Smoked Turkey Legs in a Pit Boss Pellet Smoker

what do you say my fellow weekendwarriors today we’re smoking up someturkey legs it’s real easy to do it’sdelicious you get the richness of thedark meat from the turkey and it’stender but not too tender you can grabthis thing and all on it which is kindof the point and you’ll see these atstate fairs amusement parks Disneylandis famous for them you see peoplewalking around big hunks of meat smokedturkey legs it’s fantastic and todaywe’re gonna use our pit-boss KC combopellet grill I’m using the competitionblend pellets but you could use a pelletsmoker you could use a weber kettle youcould use a drum smoker the whole thingis here you want indirect heat and we’regonna go for 250 degrees Fahrenheittoday now you could go to lower heat butwe want that skin to be perfect it’sgonna be bite through but not crispy ifyou like it crispycook a little bit hotter if you don’tmind a rubbery skin you could cook at alower temperature I’m going right in themiddle that nice bite through skin thatyou get and just to help with a littlebit of added smoke we’re gonna use apellet tube today for about the firsthour of the cook this is gonna allow usto keep our 250 degree temperature andget all that extra smoke in the firsthour instead of having to turn thetemperature way down to get that extrasmoke so it’s a win-win because thiscook isn’t going to take us any longerthan normal so let me show you how Ilight this upit’s got a blowtorch you put yourpellets in you got the opening facingyou I’m trying to use my grill today todeflect the wind we’ve got a lot of windand we’re gonna set the end here on firemaybe you know 30 to 60 secondsif you don’t have a blowtorch they makea gel you could put in there and youlike thatand if you can take the torch away andhave a flame you’re good to go we’regonna let that flame go for about 30seconds to a minute or until the windblows it out move it right there youjust want to make sure they’re nice andlit so they don’t burn out on you okayit’s been about a minute and so now allyou’re gonna do is blow it out and thisis ready to go in the smoker alright nowthat you see that I’m gonna put my tubein I’m gonna put it over on this side Idon’t want to over smoke in here a lotof this smokes gonna go right up thechimney stack but you can see it’sputting out a ton of smoke once I closethis lid it’s gonna start circulatingand we’re gonna get about an hour ofextra smoke on our turkey leg so let meget this closed and I’ll talk to youabout the turkey legs I love smokedturkey especially the legs but if youcan do just the legs you don’t have todo a whole turkey maybe you’re notfeeding a big family you can pick theseup in the grocery store they usuallysell them in packages of three and youdon’t have to do this but I brined mineand to make the brine I used 16 cups ofwater I mixed in 1 cup of salt 1 cup ofsugar 1 cup of brown sugar then I addeda bay leaf and then just a coupletablespoons of your favorite rub I’musing Kosmos q Dirty Bird rub then youjust bring the whole mixture up to aboil give it a quick mix and then takeit off the heat let it cool down to roomtemperature I ended up adding in a trayof ice cubes to bring it down to chillit[Music]once it’s cool I poured my Brian into aseparate container put my legs in andthey brined for 24 hours and now here weare I’ve already rinsed these off pattedthem dry with the paper towel we’re justgonna hit them up with a little bit morerub and then we’ll put them in the smokeI’m just gonna use a little bit more ofthe Dirty Bird rub you really don’t needto go with too much here a lot of thisflavor got pulled into the meat duringthe Brian process and we want to makethis more about the natural flavor ofthe turkey the smoke and that tastybrine that we made so we’re just gonnago light okay I’m not wearing glovestoday but trust me I wash my handsoff-camera in between shotsjust Pat it in if you can get some downonto the skin do that that’s it and youcan see how late I’m going I’m not goingmuch heavier than this get this guy rubit in pull back some of that skin just alittle bit of extra flavor and that’s itif you want to go heavier go heavierjust my personal preference I reallywant to enjoy that smoke flavor and thenatural turkey flavor so let’s get themin the smoker put this lid up take alook at our smoke oh yeah that’s lookinggood nice flow going all across now wehave to make a decision I’ve got thishot spot here you could put a deflectorplate I used to put a foil ball I justtook it out so I could use my FLIRcamera and so I’m gonna try and avoidthat spot the best I can go right herein the backput a little water pen right here I dothat because I think the steam helpsregulate temperatures in the ambientenvironment and it might also help withour smoke flavor so that’s why I alwaysdo it let’s get our lid closed and I’llcome back in about an hour to get thatsmoke tube out of there depending on howit looks and smells this will probablybe about a three and a half hour cookmaybe a little bit less we want to getit up to about 165 degrees Fahrenheitsometimes I like to let it go a littlebit more even up to 175 but we’re justgonna play it by ear and we’ll be backin an hour to show you how it’s lookingall right we are at the 1 hour marklet’s get this open and have a look atour smoked turkey legs starting to pickup a nice brown color from that smokethat mahogany smoke color that’s lookingpretty good just move this out of theway pull these up to the frontit looks good and I think I got all thesmoke I want extra smoke I want so we’regonna get this out of here blow off thatlittle bit of ash to fell on there thenwhat I’m gonna do to help with the colorand crisp up that skin we’re gonna hitit with some vegetable spray you coulduse butter if you wantedif you hear that noise those are someextra-long pellets going through thatauger spray thisand since they’re cooking a littlequicker than I want I’m gonna go backput them over on this side where thatpellet tube was a little bit cooler overthere[Music]put our water pan back close this lidand come back in another hour all rightwe just hit the two-hour mark let’s seehow they’re looking it smells real goodI’ll tell you that let’s pull this bigone forward do a quick temperature checkit’s reading about 139 140 on the bigone skin’s starting to get nice and firmlet’s see how these other guys arelookingoh yeah it’s coming along niceso back in the corner he goes we’regonna put this lid down and we’ll comeback just before they hit 165 I may puta little glaze on them just for a littlebit of sweetness and then finish themoff somewhere between 165 and 175 wejust hit the three and a half hour markI have an internal temperature of 165degrees Fahrenheit let’s pull the smokedturkey legs forward give you a good looknice dark color skin is right where Iwant it and I’m gonna hit them up I gota little bit of barbecue sauce mixedwith some apple juice just to thin itout a little bit I don’t want a realthick sauce on here just a little bit[Music]doctor these up flip them over realquick get the other side[Music]and I think I’m gonna let these go forprobably another 10 15 minutes let themget up around 170 you let that sauce setup a little bit and then it’ll be timeto eat alright our smoked turkey legsare done it took just a little over fourhours that sauce is set up I actuallyalready had a bite but you got to checkthis out let’s get a look at it so whatyou do you take some tinfoil or just apaper towel wrap up the end so peoplecan grab one and walk around and eatthem you’ll see here on this guy just abeautiful color really really niceespecially with that little bit ofbarbecue sauce on there the smoke youcan smell it just coming right off ofhere and now I got to get one more bitecaveman style that skin turned outperfect the Bryan makes all thedifference in the world they can reallytaste it a little bit of that sweetbarbecue sauce heavier smoke than normalbecause we used to smoke tube and hey ifyou liked this video check out one ofthose two right there and I’ll see youover there