Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks with Alabama White Sauce (2024)

These Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks with Alabama White Sauce are a simple, fun, and quick way to cook chicken! Butterflied chicken is lathered in a BBQ spice rub, grilled until crispy, and then served with a rich, creamy, sweet, and spicy sauce!

This recipe is perfect for your Memorial Day grill out!

Post Sponsored by Cowboy Charcoal

Prep the Chicken for Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks with Alabama White Sauce

First, prep the chicken drumsticks. And to prep them, you need to butterfly them, this is a technique in which you slice and flatten out the meat. The goal here is to help the chicken cook faster and more evenly. It’s also to create a larger surface area to season and grill for those crispy edges.

Love butterflied chicken? Check out my Butterflied Peruvian Chicken Drumsticks with Green Sauce!

Start by slicing one side on the drumstick from the top to the bottom all the way down to the bone. Be sure to use a really sharp knife because we want a clean cut. Plus, all prep is easier with a sharp knife. Pull apart the two sides of the slice, separating part the meat from the bone, then lay it flat on your work surface. Make sure that you leave a small section of the meat, on the opposite side of the first cut, still connected to the bone.

After butterflying all your drumsticks, set them aside while you prep your the other components of the Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks with Alabama White Sauce.

Looking for more ways to use your chicken drumsticks? Try Beer Marinated BBQ Chicken Drumsticks,Honey Bacon BBQ Chicken LollipopsandSpicy Mezcal Drumstick Skewers.

Add the Seasoning!

To season our chicken drumsticks, we’re whipping up a simple sweet and spicy BBQ seasoning mix. To make the spice rub, just mix everything together. Simple as that!

Now, I love a homemade spice rub because you can play around with amounts to fit your tastes. Do you like it a little bit sweeter? Add more brown sugar! Do you love the heat? Add more cayenne! It’s super easy to make this your own, so take advantage of that.

Next, lather the butterflied chicken with oil, rub on the seasoning and then place them in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour because it needs a little bit of time to soak in that flavor.

Make the Alabama White Sauce for Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks

Next, we have the Alabama White Sauce. This sauce is rich, creamy, a little bit tangy, a little bit sweet, and little bit spicy, and absolutely perfect for serving with our grilled butterflied chicken drumsticks.

To make your sauce, simply whisk together mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, brown sugar, horseradish, hot sauce, cayenne powder, and honey.

As with your seasonings, play with flavor and make this sauce to fit your tastes!

Cook and Serve Your Grilled Butterflied Chicken Drumsticks with Alabama White Sauce

Now that everything is prepped and ready to go, it’s time to cook. First, preheat a medium-high heat fire to around 375ºF for two-zone cooking. Whenever I’m throwing down on the grill, I always reach for my trusty bag of Cowboy lump charcoal. Y’all, this charcoal burns clean, hot, and evenly. These are all extremely important aspects when cooking with fire, and Cowboy Charcoal delivers every time. When you cook as often as I do, it’s nice to have a fuel source you can count on.

Allow the coals to heat up and become ashed over in a charcoal chimney before adding them to your grill. Pour them into the grill and put the grill grate back on and let the coals continue to heat for another 5 to 10 minuets before cooking over them.

Want more with Cowboy Charcoal? Check out myCharred BBQ Burger,Loaded Steak FriesandGrilled Garlic Butter Lobster.

Place the drumsticks over direct heat. Cook them for 2-3 minutes on each side so they can char and develop that nice crust. Next, pull the chicken over to the cooler side of the grill so that they’ll finish cooking without becoming too charred. Allow them to cook until they reach an internal temperature of 170ºF.

Finally, pull the chicken off of the grill, let it rest for a couple of minutes so the flavor can settle, then serve with your Alabama White Sauce!

For more delicious recipes, check out my second cookbookFlavor X Fireor my first cookbookFood X Fire!

Needing more spice in your life? My spice line can help with that. Check them out here.

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