We love smoked turkey legs and here is my version. The biggest difference between these and the ones you get at a fair is the skin. In my experience the skin on the festival legs is usually a bit rubbery. I appologize in advance for the lack of exact measurments. I cook the way my grandma did and rarely measure anything.....
Brine: For every gallon of water you need 1 cup of Kosher salt, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of honey. I do this in a cooler and start with half the amount of warm water to disolve the salt and sugar completely then add the rest in cold water. The amount of brine you need depends on the size of your cooler and number of legs you are brining.
Add your turkey legs (fresh will be jucier than frozen and Sprouts is the only place I can find them) to the brine and be sure they are completely submerged. Add a bag of ice, give it a quick stir, put the lid on and leave it to do its magic for 12 hours.
Remove legs from the brine and lightly rinse and pat dry. Season with your favorite Poultry rub and smoke at no higher than 200 degrees until they reach an internal temp of 165. I like to start spraying with a 50/50 mixture of Apple juice and Olive oil about two hours in and spray about every hour, but you can use what ever you like to mop on your poultry (I bet you chicken champions have some good ideas). Cook times will vary by smoker but 4 hours is about average.
I know that 200 seems a little too low of a smoke temp but I've done these at higher temps and they cook too fast and the smokey goodness doesn't go all the way through to the bone, especially if they're really big legs. Enjoy!
