When turkey is on the menu, I challenge you to consider these barbecued turkey drumsticks on the Traeger for your table. With the holiday season approaching quickly, I wanted to share with you a variety of ways to cook foods that fit squarely in the traditional holiday menu. But to make them my own, I wanted to share unique versions, cooked on the Traeger, that might spark

TURKEY SEASON IS COMING

Until it’s truly turkey season in our part of the world (Colorado), whole turkeys are astonishingly difficult to find. Like my wife has been to every store within a 10 mile radius of our house and has come up empty-handed. I guess the combination of supply shortages and price increases have led stores to hoard their turkeys until it’s time to sell them en masse for the Thanksgiving holiday. So until then, deconstructed turkeys are what you can find– bone in breasts (see this post for how to make amazing smoked turkey outta that!), colossal turkey wings and our old fair friend, turkey drumsticks.

For today’s feature, we give you turkey drumsticks, cooked on the Traeger, dipped in BBQ sauce and eaten with your hands. Think renaissance fair, elevated and more tasty. And served at a table with an extra stack of napkins.

WHAT TURKEY PARTS TO COOK?

As mentioned, you can probably find bone-in turkey breasts in the frozen department at your local grocery store. In our area, those seem to be somewhat readily available year round. For some reason, taking the legs and wings off the whole turkey seems to be the approach, and then those pieces are sold separately.

We love turkey breast around here, and have a lot of success in cooking up tender, juicy turkey that is perfect for a dinner plate or sliced thinly on a sandwich. Try it– you won’t be disappointed.

For this recipe, we picked up a pack of turkey drumsticks, which are sold three to a pack. They are huge– about 10 inches long and have a lot of meat on the bone. And are super tasty. You can also find turkey wing portions in the stores these days– usually the flats– and we will have a recipe for those coming up soon. Wing Wednesday on steroids!

BACK TO THE DRUMS FOR BARBECUED TURKEY DRUMSTICKS

These turkey drumsticks come three in a pack, cryovaccumed and sealed up. I don’t really have any advice on which to choose or what to look for, as they seem pretty consistent package-to-package. They’re super easy to throw in the freezer for later, too.

For this cook, it didn’t require any prep or knife work. They were pretty well trimmed, the skin was attached and taut and the join was tidy. I have seen other lollipop their turkey drums, which is a super cool idea. If you decide to do that, follow my instructions or in my cookbook, which gives you all the deets on how to lollipop poultry legs.

What results when you lollipop the meat is that the bulk of the meat is pushed together into a cohesive piece (sort of like my turkey breast loaf), which gives it the chance to cook evenly. In addition, it makes eating it a bit easier because you’ve got all the meat in the same place. Think of it like a turkey cake pop!

PRIMARY INGREDIENTS

Whole turkey drumsticks
Almond oil
Grill Dads Badda Bing poultry dry brine
BBQ sauce of your choice

WHY COOKING TURKEY DRUMSTICKS ON THE TRAEGER WORKS

Cooking turkey on the Traeger is one of my favorite things to do. It’s amazing how a humble bird cooked over wood fired smoke in a Traeger can take on a whole new life. Rather than being boring and dry, a Traeger grilled turkey is tender, juicy and so full of flavor. If you want to amp up the smoke flavor, cook it at a lower temperature for longer time. If timing is tight, crank up the heat and you can have a turkey on the table in about 3 hours.

While for most households, turkey is reserved for the months of November and December, whenever possible, we love to cook up a turkey. It’s easy, feeds a crowd and is always something that pleases everyone. And the upside of doing a whole bird is that you get the best of it all– drums and dark meat and white breast meat all in the same cook. And folks who want crispy skin can enjoy as much as they want.

We cooked these barbecued turkey drumsticks on the Traeger much like we would cook a whole bird on the Traeger at 275* with the supersmoke feature going until they hit an internal temperature of 150*. Then we dipped them in BBQ sauce and put them back on the grill until the internal temperature reached 170*. This gave the sauce the opportunity to get sticky and coat the turkey really well all while cooking the turkey to get maximum flavor.

For this cook, we put a Meater thermometer probe in each turkey leg, just to see how they cooked. Each is different, so it was more of an experiment to see how different each cooked. You really only need one thermometer probe, in one drumstick, to monitor the cook.

Thermometer probe monitoring cook temp — Drumsticks seasoned with dry brine

STEP-BY-STEP

Preheat your Traeger grill to 275* with the super smoke feature enabled.
Unwrap the turkey drumsticks and pat them dry with a paper towel.
Coat each turkey drumstick with a thin layer of almond oil.
Then season each drumstick generously with the Grill Dads’ dry brine seasoning.
Allow the drumsticks to sweat for about 15 minutes while the grill gets hot.
Insert a wireless temperature probe in one drumstick, parallel with the bone.
Place the drumsticks in the preheated grill and close the lid.
Set the Meater thermometer to poultry with a target temperature of 170*.
Smoke the turkey legs in the Traeger until the internal temperature reaches 150*.
Pour a large amount of your selected BBQ sauce in a tall cup or container.
When the drumsticks have reached 150* internally, carefully remove them from the grill.
Using gloved hands, carefully dip each drumstick in the prepared BBQ sauce, coating completely.
Return the dipped drumsticks to the grill and allow to continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 170*.
Remove the drums from the grill and serve these barbecued turkey drumsticks while hot!

OTHER TURKEY RECIPES TO GIVE A TRY

Turkey is one of my favorite Traeger cooks. Here are some suggestions of other recipes to try if you like the barbecued turkey drumsticks shared here:

Smoked turkey breast on the Traeger
Spatchcock turkey on the Traeger
There’s also a great turkey recipe in my cookbook, which you can find here.

Products used in this cook:

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