Why It's Not Worth It To Sous Vide Turkey Legs

If you aren't familiar with cooking sous vide, you might be wondering: How does a sous vide work and is it worth it? Sous vide-style cooking utilizes a vacuum-sealed plastic bag to hold food that is immersed in a moving hot water bath. It's a popular alternative to roasting, frying, and grilling for one particular reason — cooking sous vide allows for precise temperature control in a way other cooking methods don't, guaranteeing evenly-cooked, moist food without much effort. However, a caveat arises when you try to make turkey legs sous vide.

The precise, slow-cooking method of sous vide works incredibly well for proteins such as steak, pork, chicken, and even salmon. It's a hands-off style, too; once you seal and place the food in the water, it cooks on its own with gentle heat that prevents overcooking. Turkey legs, however, don't really require such precision, because their fat content and connective tissue make them very forgiving to cook. In fact, cooking turkey legs sous vide in most cases doesn't do anything to benefit flavor. Many home cooks finish their sous vide meat in a frying pan, because a quick sear will add a touch of caramelized flavor that complements the dish. Despite this, even finishing turkey legs in a fry pan to impart caramelization often doesn't leave as much flavor as desired.

Where sous vide really performs well is in cooking turkey breast meat. When cooking turkey sous vide, the slow and even cooking time helps bring out the flavor and texture of the white meat, while the dark meat of the legs fares better with higher-heat cooking. In fact, the most popular way of cooking a turkey is not the best method; roasting a whole turkey doesn't take into account the difference in heating requirements of white turkey breast meat versus the dark meat of the thigh and legs. 

One effective way to make turkey is to break it down and roast it in parts, preparing the legs and thighs separately from the rest of the bird. You might also decide to cook the legs in an altogether different way, such as by smoking them. Smoked turkey legs taste like pork, particularly because the brining and smoking method is similar to that used for bacon and ham. While you can't go wrong with cooking sous vide in rendering moist and tender meat, especially the turkey's white breast meat, turkey legs don't benefit enough to make the process worthwhile.