Texas Chicken Legs

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Shawn White

Sous Chef
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
791
Location
Calgary, Alberta
I don't usually like dark meat but I really like smoked dark turkey meat. Hit a great sale so I did a dozen turkey legs (16lbs) on the WSM today on three grates using the soup can trick. I brined them for six hours yesterday then air dried them in the fridge overnight. The cook was about 4.5 hours, temps ranging from 230F - 285F using a mix of maple and cherry. They all turned out good.

I figured to remove them around 180F internal. I checked them at 170F internal and was suprised to see they were very well done. I guess 180F in the thigh or leg applies to a whole bird .... but it might have been due to probe placement.

Bit of work taking all that meat off the bone but we'll have smoked turkey salad sandwiches for a day or two. :grin:
 
Shawn I also have no problem with any poultry pieces at 160/165.

You may be right about the temps being for the whole bird, or maybe
that's just the old way of being safe.
 
Smokehouse said:
Shawn,
After brining, did you put anything on therm?
Smokeleg
No I didn't, the way the poultry skin often turns out from a smoke I don't think I would put a rub on. The brine was plain too, but I would try flavor brine, heck maybe even dump a bunch of Franks Red Hot in the brine.

Pigs: thanks for the info, will go for 160º next time

Larry, no pics this time, sry.
 
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