Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs are *exactly* what you want! Juicy chicken drumsticks are wrapped in bacon, then slathered with a Maple Cholula sauce.
This post was updated on March 4, 2022.
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs are absolutely unbelievable!
Super easy to prepare, with simple pantry ingredients.
This easy dinner recipe idea takes a few careful planning steps but can be ready in under an hour.
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs
Ingredients List:
- Chicken legs
- Bacon strips
- Kosher Salt
- Black pepper
- Maple syrup – regular Pancake Syrup would be just fine here, if that’s all you have!
- Cholula hot sauce
How to make Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs:
First, we’ll start with Chicken Legs + Salt + Pepper.
I love drumsticks! They are so flavorful, hard to mess up, and with a little dry brining they’re super crispy.
It’s a great way to serve as a main course or an appetizer!
If you want to serve this as finger food, make them into chicken lollipops! There are lots of methods for using a sharp chef’s knife and scoring the connective tissue and creating a clean handle for your guests. Head on over to Google, and do a quick YouTube search — you’ll find plenty of tutorials!
While this does create less mess, I don’t have time for this. I just serve it as a main dish and call it a day!
Second, we’re going to dry brine these chicken legs.
Place chicken in your hand, over a big stainless steel bowl.
Use a paper towel and pat each leg dry.
Sprinkle a fair amount of salt all over the chicken leg.
Be sure to turn the leg while you sprinkle, so every part is well-seasoned.
Place each salted drumstick into the bowl, and then wash your hands.
Using a pepper grinder (this one is my favorite!), generously grind it over top.
Using your clean hands, gently toss the drumsticks around to all get pepper on all sides. If you think you’ve tossed enough, toss a little longer.
You might be wondering why there isn’t any olive oil — this is because the dry brining process needs no other ingredients. Just salt and pepper, and time!
Third, lay out the chicken legs in a baking dish or baking sheet tray.
Place this in the fridge for up to 24 hours, uncovered.
This is where the dry brining takes place.
The salt draws out the moisture of the skin, and when you bake these you won’t believe how crispy it gets.
I do this with any kind of bird + skin recipe.
Other Recipes that Use Dry Brine:
Fourth, we’ll wrap each drumstick in bacon. Yep! BACON!
Oh yeah, y’all. Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs!
Take your piece of bacon and wrap it around starting at the top, going all the way down.
The slice of bacon should adhere to the drumsticks, if it gets slippery, tug on the slices of bacon and wrap a little tighter.
If you’re feeling fancy, you could take a sliced jalapeno piece and wrap the bacon overtop!
Just line them up, and make sure no legs are touching. I chose a ceramic baking tray, but you could use a half sheet pan too!
You want optimal heat to circulate through and around each chicken leg — so that the bacon and the drumstick crisp up well.
Add a piece of parchment paper under your baking sheet if you’re using aluminum, so it’s easy to clean up.
Fifth, place this baking dish in a COLD-OVEN, then turn your oven to 350˚.
Just like with the BEST Bacon, Ever we’ll start with a cold oven so the fat can render well.
Set your timer for 25 minutes.
After the 25 minute mark, we’ll check in on the legs and see how they’re roasting up.
Meanwhile, let’s mix up some Maple Cholula sauce!
In a small bowl, pour 3 tablespoons of maple syrup + 3 tablespoons Cholula hot sauce and mix together.
If you don’t have Cholula or prefer the taste of another hot sauce, feel free to use that!
Other variations: bbq sauce + chili powder – another delicious way to add different flavors.
After 25 minutes, this is what the chicken legs look like.
They needed about 20 minutes more, so I started basting them with the maple hot sauce.
If you are worried about your oven’s temperature being too hot and potentially burning the maple syrup, you can wait until 5 minutes before they are cooked through.
Using a pastry brush or silicone basting brush, gently swipe the maple Cholula sauce over each drumstick.
How do you know if chicken legs are done?
You’ll want to use an instant-read meat thermometer, and cook the chicken legs until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165˚.
When they’ve reached 165˚ take them out, and plate them for serving!
Just look at those glossy, *moist,* and delicious chicken legs!
Can you make bacon-wrapped drumsticks in the air fryer?
I have not tried this – but I’m sure it would work well!
Are Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs Keto or Low Carb?
If you left out the maple syrup and used a sugar-free syrup instead, then YES! These would be a great low-carb dinner idea or keto meal prep idea!
Next time, give these a try for your game day spread! You can make these the day before, and crisp them up under the broiler! So delicious.
Kitchen Equipment:
Perfect Pairings:
What you can serve with this recipe to complete this meal!
- Chili Onion Crunch Cauliflower
- Sheet Pan Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
- Parmesan Zucchini
- Bacon Balsamic Brussels Sprouts
- Air Fryer Tater Tots
- Crisp Broccoli Salad
If you need to save this for later – pin it to your favorite Chicken Recipe Board on Pinterest!
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 35
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 5 1x
- Category: chicken
- Method: cold roasting
- Cuisine: american
Description
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Legs are *exactly* what you want! Juicy chicken legs are wrapped in bacon, then slathered with a Maple Cholula sauce.
Ingredients
- 5 chicken legs
- Salt
- Pepper
- Bacon strips
- 3 tbs Maple Syrup
- 3 tbs Cholula Hot Sauce
Instructions
- Remove chicken legs from packaging and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Over a stainless steel bowl, individually salt each chicken leg.
- Once all the chicken legs are in the bowl, generously grind pepper overtop.
- Using your clean hands, gently massage the pepper and salt into each chicken leg.
- Place in a baking dish, in the fridge, uncovered for up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, wrap one slice of bacon around each chicken leg.
- Place in a baking dish.
- Place the baking dish with chicken legs inside a COLD oven.
- Turn your oven to 350˚.
- Set your timer for 25 minutes.
- While the chicken bakes, stir the maple syrup and cholula together.
- At the 25 minute mark, check your chicken’s temperature and begin to baste the chicken legs with the Maple Cholula Sauce using a pastry/silicone brush.
- Bake your chicken legs until completely cooked through, or the internal temperature reaches 165˚. (About 15 more minutes after the initial 25, depending on your oven’s actual temperature.)
- Baste with the sauce until completely gone.
- Serve immediately!
YUM! Two of my absolute favorites in one! My kids and husband are going to go crazy for this dish.
Make extra — these go fast! 😉
That’s crazy! I was just thinking of a bacon wrapped chicken dish I’ve had, but it was with breasts. Great idea to make it with drumsticks!
Oh yeah!!
My daughter is my big meat eater and she loves chicken legs. She’ll definitely want me to make a batch of these!
She will love them!!
You had me at bacon wrapped. These look amazing.
Right?! Bacon-Wrapped – okay!
look how shiny those tights are, Im drooling already!
Oh yeah!