Chicken Lollipops with Champagne BBQ Sauce
We bet you’ve never tried a recipe as delicious as Chicken Lollipops with Champagne BBQ Sauce. Traeger smoked chicken lollipops are dunked into a sweet and tangy champagne BBQ sauce, paired with perfectly cooked baby backs and finished with a sweet glaze.
Ingredients
Champagne BBQ Sauce:
1 Bottle TRAEGER BBQ SAUCE
1 cup CHAMPAGNE
CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS:
12 TO 18 CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS, AS NEEDED
TRAEGER CHICKEN RUB
1 stick butter, as needed
Preparation
For the Champagne BBQ Sauce: Add champagne and BBQ sauce to a sauce pan and mix to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
For the Chicken Lollipops: To turn regular chicken legs into lollipops, you’ll need a sharp knife and a pair of kitchen shears. Start by making a cut all of the way around the leg just below the knuckle, cutting through the skins and tendons using either a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen shears. Push the meat down to the large end and pull/cut the remaining skin and cartilage off the knuckle. You might want to also remove the tiny bone right against the leg. Remove this bone with your fingers or the shears, and trim away the tendons sticking out the top.
Season the chicken lollipops with Trager Chicken Rub. Wrap the bones of the drumsticks with a small piece of aluminum foil to keep them from getting too dark. Let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for an hour. Start the Traeger on Smoke with the lid open until a fire is established (4-5 minutes). Place the chicken lollipops on the grill grate and let them smoke for 30 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the grill and increase the temperature to 350 degrees F. Preheat, lid closed, for 10 to 15 minutes.
Place the stick of butter in a baking pan or aluminum pan. Arrange the lollipops in the pan with the butter and with the bones sticking up straight. Let the chicken cook for 40 minutes or until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
While lollipops are cooking, warm up the barbecue sauce in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat. Once it starts to thin, turn down the heat to just keep it warm. If the sauce needs to be thinned, pour in a little bit of the butter used in the pan until it reaches a thickness that is thick enough to adhere to the drumsticks. Dip the lollipops into the barbecue sauce so that it is completely covered.
When chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, remove the chicken from the grill and increase the temperature to 450 degrees F. Preheat, lid closed, for 10 minutes.
Place the chicken directly on the grill grate and cook until the internal temperature registers 175 degrees F, about 10 more minutes. Keep an eye on the lollipops to make sure that the glaze doesn’t burn.
Remove from grill and serve immediately with 3-2-1 Baby Back Ribs. Enjoy!
Recipe and photo from Traeger.
