SMOKED TURKEY, CORNBREAD DRESSING N GRAVY!
A smoky thanksgiving plate, with some holiday essentials
Welcome back to Unfiltered Flavours+! Heres issue #16 The last of my thanksgiving recipes, my thanksgiving plate! Turkey legs smoked with oak wood, cornbread dressing, gravy and my elite cranberry sauce!
Flavours & Technique
When it comes to smoking turkey legs, it’s so simple. Like ridiculously simple. You just need to get yourself a good rub and be prepared to wait 5-6 hours haha! When smoking meat you want to ensure that you’re using wood, because that’s what’s truly going to give you that smoky taste. I like smoking my turkey legs at 110°c for the first few hours and then bumping the temperature up. Of course this does mean that everything takes longer but the flavours are unmatched at this temperature.
I like to use a rub by a brand called Tubby Toms, I love this brand simply because I find a lot of bbq rubs are quite salty, but it isn’t the case with this one. It means you really get to control the salt levels which can be quite hard if you don’t have the time to make your own rubs. Given the time of year, I’m ridiculously busy so if I can skip on making a rub I’ll use Tubby Toms. The last and crucial step with the turkey legs and to get the meat fall off the bone tender is wrapping them in foil with a little butter. I happened to get my hands on some maple butter (from Canada) last week so I used this with more butter. You can use honey instead as I think this stuff is quite hard to get hold of. When you wrap them in foil, this locks in the moisture, which will get you to a point where the meat can fall off the bone. With Turkey leg being dark meat, it’s very forgiving. You don’t need to worry about the meat drying out
The cornbread dressing is made using my cornbread recipe here. The only difference is I make a half batch or use day old leftovers (which is usually around half a batch. With all the recipes I’ve been sharing I’ve had loads of leftovers, so cornbread dressing just made the most sense. Dressing is essentially what we call stuffing in the uk. I fear the Americans hit it out the ball park with this one! Cornbread dressing genuinely is in a league of its own. I used smoked turkey to build a stock for the dressing and when you think about it that’s a not a common practice in the UK.
The key to getting this dressing spot on is the stock. We build crazy flavours by letting smoked turkey simmer away for hours with herbs and veg. Then you’re left with liquid gold, which also gets used to make the BEST turkey gravy ever. If there’s one thing you can take away from this, it would be the gravy recipe.
It’s that time of year in the UK when there’s an abundance of fresh cranberries and let me tell you something? My home made cranberry sauce will change your life. You’ll never look back. It’s got to the point where I have to make this for my family every year and it’s always finished by the next day. I always joke around with them and say would you like any food with your cranberry sauce, because they pile it on.
When making cranberry sauce it’s really a one pot job. I like my cranberry sauce quite sweet, but you can reduce the amount of sugar if you want. I would say start with half and work your way up.
Ingredients and methods
Smoked Turkey legs:
2 Turkey legs
Chicken rub
Salt
8 tbsp unsalted butter
8 tbsp honey
Method:
Pat your turkey legs dry, pull the skin back and evenly coat with the rub. Then pull the skin back over and evenly coat with more rub. Sprinkle with a little salt, if needed. I advise tasting your rub alone to know how salty it is.