Smoked turkey legs

Pavel · Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 7

This forum has been amazing and has brought my family and I so much enjoyment by providing ideas and recipes to use with my smoker. I can't begin to thank all the posters for so many terrific meals!

One meal that we really enjoy has been turkey legs. At 79 cents a pound, you can't go wrong but they are wonderful smoked!

I run into a problem though with the skin. Now, I separate the skin from the meat, put mustard and a rub on both the meat and the skin, then pull the skin back over the meat which does a great job keeping it moist. However, when they are done, the meat tastes great but the skin is like leather. Impossible to eat and even hard to tear off.

Not a big deal really with turkey legs, but I'm looking to smoke a whole turkey soon and would like to avoid this issue. How can I keep it from happening with legs and a whole turkey? Been looking at Alien's Hurricane Turkey and can't wait. Could this issue be solved with cheesecloth? If it helps, I have a Traeger Lil' Tex.

murf · Posted: Jun 29 2008 Post subject:

It takes heat to make skin chewable. A smoke at under 300� will get you rubber skin everytime. As for whole turkey after a 24 hour brine I rinse it off and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours uncovered to dry the skin out. This seems to help and I smoke my birds at 325�.
_________________
lets eat!!

msp1128 · Posted: Nov 10 2008 Post subject:

smoked turkey legs are great!

jib · Posted: Nov 11 2008 Post subject:

Raise your temperature for better skin.

I use a 24 hours (salt, sugar tarragon) brine, with a bit of rub and smoke turkey legs at 350�F. My kids say they are better than what we ate at DisneyWorld.

Jack
_________________
WSM
Charbroil gasser grill
Currently planning a Stumps clone build