Comparisons · Two cuts
Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken drumsticks
Two bone-in pieces at opposite ends of the leanness range, and therefore of the forgiveness range.
What each one is
Chicken breast, bone-in
Breast on the bone with the skin on. Slower and considerably more forgiving than the boneless version, because the bone slows the heat and the skin protects the surface.
Chicken drumsticks
Working leg muscle around a single bone. Like the thigh, better past its safety minimum, and unlike the thigh, a cylinder — so it cooks from all sides at once.
Where they overlap
- Both are chicken.
- Both are the same food form, so the same safety rules apply to each.
What actually differs
| Aspect | Chicken breast, bone-in | Chicken drumsticks |
|---|---|---|
| Typical weight | 170–340 g | 100–140 g |
| Typical thickness Thickness governs timing more than weight or cut name does — Weber's own chart roughly triples the time between a one-inch and a two-inch steak. | 35–55 mm | 35–45 mm |
| What BBQHQ's evidence gives for time Windows from the cooking profiles, at the conditions each profile states. They are not comparable to the minute — the profiles differ in cooker and configuration — and are shown to give the scale. | 20–30 minutes | 14–24 minutes |
| What tends to go wrong From BBQHQ's troubleshooting index. Choosing between two cuts is partly choosing which failure you would rather risk. | came out dry, burnt outside, underdone inside, still raw in the middle, caused flare-ups, the skin was rubbery | came out dry, burnt outside, underdone inside, still raw in the middle, caused flare-ups, the skin was rubbery, the sauce or coating burnt |
Can one stand in for the other?
Workable, once you change the cook
You can use one for the other. The cook changes, and the changes are below — do not carry the timing across unaltered.
What has to change
- BBQHQ's evidence gives these two materially different cooking windows, so the time moves even where the method does not. Take the window for the one you are actually cooking and probe towards it.