Turkey Legs: Brined, Smoked, Caught on Camera!

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

ravanelli

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 3, 2011
70
16
Portland, Or
This is my first run at poultry on my Horizon offset smoker.  I got four fresh turkey legs at the local market, and put them in a brine overnight.  The brine was the same one on the smoking-meat website for a whole turkey.

I rinsed off the brine and as you can see just lightly dusted them with some rub.  I really didn't want to overpower the flavor of the brined bird:

099e8552_IMG_0311.jpg


On to the smoker at about 230.  Used a mix of cherry and nectarine wood.  Here's a peek after about an hour:

1a2a6f3e_IMG_0314.jpg


The smaller pieces are some random chicken pieces I was experimenting with.

After about three hours:

f9a1a8a4_IMG_0322.jpg


4a6553b7_IMG_0324.jpg


After four hours these baby's were ready to eat.  Internal temperature was about 170 degrees.  Below is them off the grill, it appears darker than the photos above just because it's indoors.

256fb4a5_IMG_0327.jpg


I had no intention of eating these knife and fork, after all smoked turkey legs are classic American street fare right? Turkey leg in one hand, cold beer in the other.  But, I decided to slice into one of them because I know by now you are interested to see the inside, so here you go...

30eb7797_IMG_5950.jpg


I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome, especially for a first try. Normally those long tendons are annoying but these were tender enough that the meat just came right off.  Next time I will probably brine less, certain parts were a little salty (which I like but not everyone does).  I really recommend making these, they are fun, tasty, and healthy!

Thanks for stopping by, and to the SMF for tips before I attempted this.
 
What a great looking turkey leg smoke. I love those things when i take the family out to a county fair. I will have to smoke up a dozen and take a few fishing with me on opening weekend.  
drool.gif
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky