Juicy Broiled Buffalo Drumsticks

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Ingredients

8 chicken drumsticks (optional - remove the skin)

The Marinade/Spice Rub (FOR BEST FLAVOR MARINADE CHICKEN OVER NIGHT):

Splash of grapeseed oil (or you can use olive oil)
Capful of liquid smoke
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ turmeric (optional if you don't have some, but if you do, use it)
½ teaspoon smoked paprika (you can use regular too)
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
½ teaspoon granulated onion
½ teaspoon ground mustard
Pinch of cayenne pepper (more if you like them hot)
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried thyme

The Buffalo Sauce

1 cup Frank's Buffalo Sauce (or your favorite hot/buffalo sauce)
2-3 tablespoons of butter

Instructions

This first step is optional, but I prefer to take the skin off the drumstick. See notes.
The day or night before you're going to cook the recipe: In a big bowl, toss the chicken with all of the Marinade/Spice Rub ingredients until the drumsticks are well and evenly coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. You can marinade the drumsticks for 1 hour, but overnight is tastier.
After marination, turn on your broiler to preheat the oven. See notes.
Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. If you have a oven safe rack, place that on top of tin foil, spritz with cooking spray, and line your chicken drumsticks on the rack. If not using a rack, spritz the tin foil directly with cooking spray and line up the chicken on the tin foil. Put the cookie sheet in the oven under the broiler. Cook for 5-7 minutes on one side, flip chicken over and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an external temperature of 160. If you've left on the skin, your chicken drumsticks will probably need a longer time to cook!
While the chicken is cooking, add the buffalo wing sauce and butter in a small pot. Heat the mixture over medium heat until the butter completely melts and the two ingredients are combined.
Once the chicken reaches 160, using a pastry brush (or spoon) brush the buffalo sauce onto the top of the chicken. Pop the chicken back into the oven and broil for 3 minutes. Take the chicken back out, flip it, and brush the buffalo sauce onto the other side. Again, pop the chicken back into the oven and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Remove the chicken and brush on any left over sauce. Let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serve drumsticks with your favorite blue cheese/ranch dressing, carrots, celery, corn, mac and cheese, whatever you prefer!
Take a bite and enjoy the Juicy Broiled Buffalo Drumsticks!

Notes

To remove the skin, grab the meaty end of the drumstick. Pull the skin down and off the end. If your grip is slippery, use a paper towel to help pull off the skin. You can skip this step, but removing the skin helps the spice rub penetrate the meat (in my opinion). My drumsticks look bare at the bottom because before everything from the meaty part of the drumstick, down. First I remove the skin on the meaty part by simply pulling it off. Then I carefully run my knife around the bone, close to the knuckle (the bottom) again and again until I cut the meat/skin/muscle tendons all the way through. Then I remove yank and pull until the bone is almost completely clean. According to Gordon Ramsey, this allows the chicken to cook much more quickly.

Before turning on your broiler, open your oven and rearrange the oven racks so the one you'll place the chicken on, will be on the second rung from the top.

You can grill, broil, or bake the drumsticks. I would set your oven to 425 and cook approx 10 minutes per side. Check the temp with a meat thermometer, once the chicken registers 160, start mopping on the sauce, and cook for an additional 3 minutes per side. If you grill, you'll probably end up cooking the chicken 5-7 minutes per side before you add the sauce. Just remember, use a meat thermometer if you have any doubt the chicken is cooked through.

The grilled and broiled cooking methods rendered juicy drumsticks, if you bake the chicken in the oven, the meat will be drier, but it's still delicious!

You can tone down the heat if you're sensitive to spice. Omit the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes and sub out the Buffalo Sauce for your favorite, mild hot sauce!