Austin Living: Ye olde turkey leg at home
Published 7:01 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2025
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Josh Kunze pulls a turkey leg off the smoker, nicely colored and tasting amazing.
Photos by Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Turkey legs are ready to come off Josh Kunze’s smoker. Photos by Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
With a good brine and a skilled turn on the smoker, you can live the Renaissance Festival right here at home. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Can’t make Ren Fest this year? Then fire up the smoker
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival will have started its run by the time you page through the folds of this issue of Austin Living Magazine and no doubt some of you have already visited this attraction, held annually in Shakopee.
With its shops, shows and food and drink, this has become one of the biggest annual draws in the state, even inviting people to visit dressed in costume. It’s a one-of-a-kind venue that offers a little bit of everything for everyone.
However, while many might be visiting to take in another show of the Tortuga Twins or to witness the excitement and grandeur of the jousting, it’s a food item that tends to be one of the more popular elements featuring the longest lines.
The turkey leg.
Find this story as well as a photo spread of Ren Fest enthusiasts in the September-October 2025 edition of Austin Living.
At any given time, you can see people wandering about the grounds with a fist wrapped around the large heft of the leg. The smoke of cooking legs can be smelled throughout the grounds, wafting and inviting for so many.
While not exactly historically accurate, the leg does fit a niche at Ren Fest in that it tends to work perfectly with the combination of history and fantasy most festivals entertain. It’s commonly thought that the Renaissance itself largely fell between the 14th and 17th century. Turkeys were thought to have been introduced to Europe in the late 1500s, making it possible that turkey legs were a thing, but certainly not so popular that people were willing to stand in long lines.
But we don’t mind it really, because it’s hard to turn down that briny goodness of the turkey leg. So much so that we have asked local smoking enthusiast, Josh Kunze, to help guide us on our own quest to smoke the perfect turkey leg at home.
It might take a little bit of looking depending on the time you are doing this, but turkey legs are available, usually in packs of two at places like Hy-Vee and Walmart, though be sure you’re checking with your local meat market as well.
During our smoke show, Kunze smoked five legs in total, cooking them using a couple different sauces. For two of the legs, he used an apple bourbon barbecue sauce, another two used a sticky home barbecue sauce and the final one was left unadorned, leaving it to the smoke and brining to provide the flavor.
Kunze said the legs should be brined anywhere between 8-12 hours using a chef’s secret mix of water, curing salt, a sweet element and an herbal note. Kunze then began the day at a very low temp of 165 while setting the smoke to thoroughly saturate the legs.
Later, he ramped up the temperature to a much higher temp in order to crisp the skin of the legs, about 300-325 until there was an internal temperature of 170 degrees.
The entire process of the cook was around five hours.
Slather with the sauce and enjoy the taste of your own turkey leg at home. Upon tasting, you really got a vibrant taste of the smoke along with different profiles offered by the various sauces while the leg without any sauce, while tasty, wasn’t as vibrant.
It’s true you won’t get this sauce flavoring at the festival, but your at home. Experiment and do what you will to get a flavor profile you’re happy with because at the same time, it’s often more than just some really good food.
“It’s really, honestly, quite a stress relief,” Kunze said as the legs neared their completion. “It’s therapy. It’s fun. The family loves it.”
Aside from the legs, Kunze has smoked all sorts of meats including whole turkeys for Thanksgiving, providing not only a great bird on the day of, but leftovers that can be utilized in a variety of different ways.
“It’s torture, the house smells so good,” he said with a smile.