Check out our current e-mail newsletter! Don't miss the February/March 2010 issue, it's coming soon! Subscribe now.

Y’know, I have to say, I have great timing sometimes. (I’m typing that out with a load of sarcasm. :D) And I’ll tell you why: not only did I miss the Canadian elections (for which I tried to vote via fax, btw) in October, I also missed Thanksgiving here because I was in the US. Come November, I’m in Vancouver and where’s Thankgiving? In the US. Brilliant. Needless to say, I was in turkey-envy delirousness. In spite of the fact that the American Turkey Day coincided with the worst day in my weeklong saga of sickness, I forced myself to get out of bed and make this. I shall not be deprived and will take matters into my own hands.

My brother, who’s also in Vancouver with me right now, bought turkey legs the weekend before. I thought he was thinking of Thanksgiving when he got that; but in reality he picked it over the chicken because they were a lot cheaper. He is learning the ropes –haha. What he wasn’t prepared for was finding out that they take longer to cook. He thought he can just fry it quickly like chicken. Uhm.

I was craving for bbq turkey legs from the fair. But we don’t have a grill here, and even if we did, I wouldn’t use it because it’s cold outside. So I thought I’d just cook them in the oven. Next hurdle? There was no barbecue sauce. I just made something by thinking of the taste in my mouth and tried to figure out what would give that flavor and what was available in the kitchen: ketchup, soy sauce, honey, chicken broth powder, cayenne pepper, salt. Don’t ask me how that came about. Heh. All I know was that it tasted good before I put it on the legs. It’s just like when making ice cream: if it doesn’t taste good while it’s in liquid form, it won’t taste any better after it’s churned.

I was very afraid of under cooking it (I’ve battled with learning to cook bone-in chicken legs) so I actually fried the turkey legs before roasting ‘em for fear of feeding my brother something raw.

They sat in the oven for an hour and a half here’s what they looked like after I took them out and I put the last breathe of the soy sauce mixture on them. I swear these are real, but they look like those fake food in the Japanese takeout window/counter.

They came out SO lovely:

Please don’t misconstrue this as me trying to toot my own horn — but it really was SO GOOD. It surpassed all my expectations. It was the perfect taste for me and the extra kick from the cayenne was perfecto. I made homemade mashed potato with a couple of potatoes, butter, heavy cream, salt and pepper to eat with it. The bread is a Filipino bread called “Pandesal” Or “Pan de sal” from the Chinese supermarket.

Not bad for a flu-induced make-shift thanksgiving dinner eh? Sometimes, experimenting with cooking from scratch produces positive results. And so, that is one other thing I can be thankful for.

Make this. You won’t be disappointed. They’re so flavorful and tender and make for leftovers — if there were — you can look forward to. The one leg left was even better the next day!

Here’s the recipe:

Oven-roasted BBQ Turkey Legs
» download the PDF recipe

Ingredients:

Flour dredge:

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1/2 cup flour

BBQ sauce:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 tstp chicken broth powder
• pepper
• cayenne
• canola oil

The Meat:

• 4 turkey legs (2.365 lb)

Preparation:

1.    Pre-heat the frying pan and oil in med-high heat.
2.    Make a flour dredge with the flour, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper powder.
3.    Dredge the turkey legs and slightly massage the flour mixture into the skin and meat.
4.    Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
5.    Fry the turkey legs on all four sides (about 5 minutes each side) until golden brown.
6.    After frying, place legs on an oven-safe pan. Brush on  bbq sauce on the turkey legs.
7.    Cover the pan with aluminum foil before placing in the oven. Roast for 30 minutes.
8.    Take the pan out, remove the foil and brush the 2nd coating of bbq sauce. Cover and return it to the oven. Roast for another 30 minutes.
9.    Repeat Step #8 but do not cover the pan with foil. Roast another 30 minutes.
10.    Take out of the oven and brush on the 4th and last coating of bbq sauce. Cover with foil and let it sit for 10 minutes.
11.    EAT. It tastes good on their own, or with mashed potato and bread as sides, or with rice. I devoured it with rice the next day. It was so good.