Author Notes
These meat pops are not only injected with a whiskey stock, then smoked and roasted, but then they are slathered with a whiskey barbecue sauce. —Dax Phillips
Ingredients
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4 tablespoons
unsalted butter
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1 cup
chicken stock
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1/2 cup
whiskey
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2
turkey legs, rinsed and patted dry
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1 cup
honey
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1/4 cup
light brown sugar
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1 teaspoon
salt
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1 teaspoon
cracked black pepper
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2 cups
pecan wood chips, soaked for 4 hours
Directions
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Begin by melting the butter to a sauce pan, and add in the stock, salt, and whiskey. Bring to a boil, then take off of the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Go heat your coals for your smoker.
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Once the mixture has come to room temperature, take your injector and draw back the stock mixture and begin injecting it in various areas within the turkey leg. Be generous on both legs. Let these sit at room temperature while you get your smoker ready.
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Once your coals are heated for the smoker, add the wood chunks. Place your turkey legs onto the smoker, cover, and let them get hit with the smoke for at least two hours, on low heat.
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Transfer the turkey legs to a preheated, 325 degree oven. Place the turkey legs onto a roasting pan, and cook for one hour, turning after 30 minutes.
While the turkey legs are roasting in the oven, make the glazing sauce.
To a sauce pan, add in the honey, whiskey, ketchup, salt, pepper, ketchup, and brown sugar. Bring to a low boil, then reduce the heat, stirring frequently. Turn off the heat, and set aside.
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After the turkey has cooked in the oven, turn up the heat to 400 degrees. Begin brushing on the glaze, cooking for the first 10 minutes. After the first ten minutes, flip the legs over, and generously glaze once again, returning back to the oven for another ten minutes. On the final turn, glaze once again and cook for another ten minutes.
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Remove the legs from the oven, and let them rest for a few minutes. If you want, brush any remaining glaze onto the legs just before serving.
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To serve, just grab those legs, using the bone as your handle. Dig in, get messy, and take on the delicious whiskey flavor. You get tender, smokey meat, with a subtle hit of the whiskey glaze. My kids could not stop eating it, and I could not have been happier watching them eat their very first turkey leg.
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