Oven Slow-Cooked Turkey Leg

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A slow-cooked turkey leg with tender meat and crispy skin, I can’t think of a tastier and easier turkey leg recipe.

This is our favorite way of cooking turkey legs: slow-roasted in the oven until the meat falls off the bone and the skin is crispy. A vegetable sauce made with the vegetables which cooked together with the turkey and some oven potato wedges.

A beautiful and delicious turkey leg recipe suitable for a feast. Yet so easy to make, you could make it on a regular basis.

What better recipe for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner than something delicious, but which involves so little trouble?

Preparing the turkey leg for roasting takes less than 15 minutes. OK, it needs quite a while in the oven, but there is nothing you have to do during this time, except taking care of the other dishes you want to serve.

Turkey Leg Recipe

I don’t know about you, but I have rarely cooked a whole turkey. They are quite expensive and soooo large and there is no Thanksgiving tradition in Germany, which might entice me to such experiments.

That doesn’t mean we don’t eat lots of turkey meat, I have lots of turkey leg recipes in my repertoire, like baked turkey drumsticks or other recipes for oven cooked turkey legs.

And many other recipes using the breast of the turkey, something like this roasted turkey breast or turkey rolls, recipes using the wings and the neck, for instance turkey stock or bone broth for soups and many more.

We are so lucky to be able to buy our turkey and beef directly in the village, from farmers raising their birds and cows organically. The price is reasonable and the quality fantastic and it is so nice to know where your meat comes from and that there are no antibiotics or weird stuff in the meat.

I recently got another turkey, this time a whole bird. Last year I only ordered half of a huge bird, but it was gone so quickly, I decided to get a whole one this year. Of course, not in one piece…

We already ate both legs, both cooked the same way, this turkey leg recipe is so good that I just didn’t want to risk it and try something different.

How to slow-cooked turkey in the oven?

I like cooking meat in the oven at a low temperature. The danger of overcooking the meat when slow cooking it is low, the work involved minimal, you just need to know exactly when you want to eat and take care to put the meat in the oven soon enough.

That makes this dish such a great fit for the Christmas dinner or lunch. Not much hassle, the preparations are done in less than 15 minutes and 3 ½ – 4 hours later, you have a delicious meal on the table.

The only thing that will drive you crazy is the smell that will start filling the house about one hour after you shoved your bird in the oven…

In case you are wondering why my turkey leg looks a bit weird at the joint: the problem was that it was a giant leg, too large to fit into the dish and I just didn’t manage to divide the leg at the joint. So I just cut the meat around the joint and then I was able to push the two parts together and get them in the dish. 🙂

Step by step

• Clean and dry the meat.
• Cut it around the joint, if necessary, just to be able to push it a little and fit it in the cooking dish. If your Dutch oven (or similar pot) is large enough, you don’t have to do that.
• Rub with the mustard and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in the Dutch oven or cast iron oven dish.
• Quarter the onions and chop all the vegetables into large pieces.
• Peel but leave the garlic cloves whole.
• Place them and the bay leaves in the pot around the turkey leg. Pour the stock around, taking care not to wash away the mustard.
• Place the dish in the cold oven, turn the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius/ 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook for 3 ½ to 4 hours until the skin is crisp and the meat very very tender.
• Check from time to time to make sure that the skin doesn’t get too dark. If that starts to happen, place a piece of aluminum foil very loosely on top of the pot, just place it on top without pressing it or trying to close the pot.
• Remove the turkey leg from the pot and place it on a warmed plate, cover it loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest while you make the sauce.

The sauce

• To make the sauce I use “soup vegetables”, that is what they are often called in Germany. That means onions, carrots, parsley root, or celeriac.
• The parsley root or celeriac can be replaced with a couple of celery sticks, but I find celeriac much better for this purpose, it adds not only a celery taste but, unlike celery sticks, it contributes to making the sauce creamier.
• You will also need garlic, red bell pepper, bay leaves, and some good quality chicken stock, I always use my homemade chicken stock.
• After removing the meat from the dish, puree the vegetables with an immersion blender. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper, if necessary.

How to serve?

I always serve the roasted turkey leg recipe with oven-roasted potatoes.

When it comes to vegetable side dishes, I change that according to what I have or what we crave. How about some roasted Brussels sprouts or fried cabbage? You could also roast some carrots or cook green beans.

And if you like turkey, you should really try two of my favorite turkey recipes: Pumpkin Turkey Curry and Turkey Meatballs in Turmeric Sauce.