedHot Original. This is a vinegary hot sauce that is a bit milder than most other hot sauces. This is the hot sauce I typically use for making buffalo wing sauce at home. However, you can use any hot sauce that you prefer.

The next step is to add some butter. The amount of butter will affect the heat and thickness of your final sauce. A lot of people like their hot sauces on the spicy side, but I tend to prefer a more balanced mix especially since my wife doesn’t love things too spicy. I like to use 1/2 cup of butter.

Once you’ve got the butter in the sauce, you can add some spices for more flavor. This is where you can get creative. You can add any spice that you’d like. I like to add some garlic powder and various ground peppers. These spices really round out the flavor of the sauce.

For the ground peppers, the most commonly used is cayenne powder. However, I also like to add in some ancho and chipotle powders to give even more mix of flavors.

How Spicy Is It?

Buffalo wing sauce doesn’t have to be extremely spicy. The best sauces are subtle with layers of flavor. I still want to be able to taste everything else, rather than having an inferno in my mouth. A good wing sauce can add heat without being overwhelming.

What makes a spicy wing sauce hot? Peppers. It starts with the hot sauce used, where I call for Frank’s RedHot Original. You can choose a spicier or milder hot sauce to use as the base of this sauce. The Frank’s sauce is the one originally used in the first buffalo sauce, so it is the one I still use today.

The second part that affects the spice levels is the ground peppers added. If you aren’t into spicy foods, just omit all of the added peppers. On the other hand, if you are into that sweet burning sensation, be a little more generous when adding the cayenne, ancho, or chipotle powders.

The best way to determine if your wing sauce is hot enough is to taste it. Remember, though, that it is much easier to add more spice to the sauce and much more difficult to tone it down. So start on the lower side of things and then add more hot sauce or ground peppers until you’re satisfied.

And remember, you can always tame it down with a bit of ranch dressing.

How to Make the Buffalo Wing Sauce

The sauce starts with butter melting in a base of Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce. Just add them both to a saucepan over medium-low heat. It is important not to heat the sauce on high, because it will be more likely to split.

While the butter is melting, measure and add in all of the remaining ingredients. Whisk it all together to mix everything well. Then stir occasionally and let the sauce come to a simmer. If needed, you can turn the temperature up slightly higher to medium heat. But be careful and make sure to watch it well.

As the sauce heats up, it will thicken ever so slightly. But remember that this is still a fairly runny sauce.

Once the sauce just begins to simmer, remove it from the heat and continue to stir it for about a minute. Then you can either use it right away or let it cool and store it in the fridge for up to a week.

For different ideas on serving the sauce, make sure to check out the next section.

Ways to Use Your Sauce

Coat, dip, or drizzle.

If you’re a fan of buffalo wing sauce, there are plenty of ways to use it. You can simply enjoy it on the side or top of your pizza, and use it in dips, stir-fry, salads, or pasta. It’s a versatile condiment that you can add to a variety of dishes. Or if you’re feeling creative, you can even experiment with it.

Now, it’s time to put the sauce to good use. Marinades, basting, aiolis, salad dressings. Let your buffalo-coated imagination run wild.

I love using this sauce as a base for buffalo chicken pizza. It is one of my all-time favorite dishes. My wife can attest that if that is an option on the menu, I will almost always order it to try out their creation. But, it is that much better to make your own homemade pizza with buffalo chicken on top.

Try out the following recipes:

• Fried Buffalo Chicken Wings
• Hot Honey Biscuit Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
• Buffalo Smoked Chicken Drumsticks
• Homemade Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Share your favorite way to use this sauce in the comments below.

Top Tips

Always keep an eye on your sauce. The sauce should only be heated up just to a simmer and then removed from the heat.

You can use your buffalo sauce in a variety of ways. Try it on fried chicken, as a salad dressing, marinade, dip, and on top of popcorn.

Store your sauce in a refrigerator when it has cooled off. It’ll keep for up to 2 weeks.

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out this buffalo sauce! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Classic Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: SauceDifficulty: Easy

Servings

5

servings

Prep time

2

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Total time

12

minutes

Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce is a spicy, tangy sauce that is relatively simple to make at home. So try making your own homemade buffalo sauce to spice things up.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup Frank’s red hot sauce

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 2 tablespoons white vinegar

• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon ancho or chipotle powder

• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

• Add the hot sauce and butter to a saucepan over medium-low heat
• As the butter is melting add in all remaining ingredients
• Whisk everything together to combine and continue whisking as the butter melts
• Bring the sauce just to a simmer, then remove it from heat and continue to stir for a minute
• Use the sauce immediately or let it cool and store it in the fridge

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The post Classic Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce Recipe appeared first on Do You Roux?.

With all this talk about chicken sandwich wars raging between fast-food chains, it’s time to take it to the home kitchen. Make yourself this buffalo chicken sandwich. It’s on a biscuit, with hot honey, cheese, lettuce, and whatever other toppings your heart desires.

I can understand all the hype. Chicken sandwiches are delicious.

This homemade sandwich pairs the fried chicken with some flavorful spice to bring the heat. Throw it on some biscuits and top it with cheese, lettuce, and honey for full-bodied flavor. This one is spicy enough to bring the heat without trying to melt your face off.

It all depends on your own heat tolerance and the intensity of your specific sauce and honey, but this one gives a nice burn to the tongue and throat. However, there are no spicy sweats. So you shouldn’t need milk on hand just to make it through the sandwich.

Versatile Recipe

One of the greatest aspects of this recipe is that you can go almost all from-scratch or go with mostly an assembly approach. And you can also mix and match and make the parts you want to, and purchase pre-made items for the rest.

So, if you are feeling really ambitious, get to work and make every single ingredient. If you need a quick weeknight meal, then grab what you need from the store, heat it up, and get to sandwich building.

Fried chicken – The protein of the dish. Cook some from scratch or use frozen chicken tenders – cooked to package directions. Just make sure that you don’t get ones that come pre-sauced.

Buffalo sauce – A signature hot sauce that coats the chicken. Some pre-made bottles are quite delicious – some chicken wing chains even sell their own. But my go-to buffalo sauce recipe comes from All-Recipes posted by Chef John.

Buttermilk biscuits – The bread of this sandwich gives you something to hold on to while lending a fluffy texture and buttery flavor. Having not found a great biscuit recipe myself (let me know your favorite one, please!), I used pre-made refrigerated biscuit dough. The ones from the pressurized cardboard that pops when opened. UPDATE – I have made my own homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe, and they pair with this sandwich like a match made in heaven

Hot honey – The drizzle of sweet heat that really brings everything into harmony. You can buy some from the store, but it is easy to make at home – especially using my chipotle hot honey recipe.

While making this recipe, I made the buffalo sauce from scratch using the recipe above and had the hot honey I made earlier in the week. But everything else came premade in some way. Still delicious.

Toppings for the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

Toppings are where you can really let your own taste buds go wild. The list of toppings below give you some options. But don’t feel limited by what I present here.

Cheese – Ooey, gooey flavor that also helps reign in some of the heat the sandwich is packing. For flavors that pair with buffalo, try provolone, Monterey Jack, pepper jack, or even blue cheese crumbles.

Lettuce – Crisp, fresh lettuce of some kind is key. It lends an important fresh crunch to the sandwich. I would recommend a butter lettuce (aka Bibb lettuce). But really any lettuce will do. You could even try using celery to give it some crunch that also pairs well with buffalo sauce.

Sauce – If having only the chicken doused in buffalo sauce is just not enough, then you can top your sandwich with a little extra to kick it up a notch.

Honey – Drizzle liberally. The sweetness really brings the sandwich together. But because it is hot honey, it isn’t sickly sweet.

Bacon – While eating this sandwich, my wife and I both looked at each other and said ‘I wonder how bacon would be in this.’ So even though I don’t have it pictured, give it a try with some ultra crispy bacon.

Make this hot honey biscuit buffalo chicken sandwich exactly how you and your family like it. Don’t be afraid to experiment. And if you find something interesting and delicious, be sure to let me know.

Hot Honey Biscuit Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: EntreesDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

5

minutes

Total time

20

minutes

This hot honey biscuit buffalo chicken sandwich is the perfect harmony of sweet and heat that can be all from-scratch or all pre-made. Note that more prep and cook time are needed if you are making any of the ingredients yourself.

Ingredients

• 6 fried, breaded chicken tenders

• 1 cup buffalo sauce

• 6 slices Monterey Jack cheese

• 6 large buttermilk biscuits

• 6 large leaves of butter lettuce

• 1/2 cup hot honey

• (Optional) 6 slices crispy cooked bacon

Directions

• Put the chicken in a medium-sized bowl, pour the buffalo sauce over the chicken, and toss the chicken until it is all fully coated with sauce
• Lay the chicken out on a baking sheet, top each tender with a slice of cheese, and place it under the broiler on low for a few minutes until the cheese has melted
• Cut the biscuits in half and lay each biscuit out on an individual plate
• Start building the sandwich with the bottom of the biscuit and then layer on the lettuce, cheese-topped chicken, a drizzle (about 1 tablespoon) of hot honey, and the bacon, if using
• Top with the other half of the biscuit and enjoy

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