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Roasted Turkey Legs with Sage Butter

Turkey is a wonderful meat. These days, it's largely been reduced to Thanksgiving and deli sandwiches, but one must remember that it used to be so popular that it came in close second to the bald eagle for America's national bird. In fact, turkey used to be so popular that they were hunted to endangerment in the early 20th century.


Miss Dot's Roasted Turkey Legs with Sage Butter

Thankfully the wild turkey population has recovered spectacularly in the last 70 years, and these beautiful birds are now found in every state except Alaska. Also worth praising are all the farmers who tend to these free-range birds and offer us a chance to partake in their optimal nutrition.


This recipe is one of my favorites. One of the biggest obstacles to making turkey meat taste great is to get a desirable tenderness. This achieves that wonderfully by making use of sage butter. Here's what you need:


Making the butter for Miss Dot's Roasted Turkey Legs

Turkey Legs - Quality is nutrition. Find your favorite local farmer and support healthful and restorative agriculture.


Butter - Grass-fed, unsalted.


Dried Sage - For optimal flavor, home-grown sage from your garden, dried in a dehydrator. If it's too late in the season for that, it's no problem to get rubbed sage from your local grocery.


Coconut or avocado oil - To crisp up the skin, you'll have to brush it with oil.


Salt - For seasoning the outside of the bird.


Miss Dot's Roasted Turkey Legs up to temperature

complete instructions below

 

Miss Dot's Turkey Legs on a plate

Roasted Turkey Legs with Sage Butter


Yield: 4 turkey legs

Day Before: 2-3 hours, passive

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 60 min

Ready: 75 min


Ingredients

  • 4 turkey legs

  • sage butter, recipe below

  • sage salt

  • coconut oil, slightly warmed

Sage Butter and Salt

  • 1/2 stick (2 oz.) organic pasture butter, left out to soften

  • 24 fresh sage leaves

  • Himalayan pink salt

Instructions

  1. A day ahead, in a toaster oven set very low (150-175 degrees), dry the sage leaves until they are crisp and brittle, 2-3 hours. Crumble them in a small bowl and add an equal part salt. Whip half of this mixture into the butter and reserve the rest. Roll the herbed butter in parchment paper and place in the freezer.

  2. Take the sage butter out of the freezer and cut into coins. Make slices in the skin of the turkey legs and place the butter coins in between the skin and the meat. Preheat the broiler.

  3. Line a shallow roasting dish with aluminum foil and add the turkey legs. Rub the legs on both sides with the oil and the sage salt, and broil for 12-15 minutes on each side, until a crunchy skin forms. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and cook for another 30-35 minutes until done.

Comments


KITCHEN BASICS / WINTER
DINNER / PALEO / FODMAP

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