The preparation of these can be a PITA.
I tried the instructions to prepare these as told by Diva Q in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTDUfuwZ87gA sharp knife, and I highly recommend scissors to help deal with cutting the all of the tendons and such. It helps speed up the process.
Started out with 6 lbs, and a total of 26 drumsticks.
Took about 40-45 minutes to prep all of them …. I thought that wasn't too bad.
Ended up with 1¾ lbs of trimmings that got Ziplocked and frozen for future broth.
These were then marinated for 48 hours in a mixture of Buffalo wing sauce, and freshly squeezed lime juice.
Just before they were ready to hit the grill, I sprinkled some of this stuff on them for extra flavour and a little heat.
When I am dealing with a large number of small items to go on the grill, I do the following:
While the kettle is preheating, I have the cooking grate outside of the kettle.
Get it loaded up, remove lid, then place fully loaded grate into the kettle. Quick, and it preserves heat.
I went with a full chimney of lit lump dumped into the polar-vortex charcoal basket, and cherry and apple for smoke.
The average temperature for this cook was around 425° with the vents wide open for the duration.
Before removing, I cycled the pieces into the centre for a little bit of char action. Total cook time was 1 hour, 15 minutes.
These got promptly covered in foil.
I then brought them to work for the crew to sample on our last day before holiday shutdown.
They were delicious, and were a big hit!
I will definitely be doing these more often, as the prep work didn't seem so bad.
Merry Christmas, everyone!