Gwen's Nest

Recipes, remedies, and reflections from my neck of the woods.

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Kitchen Tips
  • Trim & Healthy
    • Trim Healthy Mama Index
    • THM Book Review
    • THM Quick Start Guide
    • Weight Loss Before & After Series
    • THM Amazon Store
    • THM Recipes by Type
    • THM Recipes by Meal
  • Remedies & Health
    • Natural Remedy Index
    • Digestive Bitters Series
    • High Blood Calcium Series
    • Magnesium Deficiency Series
    • Plantain Herb Series
    • Rabbit Tobacco Herb Series
    • Whooping Cough
  • Reflections
  • Creative Home
    • Creative Home Index
  • Shop
    • Trim Healthy Store
    • Natural Health Remedies Store

BBQ Chicken Drumsticks- THM, Paleo, InstantPot or oven

September 25, 2016 By Gwen Brown 27 Comments

BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendlyThis BBQ Chicken Drumstick recipe filled my house with the most amazing smell this weekend. I’m so excited to share this recipe with you, mainly because it’s THE best chicken leg recipe that I’ve EVER tried. Seriously. Drumsticks are very affordable, and I’ve done my share of baking techniques and spice rubs and my kids have sort of kind of tolerated my drum stick meals.

But THIS is, as my husband put it, “the way we should fix them from now on.” So there you have it.BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

Full Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Disclosure Page

BBQ Chicken Drumsticks is straight from Dr. Karen Lee’s book Easy Paelo Instant Pot Recipes: nutritious pressure cooker recipes for busy families, and shared with permission.

easy paleo instant pot recipes

Instantpot or Oven Chicken Recipe

I’ve been hearing all about the love affairs that my friends are having with their Instant Pots. I’m pretty sure I need one. NEED. Because I live in the world’s smallest kitchen, and if I could replace my yogurt maker, rice maker, crock pot, AND pressure cooker with one amazing, stainless steel lined wonder cooker, then that totally needs to happen. And it WILL happen. But not this day.

But I DID get 3 packages of organic chicken legs on sale, and I needed…NEEDED these BBQ Chicken Drumsticks today. So I’m including the (takes 3x as long) oven directions below as a second printable, below Dr. Lee’s recipe for using the Instant Pot. So we all win.

One thing I totally love about her cookbook is that she walks you through the different models of Instant Pots that are available, and gives lots of tips and tricks that she’s learned from using hers. I love kitchen gadget tips from experts! 🙂 The difference between her Instant Pot recipe and my oven style is mainly time. Her recipe is ready within less than 3o minutes, while mine cooks for a little under an hour to achieve the crispy skin. But you can see from the photos below that both look AMAZING! (Instant Pot on the left, and oven baked chicken on the right)bbq-chicken-drumstick-recipe-comparison

Dr. Lee’s recipe calls for 2 pounds of chicken drumsticks. That’s about 5-6 nice sized drumsticks, like you see here. Since I don’t yet have an Instant Pot…like I mentioned <hint, hint, husband who reads my blog!>, I’ll share my 3 easy steps for making this in the oven below.

Using the Oven for Crispy Drumsticks

These do take more time in the oven, but the prep work is so simple.

  1. Step one for oven baking: don’t rinse the chicken, and pat the legs dry. And don’t marinate or baste with oils. This will yield crispy, crispy skin!
BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

*pat*pat*pat*

2. Next, I mixed up Dr. Lee’s seasoning mix. Oh. My. Heart. It’s so very simple, and I did make a few kid friendly tweaks to lower the spiciness (see my notes below) but MAN alive the spices are incredible. In my oven version, I went ahead and applied the spice rub before putting them into the oven.
BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

3. After coating them with the rub, I laid the legs on a cookie sheet lined with foil (for easy clean up) and fitted with a metal rack. Which you should spray or oil to make clean up easier. Elevating the drumsticks off of the pan makes them crispy all the way around. So that’s it…that’s all you have to do besides sliding them into a hot oven.
BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

Speaking of the delicious rub, the recipe makes enough to coat around 7-8 pounds of drumsticks. I used a spoon to sprinkle the rub over the chicken, and then rubbed it in by hand instead of dipping the drumsticks into the dish. You could also dump the rub into an old spice bottle, and sprinkle it on, and you’ll have plenty left for the next time you make this recipe. BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

The Secret To Tender Drumsticks

So, in my reading, I discovered why my past attempts to make chicken drumsticks has been less than stellar. I was cooking them until the meat was done, but NOT long enough or at a high enough temperature to break down all of the connective tissue. So there were unpleasant strings and cartilage features that my kids would not overlook. Fine. #pickykids

But with THIS recipe, I finally nailed it. Cooking it at a high heat, and to an internal temp of 185*, the drumsticks had crispy skin, and were fall off the bone tender with NO strings or unpleasant features!

BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

Boom. They were perfectly perfect. This is what 2 pounds of drumsticks looks like. And that’s like an appetizer plate for my Hoss sized 14 year old son.
I tripled the recipe to feed my family of 6, and to have planned leftovers.
BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

My younger kids are really sensitive to spice, so I served theirs with Ranch Dressing to disguise the slightly spicy rub. My older crew loves the burn, so I served a side of Frank’s hot wing sauce for them to enjoy. Hooray for pleasing everyone AND for a delicious no sugar BBQ! BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

I caught my clean up crew still sampling after lunch. Teenage boys can EAT! I know there will be a rush on the leftovers…they sometimes try to wake up early enough to snag the good stuff for BREAKFAST. Because: teenage boy. #sendmorefood

I forsee many more pans of these lovelies in our near future. Print or pin below to save a copy of the recipe!

BBQ Chicken Drumstick Recipe & Pin

To Pin!BBQ Chicken Drumsticks that pack a flavorful punch in the Instapot or in your oven! Paleo & THM friendly

Instantpot BBQ Chicken Drumsticks
 
Print
A delicious and quick way to enjoy dry rub barbecue chicken legs!
Author: Dr. Karen Lee
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs of Chicken drumsticks
Memphis Style Dry BBQ Rub
  • ¼ cup sweet paprika
  • 4½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1½ teaspoons celery salt
  • 1½ teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 1½ teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1½ teaspoons dry mustard
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
Instructions
  1. Add ¾ C of water in the Instant Pot®
  2. Place the trivet inside
  3. Place the chicken drumsticks on the trivet.
  4. Close the lid tightly and close the vent.
  5. Press “POULTRY” and set the time to 20 minutes
  6. Preheat the oven to Broil.
  7. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  8. When the timer goes off, release pressure naturally, NPR.
  9. Open the lid and take out the drumsticks and coat them with the
  10. BBQ rub evenly.
  11. Place the drumsticks on the lined cookie sheet.
  12. Broil the drumsticks for 2 minutes per side or until the skin is
  13. browned. Be careful not to burn them.
  14. Serve immediately.
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe
3.5.3208

Oven BBQ Chicken Drumsticks
 
Print
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
55 mins
Total time
1 hour
 
This Paleo and THM friendly drumstick recipe really wowed my family with flavor AND tenderness! You can't get simpler than this. The spice rub is enough to cover about 8 pounds of drumsticks. This would be a THM S recipe, because drumsticks are a dark, fatty meat.
Author: Gwen
Serves: 2-4 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds chicken drumsticks (5-6 drumsticks)
Spice Mix (see my notes for lowering the heat)
  • ¼ c. paprika
  • 1½ tablespoons black pepper, ground
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ½ tablespoon cayenne
  • ½ tablespoon granulated or powdered garlic
  • ½ tablespoon dry mustard
  • ½ tablespoon cumin powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425*
  2. Line a baking pan with foil and set an oiled rack on top for best, crispiest results.
  3. Do not rinse chicken, for crispiest skin. You'll be cooking it to such a high temp, it will be sterilized. 🙂
  4. Pat drumsticks dry.
  5. Combine spices in a small bowl or jar, and sprinkle over the drumsticks, rubbing it all over to coat.
  6. Place drumsticks with the fat sides facing out onto the rack.
  7. Bake until the meat registers 185* with a meat thermometer. This took about 55 minutes in my oven.
  8. Enjoy!
Notes
I altered Dr. Lee's spice mix from her cookbook Easy Paleo Instant Pot Recipes as follows:

I subbed out 1-2 tablespoons of smoked paprika for the 4 tablespoons of sweet paprika called for (4 tablespoons is ¼ cup)

I used only 1 tablespoon of black pepper to pull the heat back

I subbed a less spicy pepper mix (a dry Franks Hot Sauce seasoning) for the cayenne.



This recipe is a THM S main dish, since chicken drumsticks are a healthy dark meat fat source.
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe
3.5.3208

Follow me on Pinterest and never miss a recipe!
Follow Gwen’s Nest

Follow Gwen’s Nest’s board Gwen’s Nest Healthy Recipes on Pinterest.

Filed Under: Condiments, Spices, & Homemade Ingredients, Crock It, Main Dishes, Recipes, THM Condiments, Spices, & Homemade Ingredients, THM Main Dish Recipes, THM Recipes by Meal, THM Recipes by Type, THM S Main Dish Recipes

« Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins- Sugar Free!
Functions of the Liver »

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Rate this recipe:  

  1. PAM says

    September 25, 2016 at 10:14 PM

    I AM SO HAPPY TO FIND SOME HEALTHY RECIPES. I AM DIABETIC, SO APPRECIATE ALL
    THE SUGAR FREE RECIPES. AM ANXIOUS TO TRY THE CHICKEN LEGS, REAL SOON.
    SOUNDS PERFECT! CONTINUE THE GOOD WORK, LADIES.
    PAM

    Reply
  2. Laurie says

    September 25, 2016 at 11:01 PM

    Text says 385 degrees, recipe says 285. Also- a different rub for instapot and oven?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      September 26, 2016 at 11:06 AM

      Hi Laurie,
      The internal temp should be ***185***…thanks for catching that! I updated the text and the recipe.
      As far as the rub goes, I shared Dr. Lee’s recipe as she wrote it, with most of the measurements in teaspoons.
      For my oven version, I just converted the amounts to half Tablespoons, since that was easier for me to measure with, but they should be exactly the same otherwise. I did (as I usually do) make some tweaks that I noted to make the spice blend suit my family. 🙂 Rubs are really flexible, so you can tinker with the amounts and spices easily.

      Reply
  3. markable.in says

    October 18, 2016 at 12:16 AM

    What I do: Consume a teaspoon or more of raw, unprocessed nearby honey from as close to exactly where you really reside as attainable.

    Do this one particular or more instances a day to help
    relieve symptoms.

    Reply
  4. Patty says

    December 21, 2016 at 1:24 AM

    Question: If you triple the recipe for the Instant Pot, would you also triple the water? (Obviously you would triple the other stuff)

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      December 21, 2016 at 2:24 AM

      My guess is no…the water amount is just to get good steam build up. But I’m NOT a pro at this thing yet. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Chenin says

    January 24, 2017 at 10:10 PM

    Hi,
    Just made this recipe tonight and the consistency of he chicken was awesome but the salt level was wayyyyyyyy to much! Is it really supposed to be 1 tablespoon?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      January 25, 2017 at 1:15 AM

      Hi Chenin,
      Yep! That’s her spice rub blend, but I didn’t use all of the rub…I had lots left over. Maybe use less rub next time? Or, you can cut the salt in half (1 1/2 teaspoons) if you plan to use all of the spice rub. 🙂

      Reply
      • Chenin says

        January 25, 2017 at 8:38 AM

        Will do — thanks, Gwen! 🙂

        Reply
  6. Robin says

    March 31, 2017 at 3:08 PM

    Eeks I just put rub on drumsticks and then in the ip. Now cooking. Did I mess up ? Did not realize until after closing lid

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      July 20, 2021 at 4:22 PM

      How did it turn out?

      Reply
  7. Amy H says

    April 22, 2017 at 9:40 PM

    I’m new to THM and today is my first full day on the plan. I had some chicken legs I was going to use in a recipe from the THM book but never got the Greek yogurt. I have read a lot of your recipes and plan to use many of them! I thought I’d look at your blog for a way to cook the chicken legs and found this recipe. I did them in the oven, using your recipe blend. I ate two and would love to have a third but I’m making myself stop! They were so good!!! Crispy skin and not too spicy! This is a keeper!! I’m looking forward to a snack and lunch tomorrow of leftover legs! Thank you so much!!!

    Reply
  8. Lizz says

    June 22, 2017 at 4:07 PM

    Is the time the same for frozen drum sticks in instant pot?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      August 24, 2017 at 6:55 PM

      It will take longer for frozen foods to come up to the sealing/steam temp, but the set time is the same. If that makes sense. 🙂

      Reply
  9. Lacie says

    July 17, 2017 at 11:03 PM

    I made these tonight and am super happy with how they turned out. However, we should have only cooked 1/2 of the amount of chicken we bought.

    With double what we need, even with leftovers, I was wondering if it would be any good frozen and n baked later?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      August 24, 2017 at 6:47 PM

      I’d try it! I’d probably just do oven roasting at lower heat to thaw it, and then remove foil and do higher heat to crisp it up again. 🙂

      Reply
  10. RaeAnn says

    July 20, 2017 at 6:12 PM

    Would it be horrible to add some of the spice rub to the chicken before cooking in the instant pot?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      August 19, 2017 at 12:14 PM

      I think the internet ate my reply. 🙂 You can marinate the chicken with spices rubbed in, but the steam in the pot will turn it to mush. The beauty of the spice rub is that turns into a crispy outer coating after baking. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Michelle says

    October 20, 2017 at 5:47 PM

    Wow! Thank you for this recipe. I improvised a bit with the dry rub (adding Berbere and omitting my missing celery salt), then I added lemon juice and Alderwood smoked sea salt when they were done. This was probably the best chicken dish I have ever had, let alone made myself!

    Reply
  12. Amy says

    January 23, 2018 at 12:01 PM

    Just curious why you wouldn’t season the chicken before putting it in the instant pot? Does the chicken meat even have flavor? I have drumsticks in the freezer and will definitely use this recipe but I’m tempted to put the rub on before going into the IP and then maybe a little more before going into the broiler. Thoughts?

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      January 24, 2018 at 2:27 PM

      Hi Amy! The rub gets steamed off in the IP…it’s really more of a crunchy coating, which is why you add it afterwards. If you do the whole process in the oven, you may get even better flavor!

      Reply
  13. Melanie says

    February 11, 2018 at 12:28 PM

    Could you use this rub on chicken breasts in the oven? I am not a fan of eating chicken off the bone–weird I know.

    Reply
    • Gwen Brown says

      July 16, 2021 at 2:51 PM

      Sure you can! Just adjust cooking time. 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Paleo Instant Pot Recipes for Dinner | My Crazy Good Life says:
    February 21, 2017 at 5:16 AM

    […] Pot BBQ Chicken Drumsticks | Gwen’s […]

    Reply
  2. Trim Healthy Mama Instant Pot Recipes for THM says:
    July 11, 2017 at 10:28 PM

    […] BBQ Chicken Drumsticks from Gwen’s Nest. She calls it an InstaPot but its the same thing just spelled wrong. THM Friendly […]

    Reply
  3. Instapot BBQ Rooster Drumsticks recipes – Cooking and Diet says:
    January 29, 2020 at 6:55 PM

    […] Read More […]

    Reply
  4. Instapot BARBEQUE Chicken Drumsticks recipes – CookXtreme Recipes says:
    March 17, 2020 at 8:26 PM

    […] Read More […]

    Reply

follow Gwen’s Nest

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Favorite Posts

I can't believe how simple this recipe is, and it looks AMAZING! Must try this one.
Get your fix of chocolate covered cherries with this amazing sugar free milkshake!
What is Trim Healthy Mama all about? I'll give you the run down and show you photos of my food and weight loss journey.
MyTHM weight loss before and after photos and journey
My favorite THM recipes sorted by type: S, E, FP, & Crossover.
Try this delicious all natural cough remedy...I have the ingredients in my cabinet!
Oh my word...this is not only delicious, but it's been amazing for knocking out colds & flu symptoms!
This household remedy is probably already in your pantry, and is the classic ear pain remedy.
How I get my kids to fight over who gets to mop the floor...
An EASY and fun DIY gift for the Catan player in your life...
This impressive makeover was done with craft paint in one afternoon...it looks great & lasts!
The true story of a gift that wasn't deserved, and the most passionate and personal giver.
My 5 minute solution to 2 good hair days.
True tales of my son...a modern day Viking child.
I ♥ PINTEREST & FACEBOOK...come follow along there too!
This site and its contents are © Gwen's Nest, 2015

I blog here because I love to help others, so please feel free to use anything here for your own home and family.
I love for you to share links from my site! But if you want to use a specific photo, recipe, or other content, please check out the terms of use below.
All the legal jazz is here:
TERMS OF USE • PRIVACY POLICY • FULL DISCLOSURE • DISCLAIMER • MEDIA KIT
CONTACT GWEN • I ♥ MY REDESIGN TEAM • FOODIE PRO THEME
We use cookies to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our analytics partners. Your continued use of our site implies you agree to this.