In this sous vide turkey leg recipe, you’ll learn how to prepare turkey legs sous vide style for two ways. First, Thanksgiving style with traditional savory herbs. And second, BBQ style sous vide turkey drumsticks for any day of the year. Once you learn the steps, you’ll be able to prepare sous vide turkey legs that are tender, juicy and falling off the bone.
Choosing turkey legs to sous vide
You can butcher your own turkey legs, or, my favorite, buy dark meat turkey legs in bulk to sous vide. If you’re serving turkey for Thanksgiving, it’s a great idea to cook extra dark meat turkey legs so more than two guests can enjoy them.
Some butchers will sell more than the standard turkey drumstick. If you sous vide a turkey thigh, for example, you’ll want to leave it in the water bath a couple extra hours.
Sous vide turkey time and temp
Turkey legs aren’t one of the sous vide recipes you have to sous vide for 24+ hours. You can, but there’s no need as this method creates juicy turkey legs that come together at 155 degrees in 4 hours.
Finishing sous vide turkey legs without pinkness
Turkey legs weights can vary, so this preparation uses a similar technique as my popular sous vide turkey breast recipe. To prevent pinkness, after the turkey leg sous vides for a few hours, there is a final step. Either bake or broil the legs in the oven, depending on the internal temperature.
If your turkey legs reach safe poultry temperatures from the sous vide bath alone, you can broil or sear them. To sear, add hot oil to a medium-hot pan and sear the leg skin side down. If you have the time, I’d suggest instead to broil the legs for 3-5 minutes for a completely crispy skin.
Here’s a side dish you can make in under 10 minutes… sous vide asparagus is so tasty!
Thanksgiving sous vide turkey legs
The final step in the oven adds a crispy skin to the turkey leg, without drying it out. To make your turkey leg Thanksgiving style, crisp the skin in the oven with butter and seasonings. Garlic and fresh herbs like thyme, sage and parsley are great choices.
BBQ sous vide turkey legs
If you’re looking for an “everyday turkey leg” instead of a “Thanksgiving turkey leg”, add a generous coat of BBQ sauce before broiling or baking.
The sous vide turkey legs with BBQ sauce are so delicious, we stocked up on turkey legs in early November. I’m looking forward to batch cooking sous vide turkey legs when it’s too cold in Portland to grill or smoke them outside.
Which sous vide sides to make with turkey legs?
These sous vide brussels sprouts and garlic dill carrots are the perfect side for sous vide turkey legs. Want to spice things up? Try this chorizo sausage stuffing!
Another easy way to make turkey is this air fryer turkey breast recipe. It’s great for making turkey for a small holiday meal.
See these easy leftover turkey recipes for inspiration on using leftovers.
Readers also love these sous vide recipes
- Sous Vide T Bone Steak
- Sous Vide Wings
- Sous Vide Spare Ribs with BBQ Sauce
- Sous Vide Turkey Breast
- Sous Vide Pulled Pork
- Sous Vide Short Ribs
- Sous Vide Onions in Beer
- Sous Vide Cookbooks for Beginners
- Sous Vide Pork Chops
Sous vide turkey legs (Sip Bite Go)
Ingredients
- 1 turkey leg
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp ghee (Whole30 compliant) or butter / oil
- ½ tbsp shallot diced
- 2 tbsp BBQ sauce or Whole30 compliant sauce orThanksgiving seasonings
Instructions
- Set the sous vide machine to 155 degrees. Make a paste of the garlic salt, pepper, and ghee. Season the turkey leg with the paste. Vacuum seal the turkey leg in a bag.
- Sous vide at 155 for 4 hours.
- When the sous vide bath is complete, remove the turkey leg from the bag and pat it dry. Add your choice of seasonings (as in blog post) OR BBQ sauce to the skin, and broil the turkey on high for 3-5 minutes to until golden and crispy.
- Rest turkey for 10 minutes, then serve.
Summer says
This was so delicious! I did an overnight brine and then did a light s&p seasoning with butter and crushed garlic in each bag. I had them in the sous vide for 6 hours and then put under the broiler. I wish I could include a picture. They were gorgeous!
Jenna Passaro says
So glad to hear, Summer. Love the brine idea.
Colleen ( YA-YA ) Kelly-Prola says
Can I make 2 or 3 legs at a time? If so what adjustments should I make. I frequently find recipes for 1 steak, 1 turkey leg etc – I’m fairly new to Sous vide so attempting to figure out how I can do enough food for more than 1.
Thank you for any assistance.
Jenna says
Hi Colleen!
Yes – you can sous vide turkey legs in multiples – just make sure they aren’t clumped together in a bag.
So if you’re using a zip loc bag with the water displacement method to lower it into the sous vide bath – you’ll want to only put 1 turkey leg in a bag so there is plenty of air flow.
If you’re going to use a vacuum sealer to cook turkey legs sous vide style, then you can fit multiple in a bag – just leave 1″ between to make sure the hot water gets to them.
The reason the concern for the area to be open around the turkey legs and for them to not clump up while sous viding is because they won’t cook properly if they’re all on top of eachother.
Let me know how I can help further.
Cheers
– Jenna
Laura says
I love chicken and this looks so delicious. Thank you for the recipe x
Laura
https://pinkfrenzymissl.blogspot.com/
Arun Dahiya says
I am planning to use sous vide too. And your turkey leg looks perfect. Can’t wait to make it.
Joanna says
The turkey leg looks so delicious, especially the bbq version. I have seen often chefs using the sous vide at Masterchef but I don’t know where I would put such a big machine in my small kitchen.
Sundeep says
This turkey legs looking so yummmmm…. I am going to try this this weekend. Thanks for sharing recipe. It looks like easy to make
Annemarie LeBlanc says
I want to try this recipe soon. I will check if I can find where to buy just turkey legs. What I usually see in our local store are whole turkeys. If I can’t find any, I will try to make this using chicken drumsticks.
tweenselmom says
You really love legs! Maybe I can try these ideas for chicken legs, after all chicken and turkey are family, right?
Christine says
Ooh I’ve never made something like this but it looks delicious, I will have to try it!
Marysa says
I have never heard of this dish before. Sounds like an interesting recipe to try.
Clarice says
Wow! This looks absolutely delicious. It may not be Thanksgiving but my family would be happy to have one this weekend. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Can’t wait to try.
Azin Bastan says
Oops I made the mistake of adding the bbq sauce in the vacuum seal bag. Is that okay?
Developer says
Yes! That should be fine. How did they turn out?
Mary says
I love the idea of using sous vide for Turkey legs!
Jere Cassidy says
I learned sous vide in culinary school but I don’t do it at home. Your turkey makes me want to use this technique at home now.
Haley D Williams says
So much better than going to the fair for a turkey leg! These sound and look amazing!
Tisha says
These turkey legs sound amazing! So flavorful!
Caroline says
I’ve still to try sous vide at home but can see it being good with turkey that does run the risk of going dry. Looks good.
Danielle says
These are great step by step directions! I’ve never tried to sous vide anything before, but now I really want those turkey legs!