Turkey in a sweet and sour marinade is a very tasty dish that will decorate your festive table. Pumpkin will be an additional component during baking, it will give the turkey leg a bright and rich taste and at the same time will be an excellent side dish. We add a few apples to the marinade itself, giving up their juice, they will saturate the meat with a fruity aroma.
To cook a turkey leg in the oven you will need:
- turkey drumstick - 1 piece / 800 g
- pumpkin - 180 g
- apple - 1 pc.
- sweet pepper - 1-2 pcs.
- tomato paste - 2 dessert spoons
- onion - ½ pc.
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp.
- soy sauce - 3 dessert spoons
- garlic - 3 cloves
- honey - 1 tbsp.
- pomegranate sauce - to taste
- dry ginger - 1 tsp
- Provence herbs, ground red pepper, salt - to taste
Oven baked turkey leg - recipe with photo:
Peel the onion from the film, cut it into a small cube. Cut the bell pepper in half, scrape out the seeds and soft partitions, rinse, chop into small squares.
In a separate bowl, prepare the marinade for the turkey leg by combining soy sauce, oil and honey in the indicated proportions. Stir the mixture vigorously with a spoon to dissolve the thick honey as much as possible.
Then pour salt, dry ginger, red pepper and Provence herbs into the sauce, which include many different spices. For a sharper sweet and sour taste, pour pomegranate sauce into the marinade. If you do not have it available, then you can get by with lemon juice.
Scrape the husks from the garlic cloves, pass through the garlic, throw into the marinade, load a measured portion of tomato paste there, mix.
Mix the prepared gravy with chopped onion and pepper in a separate container, then add the apple, previously cut into medium sticks.
Wash the turkey drumstick, blot the drops with a napkin, make deep cuts with a sharp knife at a distance of 2-3 centimeters, as seen in the photo.
Put the turkey leg in a heat-resistant form, pour the prepared mixture on top, spread it over the entire leg, paying special attention to the cuts. Marinate the turkey for about 1 hour.
In the meantime, peel the pumpkin from a hard crust, chop into large segments.
Put the pumpkin pieces near the drumstick, season with salt. Cover the form with foil, load into the oven, bake for 1.5 hours, but the time also depends on the size of the drumstick. The oven temperature is 180 degrees. After cutting the foil, roast the turkey for another 6-8 minutes.
More and more people, when choosing meat for their table, prefer turkey. Firstly, it has an easily digestible protein and contains, in addition to vitamins, a complete set of amino acids. And secondly, the meat of this bird is dietary and hypoallergenic, and is recommended for the first feeding for babies. In our article we will tell you how to cook turkey legs in the oven. There are several interesting and simple recipes for readers to choose from.
Turkey leg roasted in mustard sauce
Already during cooking, you can enjoy the unique aroma of this dish. And how tender and juicy is turkey meat baked in the oven. The leg is cooked in a special mustard marinade, as well as with thyme and rosemary, which makes the bird incredibly tasty.
To prepare such a dish should be in a certain sequence:
- The oven is preheated to 200°.
- For roasting, a turkey leg weighing at least 1.2 kg should be washed and dried with a paper towel.
- Using a blender, prepare the marinade for the bird. To do this, pour olive oil (3 tablespoons) into the bowl, add mustard (2 teaspoons), half an onion and garlic (2 cloves). To add flavor and aroma, spices are poured: salt, zira and paprika (1 teaspoon each), a little ground chili (¼ teaspoon) and a pinch of black pepper.
- All ingredients are ground in a blender to a state of gruel.
- The leg is rubbed with marinade on all sides and sent to the baking dish. Nearby is thyme and rosemary (4 branches each).
- The leg is baked for about 1.5 hours. Readiness can be checked with a probe: the temperature inside the meat should be 80 °. In the process of cooking, every 15 minutes, the bird must be watered with the secreted juice.
Turkey leg baked in soy sauce
According to the following recipe, the meat turns out to be especially tender, so that it easily moves away from the bone and literally melts in your mouth. Step by step, turkey legs in the oven are prepared in the following sequence:
- First of all, a marinade for the bird is made. To do this, wine vinegar (1 tablespoon) is mixed with vegetable oil (3 tablespoons) and soy sauce (2 tablespoons). Salt and black pepper are added to it (½ teaspoon each).
- The washed and dried leg (1 kg) is smeared with the prepared marinade on all sides and left on the table for 30 minutes.
- During this time, the oven heats up to 180°.
- On the bottom of the baking dish, coarsely chopped onion and 3 cloves of garlic are distributed. The leg in the marinade is laid out on top.
- The form is covered with foil and sent to the oven.
- The leg is baked for 1 hour. After that, the foil should be removed, pour the marinade over the bird, cover the form again and send it to the oven for another 60 minutes.
- After the specified time, similar actions are performed. But at the same time, the form should not be covered with foil.
- The leg goes back into the oven for 60 minutes. During this time, it should be fully cooked and browned.
How to bake turkey legs in the oven in foil?
The recipe for this dish is as simple as possible. First of all, the turkey drumsticks should be marinated. To do this, combine garlic, black pepper and salt squeezed through a press in a small bowl. The legs are carefully rubbed with the prepared mixture on all sides and left in this form for 40 minutes.
After a while, the oven heats up to 200 °. The foil is folded in two layers and lubricated with vegetable oil. The shins are laid out on top. Then the foil closes tightly and goes to the baking sheet.
According to the recipe, turkey legs are baked in the oven for 1.5 hours. After that, the foil should be opened, and the drumsticks should continue to cook for another 30 minutes, so that a crisp appears on them.
Turkey leg roasted in the oven with vegetables
The peculiarity of the cooking process of such a dish is that the meat is baked at a low temperature. Long languishing makes the turkey incredibly soft and juicy, and spices give the bird a special taste. Potatoes can be served as a side dish for meat.
Step by step, turkey legs in the oven are prepared in the following sequence:
- Depending on the size of the baking dish, you can take a drumstick or a leg. The leg must be washed, dried and rubbed with spices: salt, pepper and mustard (2 tablespoons).
- The prepared leg should be laid out in a baking dish.
- Vegetables are all over the place. For this dish, onions (2 pcs.), Garlic (3 cloves), carrots, parsley or celery root are ideal. Nearby, you can put a small hot pepper whole and a bay leaf (2 pcs.).
- A little vegetable or meat broth (100 ml) is poured into the mold in a thin stream.
- The roasting dish with the turkey leg is sent to a cold oven. After that, the temperature rises to 150°. In this mode, the leg will be baked for 3.5-4 hours. If necessary, if the crust starts to burn, the top of the mold can be covered with foil.
Turkey drumstick in sour cream sauce with cheese
When preparing this dish, the following sequence of actions should be observed:
- Wash the shanks, pat dry and rub with salt.
- Prepare a sauce of sour cream (3 tablespoons), ground coriander, dried dill and oregano (1 teaspoon each).
- Lubricate the leg with the prepared marinade and transfer to the sleeve.
- Preheat the oven to 180°.
- Transfer the sleeve to a baking sheet and put it in the oven.
- The turkey leg is baked in the oven for 1 hour.
- After that, the dish should be transferred to a plate and sprinkled with finely grated cheese and dill.
Thanks to sour cream, a golden crust forms on top.
Turkey leg in sleeve with potatoes
According to the recipe below, you can cook both the main course and the side dish at the same time. In addition, thanks to this method of cooking, the meat is tender, and the potatoes are soft and fragrant.
The step-by-step process for cooking a turkey leg in the oven according to the recipe in the sleeve is as follows:
- The drumstick should be well rubbed with a mixture of salt and pepper.
- Prepare marinade for potatoes. To do this, mix vegetable oil (2 tablespoons), finely chopped parsley and squeezed garlic (2 cloves).
- Peeled and diced potatoes (5 pcs.) Mix with marinade and transfer to a sleeve. The shin is also sent here.
- The sleeve for baking is tied up and sent to a preheated oven (180 °) for 60 minutes. After a while, you need to open it and continue to bake the legs for another 20 minutes.
The turkey drumstick in the oven is a truly chic dish worthy of a festive table. The meat on the shins is much tastier and juicier than the fillet, and this dish looks quite solid, and how delicious it turns out is beyond words. Today I baked a whole drumstick for the first time, but my husband and daughter appreciated the taste of this dish so much that they made an order for the New Year's table.
In order for the drumstick not to hang all alone in the form, I added potatoes, so I got an additional side dish.
We will need a small set of products: turkey drumstick, salt, garlic, meat seasoning and vegetable oil.
Rinse the turkey leg under running water and pat dry with paper towels. Peel the garlic and cut it into slices. Move the skin aside and make incisions in the shins, into which to place the garlic plates. Also stuff the meat with plates of garlic from the side of the "cut" of the leg - around the bone.
Then rub the drumstick with seasoning for meat, pepper and salt. I used kebab seasoning and some pepper. Place the turkey drumstick in a baking dish and leave for 15-20 minutes while we prepare the potatoes.
Cut the potatoes into slices, sprinkle with potato seasoning and salt, add a little sunflower oil and mix. Also grease the drumstick with sunflower oil, spread the potatoes around.
Cover the form with foil and send the turkey drumstick to the oven, heated to 220 degrees. After 50 minutes, I lowered the temperature to 200 degrees. 10 minutes later, I removed the foil and used a fork to test the shin for readiness. The fork was already loose, and I left the drumstick open to brown for another 25 minutes.
This is the dish I made. Let the dish cool slightly, then cut the meat off the bone and arrange it in portions along with the potatoes.
Bon appetit!
Turkey legs baked in foil is one of the dishes prepared from turkey in the oven. Legs, more precisely, turkey drumsticks, cooked in this simple and affordable way, are very tender.
For cooking, you need: turkey drumsticks, salt, ground black pepper, garlic (optional), vegetable oil for lubricating the foil. Turkey drumsticks
rinse, dry slightly. We take salt, ground black pepper, optionally chopped garlic,
and rub them on the legs. After that, the legs are left to marinate for 30-50 minutes. Then we put a sheet of foil on a baking sheet, grease it with vegetable oil, put the turkey legs on it.
We fold the foil in the form of an envelope, seal it well,
and put the baking sheet in the oven at a temperature of 200 degrees. After 30-40 minutes, we take the legs out of the oven, check their readiness. If a clear juice is released when pierced with a fork, in principle, the meat is ready. But red turkey meat is a little tough if not cooked to the right condition, so it's best to cook until the meat begins to slightly lag behind the bone.
Turkey meat is gaining more and more popularity, and it is not surprising, because it has not only excellent taste, but also a unique set of useful properties. For the holidays, this bird is often cooked whole, but if there will be a lot of a whole bird for you and your guests or a modest family dinner is ahead, you can cook a turkey drumstick. The meat of this part of the carcass is more tender and juicy than the fillet, it tastes like veal, but is much healthier and faster to cook.
Advantages and disadvantages of turkey
Turkey meat is number one in the diet. It is low in fat and calories, it is hypoallergenic, contains substances and vitamins necessary for the normal functioning of the body, and has a particularly beneficial effect on the nervous and cardiovascular systems.
100 grams of turkey will provide the body with half the daily protein requirement. Rich in meat and vitamins, especially groups B and PP, it is easily digested and quickly saturates the body.
Thanks to a set of unique amino acids and minerals, eating turkey meat will help maintain youth and strengthen immunity. Turkey meat helps to increase the level of serotonin in the body, and this, as you know, is the hormone of happiness, so the consumption of this meat will save you from depression and cheer you up. No wonder roasted turkey is a traditional holiday dish in many countries.
The advantages include the ease of cooking turkey drumstick. By placing the meat in the oven or slow cooker, you can go about your business, pouring it with the resulting juice from time to time.
Turkey has practically no drawbacks, this meat cooks a little longer than chicken, and is also less common on store shelves. Otherwise, turkey dishes will bring only one benefit.
Ways to cook turkey drumstick
There are several ways to cook a turkey drumstick:
- bake in the oven, in foil or sleeve;
- cook in a slow cooker;
- stuff the shin;
- stew in sauce in a pan;
- fry in a pan;
- cook broths and soups based on leg meat;
- make minced meat, pastes;
- cook on the grill and open fire.
Let's take a closer look at the simplest and most affordable ways.
Bake in the oven
Roasting is the most convenient way to cook this part of the turkey. In order to properly bake the drumsticks, they must be marinated in spices and spices, soy sauce, honey, mustard, kefir, dry wine or citrus juice, stuffed with garlic. Place in the oven, covered with foil or placed in a sleeve.
The meat is baked for 1.5-2 hours, while every 15-20 minutes you need to pour it with juice. If it is baked in a sleeve, this is not necessary, it is enough to open the sleeve 20 minutes before readiness and pour the juice accumulated in the sleeve over the drumstick. If you put vegetables next to the meat, you get a very tasty and juicy side dish.
Stuffed drumsticks
To prepare a stuffed drumstick, you need to remove the bone from it, beat it off and stuff it with stuffing, fasten the edges and bake in a sleeve or foil. If you choose foil for cooking, then you need to pour water into the baking sheet, creating the effect of a water bath, in this case the dish will never turn out dry. A little water is also added to the sleeve before fastening the edges.
There is another way of stuffing, for this you need to carefully remove the skin from the lower leg, cut the meat from the bone, and remove the bone itself. From meat and vegetables, make chopped minced meat, place it in the skin, as in a bag, and bake in the oven.
The main types of stuffing for stuffing legs:
- mushrooms with onions;
- lemon and orange;
- liver with mushrooms;
- prunes and other dried fruits;
- nuts with apples.
You can always show your imagination and come up with your own branded fillings.
Cooking on the stove
On the stove, the drumstick can be fried or stewed.
The turkey is stewed in a duck, cauldron or other thick-walled dish with high sides. Before proceeding directly to stewing, it is necessary to fry the turkey from all sides to a crust, in the process of stewing it will disappear, but the taste will be richer. A fat turkey is fried without adding oil, on its own fat. Properly stewed meat is very tender and easily separated from the bone. The main secret of this cooking method is to make a delicious sauce in which the meat will be stewed.
In order for the fried drumstick to turn out with a crispy crust, there should be no liquid in the pan during cooking. You need to fry over medium heat, do not add water and do not add vegetables during the frying process, but if necessary, cook them separately.
Shin preparation
To successfully cook turkey drumstick dishes, you need to properly prepare the meat.
- Defrost the frozen drumstick, remove all feathers from the surface, rinse and dry with napkins or paper towels.
- Rub meat with spices, salt and pepper.
- Stuff with garlic and marinate in any marinade. If time is short, leave the meat in the marinade at room temperature for 30-40 minutes, otherwise send it to the refrigerator, preferably overnight.
After that, you can get the drumstick and start cooking.
Secrets of cooking turkey drumsticks
To avoid unexpected problems during cooking, you need to listen to the following tips and recommendations:
- for cooking turkey, be sure to use spices: zira, turmeric, saffron, cumin, basil, curry, a mixture of herbs and garlic;
- be sure to marinate the meat before cooking;
- to make the turkey more fragrant, it needs to be stuffed with garlic and cloves;
- the meat is ready if clear juice flows out when pierced;
- the juice that remains after frying can be used later to make a sauce, gravy or soup;
- from the cooled turkey meat, you can make a healthy sandwich with vegetables and lettuce;
- during frying and baking, be sure to periodically pour the meat with the resulting juice;
- baking time is calculated from the ratio: 20 minutes per 500 grams of meat;
- after the drumstick is removed from the oven or pan, it must be covered with foil and left for 30 minutes;
- turkey meat goes well with dry white wine;
- you can not cook a cold drumstick. To make it soft, you need to hold it for 20-30 minutes at room temperature, during which time the meat will warm up a little.
Delicious Recipe: Roasted Turkey Shank with Potatoes in the Oven
The easiest way to cook is to bake a drumstick with potatoes, the result is a main dish immediately with a side dish.
- drumstick - 700 grams;
- potatoes - 7 pieces of medium size;
- seasonings and spices for meat and potatoes;
- garlic;
- salt, pepper, vegetable oil.
- Stuff the drumstick with garlic, rub with seasonings, spices and salt. Leave to soak.
- Cut potatoes into cubes, salt and drizzle with oil.
- Put the meat in the middle of the form, spread the potatoes around, cover with foil.
- Bake for 50 minutes at 220 degrees, then reduce to 190 and cook for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the foil and leave in the oven for another 25 minutes until the top of the turkey is browned.