March means it’s Rodeo Season in Houston! Bring on the boots, the food, the music, the food…..

When Nathan and I think about rodeo foods, we immediately think of smoked turkey legs.

Juicy, fall off the bone tender, crispy, crackling skin, melt in your mouth delicious smoked turkey legs.

Have you ever smoked a turkey leg? It’s so much easier than you might think.

A few spices, a savory rub, a few hours in a smoker, and you have delicious, crisp, spicy, blackened, rodeo-worthy turkey legs in your own home.

Whenever we go to the rodeo, Nathan immediately veers off towards whichever booth(s) have smoked turkey legs – I can’t blame him, they’re incredible.

Nathan and I paired up on this recipe – I created the rub(s) and he manned the smoker.

This was pure torture, y’all.

Every single time we went in or out of the house while the turkey legs were smoking, we started drooling. The smell was out of this world.

When it was time to pull the turkey legs out of the smoker, we were like little kids!

Not only did Nathan man the smoker, but he was also my turkey holding hand model – the only problem came during our photo shoot when I turned my back to answer a question from Princess. I turned back to continue photographing the turkey leg, and saw this:

When I gave Nathan the raised eyebrow, he responded “I’ve been waiting 5 hours for this, what did you expect?”

I really couldn’t fault him, because those turkey legs smelled so crazy good.

They were crazy good.

They were rodeo-worthy delicious, and since we created our own rub for them, they were also lip-tinglingly spicy, while being fall off the bone juicy. We made some without the spice rub for the kids, and they didn’t last 5 minutes.

Rodeo Style Smoked Turkey Legs

Rodeo Style Smoked Turkey Legs at home

Print Recipe

Prep Time:10

Cook Time:3

Total Time:3 10

Ingredients

6 Turkey Legs

Marinade

1/2 Cup Worcestershire
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Spice Rub

1/4 Cup Chipotle Pepper Powder
1/4 Cup Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons smoked paprika
2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

Combine the rub ingredients and set aside
Gently loosen the skin on the turkey legs
Combine the worcestershire sauce and vegetable oil, gently rub this all over the turkey legs, working it in under the skin, too.
Wash Your hands
Sprinkle the rub all over the turkey legs and rub it in all over and under the skin
Heat your smoker to 200°F
Set the turkey legs aside for 30 minutes (if longer than 30 minutes, refrigerate and then set out for 30 minutes)
Smoke for 3-4 hours depending on the weight of the turkey legs: the juices will run clear and the internal temp of the turkey legs will be between 165°F to 170°F

Notes

We omitted the spice rub on the turkey legs for the kids, and they were still full of flavor, delicious, juicy, and flat out awesome

Servings: 6 legs

Author: Rachel - A Southern Fairytale

The Giveaway Has Ended. Congratulations to Mandy Borrego for winning.

Huge Thanks to NRG for sponsoring this partnership between A Southern Fairytale and NRG and Reliant which enables me to share this recipe as well as provide y’all with an incredible giveaway.

Are you ready?

No, really…are you ready?

The Houston Rodeo means incredible music.

Incredible Bands.

Awesome Musicians.

Last year, Nathan and I got to see Rascal Flatts.

This year.

THIS YEAR.

We get to see Luke Bryan.

LUKE BRYAN, y’all.

Luke Bryan of We Rode in Trucks

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