A Dozen Drumsticks and the Ridiculous Rack I Bought as a Joke
I bought this rack as a joke. There was a kamado grilling forum I loved back in the day (long gone now, and I still miss it), and they ran a cooking challenge, so I bought a ridiculous wire contraption that hangs a dozen chicken drumsticks upright like little soldiers standing at attention on the. Bought it purely for the bit. I fully expected to use it once, get my laugh, and shove it in the back of a cabinet forever.
The joke was on me, in the best possible way. Twelve years later, it’s one of the pieces of gear I reach for the most. Turns out hanging drumsticks upright over a diffused fire is a genuinely smart way to cook a big batch. The fat renders and drips right off, the skin crisps up all the way around because nothing’s sitting in a puddle of its own grease, and you can do a full dozen at once. (I’ve stacked a few extra on top when I was feeding a crowd and feeling brave. It holds.)
Drumsticks are the unsung hero of the Kamado, y’all. They’re cheap, they’re forgiving, they’re dark meat that won’t dry out the second you glance away, and I have never met a person who turned one down. I’ll run a full rack for a cookout, or knock out a batch on a Sunday and portion them into lunches for the week. Season them, bread them, or leave them plain and let the smoke do the talking; the rack does not care what you do.
I almost always hit mine with my own BBQ rub, the one I built off a few Steven Raichlen recipes and then made my own over the years (that recipe is its own post). But this is a use-what-you-love situation. Plain salt and pepper is honest and good. A store-bought rub is fine. The method is the star here, not the seasoning.
This is where my Kamado Joe’s Divide and Conquer setup earns its keep. I foil-wrap a diffuser and set it under one half of the grill, then hang the rack of drums over that indirect side. The other half stays open over direct heat, so I can run burgers or steaks or a few ears of corn right alongside (you can just make out the diffuser peeking out under the chicken in the photo below). One fire, two jobs, dinner and next week’s lunches at the same time.
Fair warning: even with a diffuser, you’ll pick up a few charred bits when the fat drips and a flareup licks up around the edges. I’ve decided those are a feature; a little char is where a lot of the good stuff lives. (Have I also wandered off and come back to drums that were considerably more char than bits? I have. We photograph those too now, because authentic. Scroll down and you’ll see.)
Notes
A few things I’ve learned over a dozen years of these:
Cook to temperature, not to the clock. Twenty to thirty minutes at 400 indirect is a decent guide, but the thermometer is the truth. I pull mine at 170 to 175F in the thickest part of the drum; they’ll coast up another three degrees or so off the heat. The safe floor is 165, but dark meat is happier and more tender a little past it. Push much beyond 180, though, and you’re drying them out.
If they’re charring on the bottom faster than you’d like, slide a doubled-over piece of foil underneath them. A few dark spots are good. A fully blackened crust means the fat found the fire; still edible, still tasty, just know the difference.
Batch and store. A full dozen makes a week of lunches or feeds a cookout crowd. They keep in the fridge up to four days and reheat well in a 350F oven or the air fryer to bring the crisp back.
About the rack: it comes as a set of two, and I’ll link the exact one right here: Drumstick Rack. That’s a plain Amazon link, on purpose. No affiliate code, no kickback; I bought the thing as a gag over a decade ago and I just genuinely use it.
Kamado Hanging-Rack Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 12 each chicken drumsticks
- ¼ to ⅓ cup BBQ rub my rub, or salt and pepper, or your favorite
- Optional: breading if you go that route
Instructions
- Pat the drumsticks dry and season generously all over with your rub or salt and pepper. For the crispest skin, season and let them rest uncovered in the fridge one to two hours, or up to overnight. Optional, but worth it.
- Set the Kamado up for two zones: foil-wrap a diffuser and place it under one half, leaving the other half open for direct heat. Bring the grill to 400F.
- Hang the drumsticks on the rack (a dozen fits; stack a few on top if you need to) and set the rack over the diffused, indirect side.
- If you like, cook something else over the direct side: burgers, steaks, or a few ears of corn.
- Roast 20 to 30 minutes, until the skin is crisp and the internal temperature at the thickest part reads 170 to 175F. If the bottoms char faster than you'd like, slide a doubled-over piece of foil underneath.
- Pull at 170 to 175F (carryover adds a few more degrees). Rest a few minutes and serve.
Notes
- Ideal for batch cooking. Refrigerate up to 4 days; reheat in a 350F oven or air fryer to re-crisp.
P.S. The forum that inspired this ridiculous purchase is gone now, and I miss it more than is probably reasonable for a message board. Pour one out for the old grilling forums, folks; some of the best cooks I ever learned from lived on those things.
P.P.S. Yes, they hang like little soldiers. Yes, it looks absurd on the grill. Yes, Zach made fun of me when I bought it. Yes, he now eats them four at a time and has stopped commenting.
P.P.P.S. About that last photo. Some days the flareup wins. That batch still got eaten, down to the bone, because we do not waste drumsticks in this house.