Smoked Yardbird Rub Chicken Drumsticks & Roasted Texas Fries

Rubbed Annie’s Roasted Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil On & Under the skin of 10 fresh Foster Farms Chicken Drumsticks to act as the glue before seasoning the Drumsticks On & Under the skin with Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub.  Wrapped in Plastic and rested in the fridge for 5 hours.

Preheated the MAK 2 Star Wood Pellet BBQ Smoker-Grill to 180ºF (Smoke SETPOINT) using Hickory wood BBQ pellets.  Used a Leg and Wing Rack to smoke/cook some Yardbird parts.  Smoked the Chicken Drumsticks for an hour before bumping the temperature to 350ºF to finish the cook.

Ran a quick Roasted Texas Fries test using 3 different seasoning methods at 3 different levels in the Char-Broil the Big Easy Smoker, Roaster, Grill (SRG).  All Texas Fries were liberally coated with Annie’s Roasted Garlic EVOO and the following:  Top Layer – Fagundes Seasoning;  Middle Layer – Johnny’s Garlic Spread;  Bottom Layer – Lipton Onion Soup & Dip Mix.

Preheating is not required with the SRG but I always do anyway for 10 minutes.  On HIGH with Lid OPEN for an hour and 10 minutes.

An hour of Hickory Smoke (180ºF) and 35 minutes at 350ºF brought the Chicken Drumsticks to an Internal Temperature of 180ºF.  Rested the Drumsticks under a foil tent for 15 minutes prior to serving.

The Money $Shot$ …  Hickory Smoked Plowboys BBQ Yardbird Rub Chicken Drumsticks, steamed Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts served with 3 types of Roasted Texas Fries.

Fries from right to left;  Fagundes Seasoning, Johnny’s Garlic Spread, and Lipton Onion Soup & Dip Mix.  It’s common knowledge that there’s a dead spot near the bottom of the SRG and these fries proved it out.  The top 2 layers were done to perfection but I found that many of the Onion Soup Mix fries on the lower rack were not quite done and some were actually still half raw.  I don’t normally roast anything at the lower levels and now I’ll make a point to avoid that area outright!