Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Turkey legs and thighs.

brush hog wheel

Cook them in a crock pot about 7-8 hrs put thighs & Legs in pot fill with Mt. Dew! you will Thanks Me Later!

Dean I'm with you on the rubber bands. New guy at moose camp brought turkey soup had it for lunch one day we came in. Two days later we were all walking around like we'd smoked roll yer own smokes. Pit, pit, pit. Like ya had tobbaco between every tooth in yer head. I only save the breast meat for us now, dog likes the leg meat though so it is getting used. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

Legs are for soup. Thighs,wings and everything I can trim off the carcass gets ground. Need to mix it with something fatty like hamburger or ground pork but the turkey sure adds an excellent flavor. Meat loaf out of wild turkey venison and touch of pork with some morel mushroom gravy, to die for.

I've not eaten wild turkey, but have had goose legs/thighs that were browned on the grill and flopped into a crock pot with red wine, salt, pepper and celery for 8 hrs. They were great. I can see this working for turkey as well.

Not that anyone is interested but the old people in the southeast had a story about turkey legs.

The little box turtle (luksibashka) was a hunter. And one day he was trying to get a turkey (fakit was the turkey) He shot all his little arrows into the turkey’s legs hence that’s how all the little slivers of tendons and such got in the turkeys legs. Least that is what the old people say.

On the subject the muskoegeon word many of that linguistic groups used for turkey was "fakit”. Until the christian missionaries arrived and were offended by the use of that word. So they pretty much tried to get the locals to use the term "akanka cheto” or big chicken instead.

Just usless stuff I remember.

Good luck hunting!!!

Wow. I was wondering how long in the InstaPot, but never guessed that long. I don't think I've ever cooked anything near that long. lol

Here's my favorite use for wild turkey dark meat - smoked turkey carnitas tacos. It's a lot of effort, so I like to do it when I have 2 birds worth of thighs/drums, but the results are pretty amazing.

Sprinkle well with unseasoned bromelain or papain based meat tenderizer (which usually include salt) and let sit in a sealed ziplock at least a few hours in the fridge in order to let the tenderizer penetrate.

Cold smoke with oak and/or mesquite for as long as you can keep the internal temp under 140F, keeping the humidity up, then rest in the fridge overnight in a sealed ziplock bag.

After breakfast the next day put some chicken stock, one small can of tomato sauce, some garlic powder or granulated garlic, and a small can of chipoltle peppers in Adobo sauce through a blender until smooth, then pour over the smoked turkey in a crock pot set on low and cover with more chicken stock until the meat is mostly submerged. Cook all day until 30m before dinnertime.

At this point the meat should shred off the bone pretty easy and the tendons should be easy to find and remove while you shred the meat with a fork. While you're shredding, heat a cast iron pan on medium-high with some oil.

Once the pan is hot, add shredded turkey in single taco size portions and cook until crisp on one side only, then it goes directly into the tortilla. Garnish as desired - I like chopped cilantro, chopped spinach, diced red onion, queso fresco crumbles, and fresh salsa.

*edited to add that the liquid leftover from the crock pot makes an incredible Posole base - just add cooked diced pork, hominy, minced garlic, a little cumin and Mexican oregano and there you have it.