- May 9, 2010
- 418
- 426
First I would like to give a shout out to ChefJJ and others that have given me a lot of tips for doing these turkey legs. I had some trouble with controlling the fire in my opinion, but despite this, they tasted great! I used ChefJJ's poultry brine with the addition of 1 tablespoon of LEM cure so they would have that ham flavor. They brined/cured for 3 days, and air dried in the fridge overnight. I didn't have the time to whip up any rubs, so I bought a container of McCormick Grill Mates Poultry Rub. It was a very nice flavor....not too overpowering and complemented everything well.
I would like to describe some of the problems I had with the fire and maybe some people can chime in with what I can do better next time. We have a Smoke Hollow 4-in-1 grill that has the side smoker box. I have read about some of the mods people do to this grill to make it work better, and I did a couple of them. I used some flashing in the vent pipe to extend the chimney down closer to the grate surface. I also rolled up some strips of foil to put along the edges so I could close the air gaps around the lid. I also used some fire bricks to raise the charcoal grate up so the ash wouldn't choke out the fire in the smoker box.
Initially I thought about just lighting a completely full chimney of charcoal, as I was instructed it would be better to run a hotter fire to get a crispier skin. I decided to use a minion method instead because I figured for my first smoke, I didn't want to let things get away from me. But I'm not quite sure I did the minion method correctly. I loaded my Weber charcoal chimney full of Kingsford, and poured in on the charcoal grate. I then pulled out 20 briquettes, and lit those in the top of the chimney. The flames weren't completely out when I dumped them on top of the unlit coals because I was running out of time and needed to get the cook going. They were mostly ashed over, but flames were still licking the top of some of the coals. I then put a couple of Applewood chunks just on the edge of the lit coals. I then placed on my Turkey legs.
I was monitoring the temp of the cook chamber with a Taylor probe. It took a little while to get up to temp, but it eventually got around 250 degrees.....this is about where I was able to maintain the temp through most of the cook. I got worried right away when there was a ton of smoke billowing out of the stack.....it was very strong and was burning my eyes. I was worried I was going to ruin my meat! I could peer inside the side vents on the smoke chamber, and my freaking wood was on fire! I opened the top of the smoke chamber and noticed that those 20 lit coals had already started lighting the unlit coals beneath it pretty well, and my wood was full bore on fire. I thought for sure I screwed this up already. I tried closing the side smoker vents to kill the flames, but whenever I did this my chamber temps started falling into the low 200s. It seems the only way I could maintain 250 or higher was to have the vents between 1/4-1/2 open......but even with this, and maintaining a 250 cook chamber temp, my wood kept going up in flames. I thought the wood was just supposed to smolder instead of being completely on fire? Eventually I ended up pulling out my initial three chunks of wood and dosing them with water because they just wouldn't stop being on fire. I tried adding new chunks to the edge of the coals, but those all kept catching fire as well. I just decided to roll with it.
Well, after two hours my turkey legs were only registering 120-130, and I only had an hour to go before dinner. I decided to fire up the gas side of the grill and I finished the legs off there. Within a half hour the legs were up to 175. I'm pretty sure if I would have kept them smoking they wouldn't have gotten up to temp in time, even at the three hour mark!
Despite my problems (or so I think) with the fire, the turkey legs tasted awesome! I thought the smoke would be too powerful due to how much it smoked in the beginning and due to my wood catching fire all the time, but the smoke taste was very light, just like it should have been. The skin was fairly crisp, but still a little rubbery in some places, but not too bad.
So I'm not sure what to think here....the end product was great.....but I feel like something went wrong with my smoking technique due to the coals all lighting right away, the wood catching fire, and my turkey not cooking a fast as I hoped even after two hours. Any advice for next time? Here are some pics!
I would like to describe some of the problems I had with the fire and maybe some people can chime in with what I can do better next time. We have a Smoke Hollow 4-in-1 grill that has the side smoker box. I have read about some of the mods people do to this grill to make it work better, and I did a couple of them. I used some flashing in the vent pipe to extend the chimney down closer to the grate surface. I also rolled up some strips of foil to put along the edges so I could close the air gaps around the lid. I also used some fire bricks to raise the charcoal grate up so the ash wouldn't choke out the fire in the smoker box.
Initially I thought about just lighting a completely full chimney of charcoal, as I was instructed it would be better to run a hotter fire to get a crispier skin. I decided to use a minion method instead because I figured for my first smoke, I didn't want to let things get away from me. But I'm not quite sure I did the minion method correctly. I loaded my Weber charcoal chimney full of Kingsford, and poured in on the charcoal grate. I then pulled out 20 briquettes, and lit those in the top of the chimney. The flames weren't completely out when I dumped them on top of the unlit coals because I was running out of time and needed to get the cook going. They were mostly ashed over, but flames were still licking the top of some of the coals. I then put a couple of Applewood chunks just on the edge of the lit coals. I then placed on my Turkey legs.
I was monitoring the temp of the cook chamber with a Taylor probe. It took a little while to get up to temp, but it eventually got around 250 degrees.....this is about where I was able to maintain the temp through most of the cook. I got worried right away when there was a ton of smoke billowing out of the stack.....it was very strong and was burning my eyes. I was worried I was going to ruin my meat! I could peer inside the side vents on the smoke chamber, and my freaking wood was on fire! I opened the top of the smoke chamber and noticed that those 20 lit coals had already started lighting the unlit coals beneath it pretty well, and my wood was full bore on fire. I thought for sure I screwed this up already. I tried closing the side smoker vents to kill the flames, but whenever I did this my chamber temps started falling into the low 200s. It seems the only way I could maintain 250 or higher was to have the vents between 1/4-1/2 open......but even with this, and maintaining a 250 cook chamber temp, my wood kept going up in flames. I thought the wood was just supposed to smolder instead of being completely on fire? Eventually I ended up pulling out my initial three chunks of wood and dosing them with water because they just wouldn't stop being on fire. I tried adding new chunks to the edge of the coals, but those all kept catching fire as well. I just decided to roll with it.
Well, after two hours my turkey legs were only registering 120-130, and I only had an hour to go before dinner. I decided to fire up the gas side of the grill and I finished the legs off there. Within a half hour the legs were up to 175. I'm pretty sure if I would have kept them smoking they wouldn't have gotten up to temp in time, even at the three hour mark!
Despite my problems (or so I think) with the fire, the turkey legs tasted awesome! I thought the smoke would be too powerful due to how much it smoked in the beginning and due to my wood catching fire all the time, but the smoke taste was very light, just like it should have been. The skin was fairly crisp, but still a little rubbery in some places, but not too bad.
So I'm not sure what to think here....the end product was great.....but I feel like something went wrong with my smoking technique due to the coals all lighting right away, the wood catching fire, and my turkey not cooking a fast as I hoped even after two hours. Any advice for next time? Here are some pics!
