Raise your hand if you are still exhausted from all of your holiday cooking!
The last two months of 2020 had A LOT of cooking, so by the time January rolled around I was more than ready to break out my crockpot to do the heavy lifting for me. We’ve also been trying to clear out a bunch of our frozen meat to make space for new goodies in the freezer, so I figured some crockpot BBQ chicken legs would kill two birds with one stone!
Chicken is very hit or miss for me. It can’t be dry. It can’t be dry, soggy, or flavorless. This recipe packs in the flavor and only has a few ingredients, with chopping required…yes, please! And, to top it all off, finishing these chicken legs in the broiler guarantees a satisfying crisp without any unhealthy frying. Really, I hit the jackpot with this one. Check it out and let me know what you think!
xoxo
Jennifer
Crockpot BBQ Chicken Legs
Difficulty: Easy5
minutes5
hours5
minutesAn easy meal that combines crockpot convenience and broiler magic for perfect BBQ chicken every time!
Ingredients
2.5 lbs. chicken legs
2 + 1/2 cups BBQ sauce
- Spice Rub
2 TBSP Dark Brown Sugar
1 TBSP Chili Powder
1 TBSP Paprika
1 TSP Salt
1 TSP Black Pepper
Directions
- Make spice rub by combining dark brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl
- Rub spice over chicken legs as you place them into crockpot
- Pour 2 cups of BBQ sauce over chicken legs, and move around with tongs to ensure they are all covered with sauce
- Cook in crock pot on low for ~5 hours (until meat thermometer registers at 165°)
- Remove chicken from crockpot and place on a foil-lined baking sheet
- Preheat oven broiler on high
- Brush chicken with 1/4 cup of remaining BBQ sauce
- Broil chicken for 2 minutes
- Remove chicken from broiler, flip legs with tongs, and brush with any remaining BBQ sauce (~ 1/4 cup)
- Return chicken to broiler for 2 more minutes
Notes
- This recipe works well with sweet, savory, thin, or thick BBQ sauces!
- Even though some consider this to be a cardinal sin of crockpot cooking, I like to open mine up about halfway through and turn over the chicken pieces to make sure they all get a chance to soak in the delicious sauce!