Lollipop Chicken

This video’s for the young pitmasters of the National High School BBQ Association! We’ve been lucky to work with several high school teams over the years, and we love seeing these kids take on the challenge. At last year’s Nationals in Branson, MO, we hosted a chicken demo to help them prep for this year’s competition: Lollipop Chicken! We’ll be back at Nationals this summer in KC, but in the meantime, Brad is here to give an overview on how to trim a competition-worthy Lollipop Chicken! 🍭🍗

Ingredients

• Chicken legs (or as many as you need, we cooked 12 for this recipe)
• Smoke ‘n Magic Chicken Rub
• Smoke ‘n Magic Sweet BBQ Sauce
• 4 sticks of butter
• 2 medium aluminum pans
• 1 small aluminum pan
• Aluminum foil
• Drying rack
• To-go box (for competition presentation)

Instructions

1. Trimming the Chicken
   • Separate your chicken legs by size, you’ll want them to be as uniform as possible if you’re cooking for competition. 
   • Pull the skin back, toward the bottom of the chicken leg. Locate the membrane or tendon, which will be hard to chew if cooked. Using a boning knife, remove the tendon carefully, avoiding taking too much meat with it. 
   • Next, you’ll remove the top knuckle or “knee” bone. Straighten out your chicken leg on a cutting board and find the knuckle bone at the top end of the leg. Using a large scimitar or chef’s knife, start a cut at the base of that knuckle. Use the heel of your palm and hit the back of your knife to cut through the bone.
     Pro tip: Don’t use your best knife! The thick bone can damage it or require resharpening.
   • Shape the chicken. Pull the skin back down and ensure the base is flat, so the leg can stand upright with a nice “bell” shape. 
   • Next you need to remove the knuckle or “ankle” bone and clean up any tendons. Place the chicken leg upside down, flat on the cutting board. Using your index finger and thumb to hold it in place, use a sharp boning knife to score around the base of the knuckle bone and cut through the skin and tendons. Use your kitchen shears to clean up the tendons sticking out.
     Pro tip: You’ll start to see “spaghetti” tendons poking out. Trim them for appearance, but don’t remove too much, as they help hold the meat together.
   • Once you’ve cut through the skin and tendons, take a paper towel to help you get a good grip on the knuckle. Twist off any remaining skin from the knuckle bone to create the signature “lollipop” shape

2. Brining & Preparing for the Cook
   • Immediately place the trimmed legs in your favorite brine. If cooking for competition, time may be limited, so get them in as soon as trimming is done.

3. Season & Protect the Bones
   • Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry.
   • Stand the legs upright (bones facing up) in an aluminum pan.
   • Lightly coat them with Smoke ‘n Magic Chicken Rub. They don’t need to be completely covered.
   • You want to cover the bones while cooking to prevent them from darkening from the smoke. Cut aluminum foil into 4”x4” squares and wrap the bones
   • Slice 2 sticks of butter per pan, and place them around the sides and on the bottom of the pan. 
   • Let the rub set in for about 20-30 minutes.

4. Cooking the Lollipop Chicken
   • Cook at 300°, unwrapped, for 45 minutes. We used a pellet grill for convenience, but we prefer to cook these on a traditional can-style BBQ!
   • After 45 minutes, cover your pans with aluminum foil, taking care not to knock any of the chicken legs over!
   • Place the pans back in your BBQ at 300° for another 35 minutes. We’re looking for an internal temperature of between 200-202°
     
5. Preparing the Sauce
   • If cooking for competition, a microwave may not be available. Instead:
   • Pour Smoke ‘n Magic Sweet BBQ Sauce into a small aluminum pan
   • Cover with foil and place it in the BBQ alongside the chicken
   • Heat to 145-155°
   • Transfer the warm sauce into an insulated coffee cup for easy dipping
     
6. Finishing and Serving
   • Once your chicken is done cooking, place them on a drying rack to let any leftover butter drip off. If you try dipping them too soon, the BBQ sauce won’t stick!
   • Remove the foil from the bones and pick out the best-looking chicken legs to display to the judges (or to your family!)
   • Dip in Sauce – Holding the bone, dip each chicken leg into the warm BBQ sauce, covering only the meat. We recommend 2 dips for the perfect color and thickness.
     
     Pro tip: Give them a quick twirl over the cup after dipping to remove any excess sauce. 
   • Place the chicken legs back on a drying rack for about 5 minutes to set the sauce.
     
7. Competition Presentation
   • Line a to-go box with foil
   • Lay the chicken legs on their sides, the best-looking sides facing up
   • Arrange them so the “bell” of the lollipop faces outward, with the bones overlapping toward the center.
   • Clean up any stray BBQ sauce before presenting to judges

Serve and enjoy! And if you’re presenting to judges, good luck!