The lower part of a chicken leg is the drumstick.
A chicken leg has two main sections: the upper thigh and the lower drumstick. The drumstick contains one long bone and is shaped like a small club, making it easy to recognize in grocery cases and fried-chicken meals. It is dark meat because the leg muscles are used for walking.
The word can cause confusion because the wing’s upper section is called the drumette. A drumette resembles a miniature drumstick, but it is part of the wing rather than the leg. The two cuts differ anatomically even though both have a single prominent bone and a similar appearance.
The thigh sits above the drumstick and joins the body of the bird. A carcass is the remaining framework after meat is removed, while a tenderloin is a strip of breast meat. Neither describes the lower leg. In Buffalo-wing terminology, the drumette may appear on the same plate, but it is not the chicken’s drumstick.