Air fryer barbecue chicken legs are the best way to drum up some super flavorful, crisp, and juicy bone-in chicken legs. We are making our fryer BBQ drumsticks in under 30-minutes and topping them with our favorite sauce for a quick and easy BBQ chicken dinner that is sure to please.
Barbecue Chicken Legs in the Air Fryer
While chicken breasts and thighs are commonly used cuts of chicken, the chicken leg is often neglected. Whether it’s due to their odd shape, or the fact that they are a dark meat cut, chicken drumsticks are not a cut you hear about or see often.
Unless you eat at our house. We love chicken legs around here! Small in size, they cook up quickly, and the bone and dark meat offer a fantastic flavor that other cuts are missing. Plus, chicken drumsticks are often an inexpensive choice.
Full of flavor and easy to cook, chicken drumsticks don’t need a lot of dressing up making air fryer BBQ chicken legs a simple dinner choice. Serve with typical BBQ dinner sides, like coleslaw and air fryer corn on the cob, to create a simple air fryer dinner your whole family will love.
What Makes This Recipe So Good!
- Chicken legs (also known as chicken drumsticks) are an inexpensive cut of meat that will help to stretch your food budget, and is easily available at most grocery stores.
- Seasoned with simple ingredients, our air fryer BBQ chicken drumsticks recipe compliments the natural flavor of bone-in chicken legs.
- From start to finish our air fryer chicken legs with BBQ sauce are done in less than 30 minutes!
- Air fryer chicken drumsticks without sauce are compliant with gluten-free, low-carb, keto, and paleo eating plans. However, if you opt to add the BBQ sauce at the end (which we highly recommend) be sure your sauce is compliant as well.(Many are but be sure to read labels carefully).
Ingredient Notes
Our air fryer barbecue chicken legs recipe needs just a few basic ingredients – chicken drumsticks, oil, garlic salt, and black pepper, plus your favorite BBQ sauce – and that’s it!
- chicken drumsticks – you can use either chicken legs or chicken drumsticks, they are the same thing
- garlic salt – or plain fine sea salt with a pinch of garlic powder
- ground black pepper
- olive oil or avocado oil
- BBQ Sauce – our favorite is Sweet Baby Ray’s but any brand can be used.
** Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact quantities **
Equipment
- An Air Fryer- We have a Cosori XL basket style air fryer, a Ninja Foodi pressure cooker & air fryer combo, an Instant Pot Omni Plus oven style air fryer, an Instant Pot air fryer lid, and a small 3.2L Farberware basket style air fryer. We tested in the recipe in both an air fryer oven and a basket style air fryer.
- Non-stick spatula
- Rubbed tipped tongs
How to Cook Air Fryer Barbecue Chicken Drumsticks
Making these air fryer BBQ chicken drumsticks is super simple! We are going to coat our chicken legs with garlic salt and pepper so we can season them, then let the air fryer work its magic as it roasts our bone-in chicken pieces to perfection.
Preheat the air fryer to 400F for 3-5 minutes prior to putting the chicken in.
While your air fryer is preheating, pat your chicken drumsticks dry with a paper towel.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine dried chicken legs with oil, garlic salt, and pepper. Stir to coat evenly.
Place your seasoned chicken drumsticks in your air fryer basket or tray. Be sure to leave space between them for air flow.
How long do you air fry chicken legs?
Roast your chicken drumsticks in the air fryer for 10 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit.
After 10 minutes, flip the drumsticks and continue cooking for another 10+ minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165F.
To make your chicken legs air fryer BBQ chicken legs add sauce after the flip.
Serve and enjoy!
Variations
- Seasoning – Use a BBQ dry rub, Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, or chicken seasoning.
Tips for Air Fried BBQ Chicken Legs
- For best results, always preheat your air fryer unit for 3-5 minutes prior to cooking.
- Patting your chicken leg pieces dry prior to seasoning them will help the oil and seasoning to stick better to the chicken and help the skin crisp up in the air fryer.
- To allow your chicken pieces to cook properly, do not overcrowd your air fryer unit. We found that we could easily accommodate 4-5 average size chicken drumsticks.
- Larger pieces of chicken may require an additional 3-5 minutes of cook time. For best results, we do recommend you check your chicken for doneness using a digital thermometer.
- This recipe works well with either an air fryer basket or an air fryer oven.
Barbecue Chicken Air Fryer FAQ’s
Serve your air fryer BBQ chicken legs with classic BBQ dinner sides, like coleslaw, baked beans, a green salad, mac and cheese, and corn on the cob.
Store cooked BBQ chicken legs in the fridge in a covered container for up to 4 days. To freeze, store cooked chicken legs for up to 3 months. We do recommend that your store your cooked legs without sauce to make reheating them easier.
To reheat your BBQ chicken legs in an air fryer, preheat the unit to 400F for 5 minutes. Lay parchment paper in the bottom of the air fryer if the leftover chicken legs were covered in sauce. Air fry the chicken legs for a total of 7-10 minutes. Flip the chicken after 5 minutes, and cook until they are warmed through and reach an internal temperature of 165F.
You can add a little bit of water to the bottom of the air fryer basket to create steam and to prevent the sauce from burning. Enjoy!
More Air Fryer Chicken Recipes
- Air fryer Tyson chicken wings
- Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken (Air Fryer)
- Air fryer breaded chicken patties
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📖 Recipe
Air Fryer BBQ chicken legs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs chicken drumsticks 5
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt or plain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
- 1 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 2 tablespoon BBQ Sauce optional
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 400F for 3-5 minutes prior to putting the chicken in.
- While your air fryer is preheating, pat your chicken drumsticks with a paper towel.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine dried chicken legs with oil, garlic salt, and pepper. Stir to coat evenly.
- Place your seasoned chicken drumsticks in your air fryer basket or tray. Be sure to leave space between them for air flow.
- Roast your chicken drumsticks in air fryer for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, flip the drumsticks and continue cooking for another 10+ minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165F.
- If you are making air fryer BBQ chicken legs with BBQ sauce, add sauce after the first flip.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- For best results, always preheat your air fryer unit for 3-5 minutes prior to cooking.
- Patting your chicken leg pieces dry prior to seasoning them will help the oil and seasoning to stick better to the chicken and help the skin crisp up in the air fryer.
- To allow your chicken pieces to cook properly, do not overcrowd your air fryer unit. We found that we could easily accommodate 4-5 average size chicken drumsticks.
- Larger pieces of chicken may require an additional 3-5 minutes of cook time. For best results, we do recommend you check your chicken for doneness using a digital thermometer.
Nutrition
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