Turkey leg recipe?

[dr.mooseknuckles]

I'll second Hank Shaw's Turkey Carnitas

 

[Fordguy]

I've killed a whole bunch of turkeys in my years and have never considered whatsoever grinding the meat. That's such a wasted step in my opinion but to each his own.

My go to on breast meat is either sliced into fingers or pounded into smaller pieces that I leave in a jar of pickle juice for 3-4 hours, batter, double dip in egg wash, and fry. You can either serve this with some dipping sauce or throw it on bun and make a chic-filet type sandwich which is always a huge hit.

For thighs and legs, I prefer browning in a crock pot with seasoning (your choice but I always go with something resembling Spanish or Mexican seasoning), pull the meat out, deglaze the pot with some white wine and stir, add onions some green peppers (preferably not bell peppers), garlic and saute until clear, put the bird pieces back in and pour two cups of white wine, slowly simmer for 5-6 hours until the meat can be shredded. Separate all the meat and add with the stock to a pan to brown a little bit on the edges but don't dry it out. You can put this on rice or in tacos.

How does the pickle juice affect the flavor? For the record, I'm not a believer in fried pickles...

 

[copenmechanism]

How does the pickle juice affect the flavor? For the record, I'm not a believer in fried pickles...

Pickle juice is a brine which helps tenderize the meat and gives a little bit of flavor — but that is mostly going to come from whatever seasonings you put in the flour for your batter.

 

[JBrew]

I've thought about grinding a breast before, but that's just disrespectful! Cube it, marinade it, wrap it, grill it. Or cube and fry it. Legs go in the crockpot.

 

[eaglemountainman]

I posted this on another forum. Same recipe can be used for the legs.

In the bottom of a crockpot, crosshatch some celery and carrots. Add a sliced onion. Fillet the breast and cut into cutlets. Lay them on the veg along with the thighs. Add a can of cream of mushroom and a can of cream of chicken soup with 1/2 a can of water. Add a glug of white wine and some sliced mushrooms along with whatever spices/seasonings you prefer. Cook till the thigh meat falls off the bone. Serve over rice, noodles or mashed tators.

We make this at my deer camp every year and there's never any leftovers

Make stock with the drumsticks and carcass for turkey rice soup.

 

[Macintosh]

The legs are truly great braised until falling off the bone. Those bony tendon things in the legs pull out easy then, so youre left with meat rsther than inedible bony stuff. Other have mentioned carnitas or tacos, the posole recipe, etc, all of which are favorites in my house. The other recipe I like is a white bean and poblano chile in a broth base that works really well with turkey leg meat, it’s sort of the bastard love child of wild game tacos and your grandmother’s chicken soup…not sure what could be better than that!

 

[MosquitoCoast]

How does the pickle juice affect the flavor? For the record, I'm not a believer in fried pickles...

If you brine it too much like 24+ hours its gonna have a flavor like the pickling ingredients. If you do it for 2-3 hours, it has a much milder affect. Its the same thing chic-filet does to their sandwiches and it just works well. It doesn't taste like a fried pickle.

 

[Crawl79]

Great way to use turkey legs!