At least a day before smoking, combine the water with the salt, sugar, and spices. Add the turkey legs and store in the fridge over night.

Remove the turkey legs from the fridge at least an hour before you plan to smoke them. Remove them from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. If you’re going to smoke these, thread them on the sword while still cold from the fridge.

Our preference for smoking these legs is hot coal smoking in a charcoal grill. Heat one charcoal chimney worth of lump charcoal to white ashy hot — this will take about 40 minutes. Set a small aluminum drip pan in the center of your grill and pour the lit charcoal around the pan. Fill the drip pan with water and add two handfuls of hickory chips directly to the coals. Add the grill rack over the coals and place the turkey legs around the center. You may need to add more chips or coals to maintain and even heat around 250 degrees. Smoke the legs for 21/2 to 3 hours.

If you’ve got a smoker, set it up for low heat with hickory. You want to maintain a temperature between 240 and 260 ºF. Smoke the legs for 21/2 to 3 hours. Rest the legs for at least 10 minutes before serving.