Another week and another new receipe. Caveman Turkey Legs (and still 190 chicken wings cooked this year at present count)
I would say that a fair few people have seen the Turkey Legs being sold at Disney, grab it by the bone and eat the top of the leg. I though I would give this a try towards the end of last year and this weekend was the perfect opportunity to.
I did a bit of research beforehand too, I wanted to get the best flavour into them and knew a brine was going to be the best way to do this, but what to flavour them with?
Having asked online what people thought, I went with Angus & Oinks Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Rub.
With 6 x 1kg legs, I put 2 litres of water in a pan, half a cup of salt and around 160-180g of rub. Heated a while to disolve the salt and then left to cool.
I used 3 brining bags with 2 legs in each. poured the brining solution into the bags and then put them in the fridge for around 24 hours, turning them over half way through.
Once they had brined, I then took them out of the bags, patted them dry and placed on a tray in the fridge for another 24 hours before cooking.
On the Saturday, I get the smoker lit (surprisingly quicker than the previous week but there had still been quite a bit of rain…who knows) and as it’s getting upto temp I grab the legs out the fridge to finish seasoning before smoking.
I add some Tubby Toms Garlic infused Smoked Rapseed oil and a little of Big Poppa Smokers Sweet Money Rub to each side of the legs and place into the smoker. I put a meater probe into 2 of the legs to give me an idea of where the temps are and leave things alone.
The entire cook I can hear the drip pans sizzling away, which created wonderful smells but also made me think the legs are going to be dry, all the moisture dripping out…
I’ve no idea on how long they will take to cook, I figure it will be around an hour and a half and I was not far off.
The skin doesn’t feel crispy but it does firm up once off the smoker and I’m happy with them.
I wrap the bottom half of the bone in foil so that you can hold them and eat from the bone but after one bite we all realise it’s going to be far easier with a knife and fork as there is lots of harder sinue.
The meat was lovely and moist, I needed have worried about the sizzling of the drip pans. The flavour was quite possibly the best turkey I’ve ever had, I want to do these again at some point….I’ve already been asked by people who saw the images for some!
My wife made a lovely mash potato to go with it that had cheese and garlic and then a little more of the garlic oil on the top. Really went well with the legs and brought a well rounded dish.
This will NOT be christmas dinner for 2024 but it has given me ideas….(not gonna do it though)
