LIttle help with Turkey legs. Injection and glaze

viper · Mar 26, 2011

Kind of a last minute deal, I decided to do some Turkey legs. No time brine overnight so I injected with water, salt, cider vinegar, brown sugar, and a few spices. I went ahead and threw them on the smoker while it warmed up. I planned to glaze the legs in the last 30min with my custom BBQ sauce.

I was hearing conflicting info on internal temps and est cook time. These are just the legs and will probably run box temp at 220ish. Did I make a critical error by not marinating over night? What internal temp is best?

viper · Mar 26, 2011

Well, we finished this one off and it was decent but could have been better. I pushed internal to 170*. Skin was pretty much too tough to eat but meat was good. Lacked some flavor that a good brine solution probably could have fixed and had good smoke flavor. It was absolutely killer with my BBQ sauce though.

I think the first thing here is what was up with the skin? Is it usually this tough? Should a guy remove before smoking?" What did I miss here?

SmokinAl · Mar 27, 2011

Here's how I like chicken. Smoke at 225 until thigh or leg is 175. Take skin off, put aside. Pull meat from bones, just like PP. Fry some bacon in a pan until crispy. Put on paper towels. Take chicken skin, chop into small pieces & fry in bacon grease until crispy. Put on paper towel to dry. Chop bacon into small pieces and combine with skin. Toss all together with chicken. This way you get the smoky flavor of the skin & it's crispy. The chicken is very moist because it was smoked at a lower temp. I know it doesn't sound too healthy, just don't eat it every night.

viper · Mar 27, 2011

So do most people remove the skin after smoking? It seemed inedible as-is unless I did something wrong. I also think I totally forget how many tendons are in Turkey legs. Certainly not a grab and eat drumstick like Chicken. More of a pull and eat like the rest of the bird.

i is a moose · Mar 28, 2011

Depends on the temp. You can do low temp until you reach about 100 degree internal, then really put the spurs to it to get that crispy skin.

I usually place my birds on the lowest rack in my WSMC to get the near the highest, dryest heat, and skip the water pan.

Personally, the skin has to be crisp, or I won't even bother eating it, so I will pull it off the whole bird, like Al does, and throw it back in on the rack in my smoker with the vents wide open to get a nice cracklin.

viper said:
So do most people remove the skin after smoking? It seemed inedible as-is unless I did something wrong. I also think I totally forget how many tendons are in Turkey legs. Certainly not a grab and eat drumstick like Chicken. More of a pull and eat like the rest of the bird.

boykjo · Mar 28, 2011

i is a moose · Mar 28, 2011

boykjo said:

Seriously.

I had to write on my mirror with lipstick, and cry into my hands when there was no q-view.

Search

Search

LIttle help with Turkey legs. Injection and glaze

viper

Smoke Blower

viper

Smoke Blower

SmokinAl

SMF Hall of Fame Pitmaster

viper

Smoke Blower

i is a moose

Smoking Fanatic

boykjo

Renowned Sausage Maker

i is a moose

Smoking Fanatic

Similar threads

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Our Second piece of Heaven, Little piece on the Atlantic Ocean

Getting to the bottom of what happens to cure in smoked sausage

Non fat dried milk

Calling pity party of one….Pity party of one!

How Do I Get Rid of These Armadillos?!!