Meathead's Cured & Smoked Turkey Legs on SnS Grill

[Anton32828]

This is just a quick review of Meathead's "Theme Park Turkey Legs." They were great!

My kids (now adults in their 20s) were never fans of traditional roast turkey. This year we roasted a turkey breast for the traditionalists in the family, but also tried the cured & smoked turkey leg recipe posted by Meathead. I was frankly nervous about how well-cured they would be given the smallish amount of brine and short cure time. Not to worry: they cured throughout and were not noticeably salty.

My smoker set-up for such short cooks is my slow-n-sear grill with added accessories of a drip pan & second elevated cooking grate. I used a half chimney of lit charcoal to get the temp up to 325, added some pecan chunks, and then did three legs on the main grill and three up top to give them plenty of space. Total cook time to get the biggest leg up to 165 was just under an hour.

Some thoughts on cook time and seasoning. (1) Cook time: the legs were cooked, but a bit tough. Dark meat can push well past 165 without getting dry. The next time I may go for an extra 15 - 20 minutes of cook time to get the meat a bit more tender. (2) We experimented with "Slap Ya Mamma" Cajun seasoning on one leg (the reddish one in the picture). This was NOT a good flavor combination for the smoked turkey legs. The rest were plain. Given that the legs did not taste salty despite the brine, I will try a poultry rub next time. Maybe Montreal Chicken Seasoning.

The turkey leg Thanksgiving was a big hit with everyone. Once again AmazingRibs & Meathead come through with a winner!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I would suggest trying Meatheads Poultry rub, it's got some amazing herb forward flavors and isn't as salty as some other commercial rubs so should pair nice with a brined bird.

[fzxdoc]

Hi Anton32828 , it's nice to see you posting here again! You've been missed. Thanks for the great writeup!

About the tenderness of those turkey legs, how high an internal temp did you take them to?

I have always understood that dark meat does better if taken to 185°or higher, and that breast meat does best taken to far enough below 165° to allow for carryover cooking. (In his book The Food Lab, Kenji Lopez-Alt recommends 150° for breast meat, held for 2.7 minutes to meet FDA requirements, but he says the texture of breast meat at that temp may not be to everyone's liking.)

I'm often confused when I see recipes that say to take poultry thigh or leg meat to 165° when it flies in the face of conventional (higher) temp recommendations. Here's a quote from the Washington Post:

Although the USDA’s recommended temperature at which it’s safe to consume (dark meat) is the same (as white meat at 165°), dark meat’s texture is actually better at higher temperatures. “Unlike chicken breasts, chicken thighs and drumsticks actually become more tender the longer they cook,” Mari Levine of America’s Test Kitchen explains. “ … Dark meat has an abundant amount of connective tissue, which dissolves into gelatin as the meat cooks, rendering it juicy and tender. The longer it cooks, the more that connective tissue breaks down. This means that chicken thighs are good at an internal temp of 175 degrees Fahrenheit, but they’re even better at 195.” However, there is an upper limit. Once dark meat chicken hits 210 degrees, the flavor and texture start to deteriorate.

Kathryn

[Oak Smoke]

It’s articles like this that have me experimenting with injecting gelatin. So far the results are promising but finding the right amount to inject is challenging.

[realdocBBQ]

I've had dark meat well up into the 190s, even close to 200 without deleterious effect.

[Anton32828]

Thanks Kathryn, glad to be back! I took the temp to 165 since that is what the recipe stated. Thanks for posting the science behind my hunch that hotter would be better next time!