Smoking Turkey Legs -- Help, please

Of course you are! :D You'll get used to posting, I hope. Welcome!

I'm just sorry I don't know the answer -- but maybe someone else who smokes :smoking: does. :)

smoking turkey legs

Never tried it but we know that turkey legs have little fat and are tough. I would suggest that instead of boiling the cold smoked legs you braze them with just enough water to always have liquid in the bottom of the covered roasting pan. A 250 F oven for two hours should do it. If not tender then put back in for another half hour. Or, alternatively, smoke them at 225F for three or four hours.

First off I've never seen anyone cold smoke poultry before. Mostly I have used that for seafoods and vegetables and the occasional ham. I'm sure you get great flavor penetration though.

If you are intent on a cold smoke then... After you pull the legs from the smoker put them in a roasting pan as diego suggests. Only I would use a wire roasting rack to keep them off the bottom and out of the water.

As far as the water goes, only enough to keep the humidity up in the pan. About a cup should be sufficient. It's important to keep the meat out of the water since if this is where you get all the flavor loss and move more towards a poache or boiled meat. IMHPO boiling only should be used for Corned Beef unless you're making a stew or soup.:D

Then seal the top of the pan with plastic wrap, then parckment paper and finally a good heavy-duty foil. Make sure you crimp the ends over the rolled edge of the roasting pan very well.

The next step is dependent on how big the drums are. Basically I put my slow cook items in the oven at 225 deg and let'em go for around 2 hours. It usually doesn't take more than 3 but if you're using the massive Walt Disney World style drum then it'll be close to 3 hours.

The final alternative (as diego also pointed out) is to just go to a cold/hot smoke. Start out with how you're doing things now and then at about 2 hours in to things.... Crank up the heat and finsh in the smoker. Granted you don't get much (if any) smoke penetration above 180 deg but you will get a nice caramaliztion of juices on the meat. This adds to the flavor as well.:lips:

Hope this helps.

One of the standard meat items on our sandwich menu is house smoked chicken breasts. I would brine them, cold smoked them, then grill them off and when cold slice.

Turkey drumsticks are notorioulsy tough unless well cooked. If you think the extra work warrants it, you could bone them out and remove all those tendons. Now that it's flat it has more surface area and will smoke faster and better. Cook with whatever method you want. If you think it needs more smoke flavour, toss it back in the smoker. Even though it's cooked,it'll still absorb the smoke flavour.

Bard or lard

I would agree about the hot smoking, I used to teach charcuterie. Any extra cooking time and humidity is going to dry out your product.

With the cold smoking or the hot smoking though, barding or larding your product will definately help with the moisture loss. And you could do that step when you are finishing in the oven.

There is a way to do great smoked turkey legs... but I have no idea what it is. :mad:

However, I have had really great smoked turkey legs- at the Houston Rodeo. Those carnival-food guys know how to do it. Anybody got a connection to learn their secrets?

Mike :look: