GLWhiskeyKitchen

Grilling · · By Ashley

Cherry-Brined Chicken Lollipops

A gravity-fed smoker burns from the bottom up, which means everything you know about where to put the wood is wrong.

Jump to recipe
Prep
4 hr 45 min
Cook
2 hr
Total
6 hr 45 min
Serves
6
Level
A project
A tray packed with finished chicken lollipops, glazed deep mahogany red and standing upright on their bones

Where the time goes

6 hr 45 min, mostly waiting

  • Hands-on
  • Hands-off
  1. 01Hands-offBrine4 hr
  2. 02Hands-onFrench, season and wrap45 min
  3. 03Hands-offSmoke1 hr 30 min
  4. 04Hands-onGlaze and crisp30 min
  5. 05Hands-offRest5 min

The story

If you run a Masterbuilt Gravity Series — the 560, 800, or 1050 — the thing that trips people up is wood placement. The fire burns from the bottom of the hopper upward, so chips tossed in with the charcoal burn off almost instantly and you get nothing for them.

The fix is the ash bin. Put your cherry chips straight into the empty ash pan under the charcoal grate. Embers drop onto them and they smolder rather than flare, which is exactly what you want: thin blue smoke instead of a white billow. Chunks work too, layered into the hopper with the charcoal.

Thin blue smoke, not white. White smoke is wood burning; blue smoke is wood behaving.

The rest of it is a brine, a bit of knife work, and patience. The cherry juice does the seasoning and keeps the meat from drying out over two hours, the bacon bastes the outside as it renders, and the bourbon glaze goes on right at the end so the sugar lacquers instead of burns.

  • Two glazed chicken lollipops on a white plate with charred asparagus, on a deck table at sunset with the tray behind
    Out on the deck, with the asparagus.
  • A hand holding a finished chicken lollipop by the bone, lacquered and charred at the edges, in evening light
    Eaten off the bone, which is the point.

Ingredients

Serves 6, at two lollipops each

Tap an ingredient to check it off.

The cherry brine

The chicken

Fuel and smoke

The bourbon glaze

If you haven't got it

  • cherry wood chips — apple wood, for something a little softer
  • ketchup base — a good store-bought ketchup

Method

Tap a step number to mark it done.

Brine — four hours ahead

  1. Whisk the cherry juice, salt, brown sugar, garlic and rosemary together until the salt and sugar have completely dissolved.

  2. Submerge the drumsticks, cover, and refrigerate for four hours.

    Four hours, not overnight. Much longer in a brine this salty and the texture turns spongy.

  3. Lift the chicken out and pat the skin completely dry. Bacon will not grip a wet surface.

Deglove and french the bone

  1. Cut the ring

    Make a clean cut all the way around the thin end of each drumstick, through the skin and the tendons underneath.

  2. Push the meat down

    Push the meat down toward the fat end so it bunches into a ball and leaves a bare bone handle above it.

  3. Pull the tendons

    Grip the tough white tendons with pliers or a paper towel and pull them right out. Leave them in and they shrink as they cook and drag the meat back up the bone.

    This is the fiddly part. It gets much faster around the fourth one.

  4. Cut the knuckle off the bottom of the bone if you want them to stand upright on the grate.

Season and wrap

  1. Season the meat evenly with the salt, garlic powder and black pepper.

  2. Wrap one to two slices of bacon tightly around each ball of meat until it is completely covered, and secure the ends with a toothpick.

    A rack of raw bacon-wrapped chicken lollipops on a bamboo board, bones frenched clean and pointing up
    Wrapped, seasoned, and standing up on the rack.

  3. Wrap a small piece of foil around each bare bone. It keeps them white instead of blackened, and it takes two minutes.

    Skip this and they still taste the same — they just photograph worse.

    Raw bacon-wrapped chicken lollipops standing on a wire rack, seasoned and ready for the smoker
    Bones frenched clean, ready for the smoker.

Set up the smoker

  1. Fill the gravity-fed hopper with charcoal.

  2. Wood in the ash bin

    Open the bottom ash door and put a cup of cherry chips directly into the empty ash pan. Embers dropping from the charcoal grate above will smolder them slowly. If you are using chunks instead, layer those into the hopper with the charcoal.

    This is the whole trick on a gravity feed. Chips thrown in with the charcoal are gone in minutes.

  3. Pull the heat intake and exhaust sliders out, light the fire starter, and set the controller to 250°F / 121°C.

Smoke

  1. Wait for the heavy white startup smoke to thin out to a faint blue before anything goes on. Putting food into white smoke is how you end up with an ashtray.

  2. Set the lollipops on the middle grates and smoke for an hour and a half.

  3. About 45 minutes in, open the ash door and drop another half-cup of cherry chips over the hot ashes to refresh the smoke.

Glaze and crisp

  1. While it smokes, put all the glaze ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes until thick and glossy.

    A bottle of Grand Teton Private Stock bourbon, a jar of Michigan wildflower honey, and a black bowl of finished barbecue glaze
    Bourbon, Michigan wildflower honey, and the finished glaze.

  2. At the 90-minute mark the chicken should be around 155–160°F. Paint every lollipop generously with the glaze.

  3. Crank it

    Take the controller up to 325°F / 163°C. The jump in heat renders the last of the bacon fat, crisps the edges, and sets the glaze into a lacquer.

    Glaze first, then heat. The other way round and the sugar scorches before the bacon is ready.

  4. Pull them at 175°F / 79°C internal. Rest five minutes and serve — charred asparagus alongside is what I usually do.

Things worth knowing

  • Thin blue smoke, never white. Wait for it before the food goes on.
  • Chicken thighs are forgiving; drumsticks at 175°F are more tender than at 165°F, so do not pull them early out of habit.
  • Foil on the bones is purely cosmetic and absolutely worth it.

Swaps that work

  • Apple wood instead of cherry for a softer, sweeter smoke.
  • No gravity feed? Any smoker at 250°F works — put the wood wherever your cooker wants it.
  • In the oven: 250°F for 90 minutes, glaze, then 425°F for 15. No smoke, still very good.

Credits and sources

Ingredients · 6 hr 45 min · Serves 6, at two lollipops each

The cherry brine

  • 4 cupstart cherry juice
  • ¼ cupkosher salt
  • ¼ cupbrown sugar
  • 2 clovesgarlic
  • 2 sprigsfresh rosemary

The chicken

  • 12chicken drumsticks
  • 12 to 24 slicesthin-cut bacon
  • 1 tspkosher salt
  • 1 tspgarlic powder
  • 1 tspblack pepper

Fuel and smoke

  • A full hopperlump charcoal or briquettes
  • 1–2 cupscherry wood chips

The bourbon glaze

  • 1 cupketchup base
  • ¼ cupbourbon
  • ¼ cupdark brown sugar
  • 2 tsphoney
  • 2 tbspapple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
  • 1 tspsmoked paprika
  • ½ tsponion powder
  • ½ tspgarlic powder

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