Dad’s Italian Dressing Grilled Chicken Legs — The Memorial Day Recipe That Made Me Finally Buy a Grill

Memorial Day weekend. Detroit does cookouts on Memorial Day the way other cities do parades — it is the unofficial start of summer, the first warm weekend where everyone is outside, grills are smoking, music is playing from car speakers and portable Bluetooth speakers and that one house on every block that has a sound system that should require a permit. Our block was no exception. Three separate cookouts happening within shouting distance, and the smell of charcoal and hot dogs and ribs mixed in the air like a Detroit symphony. Dad came over to use my neighbor's grill because I do not own one. Let me say that again: my father came to my house and used someone else's grill to cook for my family because I, DeShawn Carter, twenty-six years old, team leader at Chrysler, father of one, do not own a grill and could not operate one if I did. This did not bother me at the time. It bothers me now, telling you about it, but at the time it was just how things were. Dad grills. I eat. End of story. He made hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken legs. Simple stuff. But the chicken legs — oh, the chicken legs. He marinates them in Italian dressing and seasoning salt overnight, and then grills them slow, basting with barbecue sauce in the last five minutes so the sauce caramelizes but does not burn. They come off the grill sticky and charred and sweet and smoky, and I ate four of them standing in the yard while Aiden sat on a blanket in the grass and ate Cheerios. Brianna invited Tameka and a couple of other friends. They sat in lawn chairs and drank wine coolers and laughed in that loud, full-body way that women laugh when they are free of pretense. Brianna is beautiful when she laughs. I fell in love with her laugh before I fell in love with her — at that cookout in 2012, when she was twenty-one and I was twenty-two, and she threw her head back and laughed at something I said, and I thought: I want to make that sound happen again and again for the rest of my life. I have not been very good at making it happen lately. Marc showed up with a case of Bud Light and his charism turned up to eleven. He played with Aiden, throwing him in the air and catching him while Brianna screamed "not so high!" He arm-wrestled Darius in the yard and lost and claimed the sun was in his eyes, which does not affect arm wrestling but nobody corrected him because correcting Marc is like arguing with weather. He ate more than anyone and left last. He was twenty-one and made of light. I sat on the porch after everyone left, watching the sun go down over the houses across the street, and I felt the specific kind of contentment that Memorial Day offers: the feeling that summer is coming, that winter is behind you, that the long warm evenings are ahead. Detroit's summers are its redemption. After six months of cold and gray, the city opens like a flower, and for a few months, you remember why people live here.

That feeling on the porch—summer arriving, winter finally behind us, the whole long season still ahead—is exactly the kind of evening that calls for my dad’s grilled chicken legs. It’s the recipe I reach for when the day has already been good and I don’t want to mess that up with anything complicated. Simple marinade, hot grill, people standing around waiting for it to be done—that’s Memorial Day in Detroit. Here’s how we make it.

Dad’s Italian Dressing Grilled Chicken Legs

Prep Time: 10 minutes + overnight marinade | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 50 minutes active | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 12 chicken legs (drumsticks)
• 1 cup Italian dressing (store-bought is fine — that’s the whole point)
• 2 teaspoons seasoning salt (Lawry’s recommended)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 3/4 cup your favorite barbecue sauce, for basting
• Vegetable oil, for grill grates

Instructions

1. Marinate overnight. Pat chicken legs dry and place in a large zip-lock bag or baking dish. Pour Italian dressing over the top, then sprinkle with seasoning salt, garlic powder, black pepper, and smoked paprika. Toss to coat evenly. Seal and refrigerate at least 8 hours, preferably overnight. The dressing tenderizes the meat and the herbs do their work slowly.
2. Prep your grill. If using charcoal, build a two-zone fire — coals banked to one side for direct heat, the other side empty for indirect. You want medium heat, not screaming hot. If using gas, preheat to medium (about 375°F) and leave one burner off. Oil the grates well before adding the chicken.
3. Start on indirect heat. Remove chicken from the marinade and shake off the excess. Discard remaining marinade. Place chicken legs on the indirect/cooler side of the grill. Cover and cook 25–30 minutes, turning once halfway through, until the internal temperature reaches about 155°F.
4. Move to direct heat and baste. Slide the chicken over the direct heat side. Brush generously with barbecue sauce on all sides. Grill uncovered, turning every 2 minutes and basting with another coat of sauce each turn, for 8–10 minutes total — until the sauce is caramelized, slightly charred in spots, and the internal temperature hits 165°F. Watch carefully; the sugar in BBQ sauce burns fast.
5. Rest and serve. Pull the legs off the grill and let them rest on a platter for 5 minutes. They’ll be sticky, sweet, smoky, and just charred enough at the edges. Serve outside, ideally in a yard, while music plays from somewhere down the block.

Nutrition (per serving, 2 legs)

Calories: 410 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 890mg