No Brine Turkey Legs - Any suggestions?

exprmntal

Is lookin for wood to cook with.
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Gonna do some turkey legs this afternoon on my YS 640. No time to brine though. I have seen some folks don't bother brining. I was going to hit them with some Yardbird rub and then into the smoker at 250* for an hour and then up to 350* after that to finish and crisp up the skin. Figured I'd pull them at about 168*. I might try one or two of them rubbed with olive oil and just salt and pepper to see how the skin color turns out. Any thoughts and tips would be appreciated.
 
I pull the skin down and rub the meat, them pull the skin back up. I think the skin gets crisper and more of the rub flavor is on the meat.
 
Just pack them in salt and a bit of sugar for an hour. Wash it off, then season. Works when you are in a pinch.

Cheers!

Bill
 
I lightly inject mine from the top with melted butter mixed with some creole seasoning. and yes brush the skin with olive oil and let them roll.
 
I never got any feedback yesterday before the cook, so here is what I ended up doing.

I loosened the skin by working my fingers under it to help with crisping, then pulled the skin back up and rubbed them down with olive oil and dusted them with Plowboy's Yardbird rub.

I started at 250* for the first hour, then bumped the temp up to 350*.
The legs were pretty small and they were almost done after 1 hour.
It took about 1 hour 20 minutes for the one leg that I was monitoring to get to 170*. I checked the rest of the legs at this point and some were probing about 155-160 on my Themapen so I let flipped them and let them go 5-10 minutes longer. Then I pulled them and FTC'd until my guests arrived. I had never FTC'd anything - Wow this really works well. They were still warm after 4 hours!

They were very flavorful, tender, and juicy but did not have quite as much smoke flavor as I would have liked. I think this is because they got done so fast. Next time I think I will start at 225* to give 'em a bit more smoke and up the temp to 350 about 20 degrees before they are done.

Don't get me wrong, they were really good and everyone raved, but I think I can do even better next time. Here's some pics:


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I will definitely do these again!
 
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