Wild turkey legs get a bad rap and plenty of people just throw them away. While you won't be grilling them and tossing on a bun, they're good eating and I'll snatch them up anytime someone offers. Today I'll walk you through the process of how I cook them, braising the legs, picking and shredding the meat, which makes a perfect substitute for pulled beef or barbacoa you can add to all kinds of recipes.

A small dish of shredded, smoked wild turkey meat with two forks garnished with chives. — Smoked, pulled wild turkey meat.

Wild turkey legs are very similar to venison shanks. The legs consist of heavily used muscles that need long, slow, moist cooking to be palatable. Then, even after slow cooking, the meat still needs some extra care and seasoning to not be tough. In my world technique is more important than a strict recipe, so you'll see I leave some things open ended here for you.

Seasoning a wild turkey leg with salt and pepper.

Chef's Tips

This recipe's very easy, but a few of the seasoning and processing steps deserve extra emphasis.

Game meat is extremely lean. After cooking and picking it can dry out quickly if not held in a covered container. The same goes for pot roast and other braised meats.
In my opinion, the most important technique of all is adjusting the fat at the end of cooking. Any braised and pulled meat needs additional fat added after cooking and pulling, but especially game. If you take nothing else from this post, it should be this. Duck fat or lard is ideal but oil works too.
Wild turkey leg meat is very dark and won't look like poultry. With that in mind, instead of flavor profiles for poultry, you can treat it like beef.
The cooking liquid helps add body and depth. Reduce it down and use it to moisten the meat.

Wild turkey feathers on a black background.

How to Cook Wild Turkey Legs

The first thing to do is inspect the legs for any signs of injury, which could mean you'd need to inspect the leg for shot that must be removed. I also make sure to brush off any residual feathers or foreign debris. If there's feathers stuck to the meat, a little warm water and a cloth, tweezers, or side of a sharp paring knife works too.

Removing feathers from a raw leg of wild turkey. — Inspect the legs for remnants of feathers.

Next the leg is seasoned with salt and pepper, and probably some kind of rub. In the images I'm using a rub made with dried bee balm from my next book, but you can use whatever you like. Ideally I'll let the meat rest overnight in the refrigerator, covered, but it can be cooked straight away.

Seasoning a wild turkey leg with a dry rub.

Next the meat's smoked. You need to be careful here as high heat can dry it out quickly and it can be hard to rectify. I usually smoke them for no more than an hour at 200-225F.

A wild turkey leg on the smoker. — Smoke the leg for no more than an hour.

Next sweat some aromatic vegetables in a wide pan big enough for the turkey leg(s). Add a spoonful of tomato paste and let it caramelize a bit, deglaze the pan with a splash of wine, add the turkey leg, water to nearly cover, top with a lid and bake at 325F until the meat can be shredded with a fork. This usually take about 2-3 hours. While I use an oven, you can also do this in a slow cooker or crock pot.

Putting a smoked wild turkey leg in a pot with celery, onions and tomato paste. — Put the smoked turkey leg in a pot with vegetables.

Adding water to a pot with a smoked wild turkey leg. — Adding enough water to the pot so the leg is at least half-covered.

After the leg is cooked you can strain the liquid. There's a lot of good flavor in the cooking liquid, and depending on how the turkey was seasoned it can be used for a soup base, or reduced and used to moisten the meat.

A cooked wild turkey leg in a pan with liquid on a black background. — Strain the liquid and reserve.

Remove the turkey leg from the pan while it's still warm, then pull the meat. You want to be very thorough in cleaning here as there's many thin, long pin bones in the lower leg just like a pheasant, but more pronounced I also remove any thin fascia that can be stuck to the meat.

Using gloved hands to remove the meat from a wild turkey leg. — Picking the meat from the leg.

A gloved hand showing the many pin bones in a wild turkey leg that should be removed before eating. — Carefully inspect the meat for any pin bones and discard.

A small tray with a cleaned leg of cooked wild turkey showing bones, pin bones, and finished, picked meat. — Bones, pin bones, and finished, picked meat.

After the meat's been pulled it can dry out quickly-put it in a bowl or a tray and cover with cling film until needed. Next it's time to reduce the cooking liquid, pull and season the meat. Strain the cooking liquid if needed, then reduce until around 1 cup remains.

A close up image of reducing and boiling the cooking liquid from a leg of wild turkey on the stove. — Reducing the cooking liquid.

Add the turkey meat back to the pan and shred the meat with two forks.

Shredding wild turkey meat with two forks. — Shredding the wild turkey meat with two forks.

Finally, season the meat with fat, which will keep it moist and prevent it from tasting dry.

Adding duck fat to a pan of cooked, pulled wild turkey meat. — Adding duck fat to the meat.

Use Ideas

The finished, smoked turkey is great anywhere you'd use pulled beef. It makes a great pulled turkey sandwich tossed with your favorite sauce, or simply seasoned as I described above.

Tongs pulling up pulled, smoked wild turkey meat from a cooking pan to serve. — The finished product will look like beef barbacoa.

Far and away my favorite thing to make is simple tacos. Below are what I was eating this week: pulled turkey tossed with my black walnut salsa from my upcoming book, ramps pickled in lime juice, ramp crema and wild mint from my yard. No one will turn their nose up at them.

Wild turkey tacos on a corn tortilla with pickled ramps, sour cream, and wild mint. — Smoked wild turkey leg tacos with lime-pickled ramps, ramp sour cream and wild mint.

Shredding the meat is also only one option of many things you can do. If you don't mind a firmer texture, the meat is great roughly chopped, folded into a pot of fresh cooked greens as you would collard greens.

Diced smoked turkey leg meat with wild greens in a ceramic dish seen from above. — Smoked turkey and ramp greens.

Or, save the meat and broth for a chili or a spring soup like turkey-wild rice, preferably with morels. I should add that if I want to make creamy soup I keep the seasoning simple (no rub) and just simmer it without browning in a pot with vegetables to make a good stock.

Wild turkey cream of wild rice and morel mushroom soup — Smoked turkey wild rice soup (recipe linked below).

Do you have a go-to way of preparing wild turkey legs you like? If so please share in the comments!

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5 from 1 vote

Smoked Wild Turkey Legs

Tender pulled smoked wild turkey legs anyone will enjoy. Perfect for using in recipes that call for pulled beef. One wild turkey leg will yield around 12oz-1 lb of pulled meat, scale as needed.

Prep Time15

Cook Time4

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: wild turkey leg recipe

Servings: People

Calories: 207kcal

Author: Alan Bergo

Cost: 5

Equipment

1 Wide oven-safe pan with lid, about 12 inches in diameter.
1 Smoker optional

Ingredients

1 whole wild turkey leg ~1.5-2 lbs each
1 tsp kosher salt plus more to taste
1 tablespoon spice rub like cajun seasoning or another blend you like
4 cups water or chicken stock be careful with chicken stock as it's salty
8 oz Aromatic vegetables like carrot, onion and celery, diced
3 Tbsp duck fat, pork lard, or cooking oil
½ Cup dry red wine optional

Instructions

Inspect the turkey leg for any injuries, if there are any, inspect the legs for shot. Remove any remnants of feathers. Rinse with warm water and pat dry if needed.
Season the leg all over with salt and the spice rub. If possible, refrigerate covered overnight before cooking.
Prepare the smoker. Smoke the legs at 200-225 F for one hour, then remove.
Meanwhile, sweat the vegetables in one tablespoon of the fat or oil until softened, then add the tomato paste and cook until the bottom of the pan is starting to brown.
Add the wine, reduce by half, then the smoked wild turkey leg(s) and the water or stock, bring to a simmer and bake, covered at 325F until the meat shreds with a fork, 2-3 hours. Turn the leg over ever hour or so to help it cook evenly and keep it wet.
If you don't want to use the oven, you can use a crock pot, just sweat the vegetables in a pan beforehand.
Remove the pan from the oven and cool until you can handle it.
While the leg is still warm, pick the meat off, carefully looking it over for any pin bones, cartilage, or anything else that wouldn't have a pleasant texture to eat. Put the meat in a bowl and cover with clingfilm so it doesn't dry out.
Meanwhile, strain the cooking liquid and return it to the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce by ¾. Add the reserved turkey meat, heat through, then shred with a fork.
Finally, season the meat to taste with salt and fat. The meat is very lean, so adding the fat is extremely important. If you don't add extra fat here, it may taste dry. Duck fat is ideal, but even cooking oil works in a pinch.
Continue adjusting the seasoning with salt and fat, mixing until incorporated and it tastes good to you. It'll last for a week in the fridge in a tightly covered container.

Video

Notes

This recipe is easy to scale up to use two legs or more if you want. You'll want to adjust the water accordingly to make sure the legs are at least half covered by liquid during the cooking process.

Nutrition