Wild Turkey Jamaican Jerk Leg Tacos

Every time I cook a wild turkey leg I feel like a character from the Flinstones. Unlike Fred and Barney, we don’t handle turkey legs by the bone and eat them in one piece. It’s a tough piece of meat that is best when cooked on low for long enough that it falls off the bone. If you have a turkey leg, a crockpot, a handful of ingredients, and usually about 5-10 minutes of prep time, you can have the main course of your dinner ready to roll when you walk in the door from work.

There’s a lot of specialty taco shops popping up around here. They usually have incredible tacos and queso, but my boys describe it as “gourmet”. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Gourmet to the boys means tasty food that comes in portions too small to be enjoyed. All of these shops have some version of spicy taco and mango. Torchy’s has a Brushfire tacos made with jerk seasoning, grilled jalapenos and mangoes. This recipe was inspired by that taco.

Ingredients

• 1 c Jamaican jerk seasoning
• ¼ c brown sugar
• 4-6 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 red onion
• 1-2 wild turkey legs, 2-4 chicken bone-in chicken thighs, or pork loin
• 2 cups broth (turkey or chicken)
• 1 T Liquid Aminos or Worcestershire sauce
• 1 T salt
• 1 Mango cubed
• 1/4 bunch of cilantro
• 4-6 Corn Tortillas
• 2 cups of Cilantro Lime Slaw
• 1/2 c cotija cheese

Steps

1. Combine Jamaican Jerk seasoning, minced cloves of garlic, and ¼ c brown sugar in a bowl.
2. Fill a crockpot with broth, liquid amino’s, 1 T salt, and chopped red onion. Mix it up.
3. Cover your turkey legs in a very thick layer of Jamaican Jerk rub. Let it sit in the fridge for 6-12 hours. Check out the notes below for my thoughts on dry rub vs. liquid seasoning. 
4. Add the seasoned turkey so that it’s at least halfway covered with broth. If it’s not at least halfway covered, add a little more. (I don’t think you can add too much liquid to turkey legs. When I cook a roast, I add very little, but I find the wild turkey cooks is much more tender when it’s almost fully covered).
5. Cook on very, very low for around 6 hours. It’s ready when the meat falls off the bone when you cut into it with a fork.
6. Remove all bones from the pot. I let the meat sit in the brothy gravy formed when cooking on the “Keep Warm Setting” while I wait on everyone else to get home. I think it adds more flavor and tenderness.
7. Serve on warm tortillas. First add Cilantro Lime Slaw, then meat, then mangos, then sprinkle cotija cheese and cilantro.

Notes:

Time Management:

I usually put the dry rub on before I go to bed. I’ll add everything to the crockpot when I wake up so it will be ready when I get home from work. But if you’re a morning person, you can also put the marinade on in the morning and throw it in the crockpot when you get home from work. It won’t be ready that night, but you can refrigerate it and go to work the next day knowing that your supper is pretty much ready when you get home. The refrigeration of slow-cooked meat seems to always make it a little more tender.

Substitutions:

It’s hard to find good Jamaican Jerk seasoning around here that doesn’t have a lot of ingredients I can’t pronounce. So I usually make my own. There are a lot of jars of liquid jerk seasoning as well. You can use either a dry rub or a liquid marinade. I’m sure it will taste good either way. I’ve only used a liquid marinade once. I just marinated the turkey in a covered bowl in the fridge overnight. It worked out fine.

We primarily consume wild game at our home. But if you buy your meat from a farmer or grocery store, you might find it more challenging to get wild turkey legs. You can substitute bone-in chicken thighs, whole chicken, or even pork loin for this recipe. Those substitutions can be done faster (3-5 hours) and may require more or less seasoning and liquid depending on the size of the meat.