The Tale Of Two Turkey Legs
https://youtu.be/SE24eWld86E?t=4
I love turkey legs! The kind you get at festivals, like a State Fair or Ren Festival. Whenever I hit one of these festivals, you better believe this dude is walking around with a turkey leg.
I was buying my groceries for the week last Saturday, and I saw a packages of two organic turkey legs on sale for a great price. I couldn’t resist. I thought, “I am going to try to make a GoodAttitudeFood version (“healthy”) of a state fair turkey leg”.
I quickly thought of a recipe on the spot; rosemary and thyme turkey legs. First I would brine the legs overnight in a salt and chicken stock solution. I would add herbs to the brine: thyme, rosemary, and garlic then cook on the grill.
“Simple, easy, and should be great”, I thought. So I went with it!
The brine is key here, because it will add flavor, juiciness, and tenderness. Brine + time = juicy, flavorful, and tender meat. Using a brine is a great way to infuse flavor into meat. Because of the brine, I used Reese Garlic Juice. The garlic juice added great garlic flavor that permeated the meat better than minced garlic would.
After leaving the legs soak in a brine for about 20 hours, I wrapped each in foil to be cooked on the grill.
Grilling times and heat will vary so my recommendation on cooking is to cook for 15 minutes, flip, then cook for another 15 minutes. At that point check for doneness. I use a meat thermometer when cooking poultry. According to USDA Guidelines, turkey should be cooked to 165 degrees.
I cooked mine to about 160 degrees and then unwrapped the foil from the legs and returned them to the grill, to finish them off with some direct flame.
You gotta get that flame on the meat! It seals in all the flavors. It crisps up that juicy, fatty skin. It is key. Just don’t over do it. I leave the grill-top open for this and keep a close eye on the product. I want just a little char on the meat.
Here is my exact recipe. Keep it simple!
Two Turkey Legs
A few sprigs of fresh Thyme and Rosemary
1 tablespoon of Reese garlic juice
2 tablespoons of table salt
2 tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon (or comparative cubes/powder)
Fill a container with water, add the ingredients and stir together. If you are using bouillon cubes you probably want to boil the water.
**This is one reason I like to use the Better Than Bouillon. It dissolves without heat. If you boil the water to dissolve a bouillon cube, you have to wait for it to cool, or it will start to cook your meat instead of brining it.
After the brine is mixed well, add the turkey legs, cover, and rest in fridge for 12-24 hours. The longer the better. I let mine go for 20 hours and they were good. 24 hours would have been better.
Then wrap in foil and cook on the grill.
Simple, fresh, easy, and good! I served mine with some Quinoa and herb roasted veggies with melted Parmesan cheese and turmeric.
You must log in to post a comment.