Crystal Wise
Crawfish mac and cheese turkey leg
For both Fort Worth law enforcement and local foodies, the dates March 20 – 22, 2021, may live in infamy. That was when Turkey Leg Hut, a restaurant based in Houston, held a weekend-long pop-up event at the Fort Worth location of the Potter’s House church.
No doubt, police and turkey leg lovers alike were dumbfounded by what greeted them that weekend: Cars stretched for miles and miles along Interstate 30, causing Woodstock-long traffic jams. Local media reported some people waited up to 12 hours — yes, for stuffed turkey legs.
Meanwhile, a Facebook user scratched her head in wonder at the turkey madness, posting in a local popular FB foodie group that Fort Worth had its own restaurant that specialized in stuffed turkey legs. Hours later, a mini-version of what was happening on I-30 was going down on McCart Avenue, where Fort Worth natives Rodrick and Ericka Benson run their pint-size restaurant, Turkey Leg House.
“That lady’s post on Facebook led to our best weekend ever,” Rodrick says. “Police had to get out there and help direct traffic. It got so heavy.”
Since then, Turkey Leg House, which the husband-wife duo opened last year in a small strip mall space in far south Fort Worth, has been selling out of its namesake dish, especially on weekends, when it’s no shocker to see hungry fans lined up along the sidewalk.
The restaurant’s boom in business perfectly illustrates the surging popularity of stuffed turkey legs — that is, large turkey legs, like you might find at the State Fair — usually butterflied and “stuffed” — or, rather, topped — with various add-ons, from shrimp Alfredo to dirty rice to smoked brisket.
While gnawing on turkey legs has been a tradition at state fairs and carnivals for decades, the stuffed turkey leg trend, according to Texas Monthly, started in 2016 when Turkey Leg Hut opened in Houston; it immediately garnered a rabid following. Slowly, the trend trickled around the state, leading restaurateurs to open their own stuffed turkey leg spots or at least add stuffed legs to their menus.
Other Fort Worth restaurants that offer stuffed turkey legs are selling out, too, like Smoke-A-Holics and Jube’s Smokehouse, both of which sell stuffed turkey legs but only on certain days of the week.
“They’re gone in just a few hours,” Smoke-A-Holics owner Derrick Walker, who offers the legs as a special on Tuesdays, says.
Turkey Leg House is one of the few restaurants in Fort Worth to offer stuffed turkey legs daily. It’s not easy, by any means, Rodrick says.
It’s a two-pronged process that requires a certain amount of skill, time, and patience, Ericka says. “It’s not just a matter of smoking the turkey legs,” she says. “You’re doing that, but you’re also preparing the stuffing, which has to be just as good as the legs.”
Crystal Wise
Shrimp Alfredo turkey leg
The Bensons offer four toppings for their legs: shrimp Alfredo, crawfish mac and cheese, chicken and dressing, and brisket and dirty rice. They work on the dishes together; Rodrick handles the smoking of the legs, and both prepare the toppings.
Each leg spends four to six hours in Rodrick’s custom smoker, making the meat as smoky as it is lusciously tender. In true Texas barbecue fashion, Rodrick uses a wood-burning/no-gas smoker. He mixes his woods, pairing mesquite with pecan, which gives his meats a unique flavor profile, he says.
The legs are then cut in two, lengthwise, then drenched in your choice of toppings. One serving is big enough for two people, and you’ll probably have leftovers.
“First time people come in, they sometimes say, ‘Whoa, they’re $18 each,’” Rodrick says. “But they’re enough for two. One person takes half; the other takes the other half. Our prices are lower than most. A lot of places charge $25 – $30 per leg.”
One of the restaurant’s most popular stuffed turkey legs combines turkey with Rodrick’s first love: barbecue. The mountain of finely chopped brisket found on the brisket and dirty rice leg is smoked all night, up to 12 hours, he says.
Smoked brisket used to be Rodrick’s bread and butter; he sold it to friends and family and at pop-up events. As Fort Worth’s barbecue game became increasingly more crowded, he pivoted toward stuffed turkey legs, which, at the time, had yet to find a foothold in Fort Worth. Turning his passion and backyard hobby into a full-fledged business, he and Ericka opened Turkey Leg House last year, turning an innocuous strip mall spot into one of the area’s busiest restaurants.
Food brought Rodrick out of retirement and gave Ericka her second wind. Working his way up from a deckhand to an engineer, Rodrick spent 20 years working for an offshore boat company that specializes in transporting chemical barges. He retired in 2017 but couldn’t keep still.
Crystal Wise
Rodrick and Ericka Benson
“I’m one of those guys who needs to be working,” he says. “Got tired of retirement, got tired of sitting around, got tired of traveling.”
Ericka spent several years in the banking industry before she lost her job to technology. Affecting her life even more dramatically, she also developed breast cancer, which luckily was caught. She’s been cancer-free for a decade.
The restaurant has not only given her a new career but also a new outlook on life. “Once you survive cancer, you see things, you see life, differently,” she says. “You’re more open to taking chances — doing something crazy, like opening a restaurant.”
Turkey Leg House, 6200 McCart Ave., turkey-leg-house.com
Crystal Wise
Jube’s Smokehouse
Other Places to Get Your Stuffed Turkey Leg Fix
The nearly two-year-old Jube’s Smokehouse (1900 S. Edgewood Terrace), found on the city’s east side, serves stuffed turkey legs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Pitmaster Patrick “Jube” Joubert, whom we profiled in our October 2019 issue, offers 2-pound legs stuffed with your choice of housemade dirty rice or shrimp creole. A native of Louisiana, the man knows his creole food.
If dirty rice or shrimp creole aren’t your jams, Joubert will gladly top your turkey leg with any of that day’s side dishes, from greens to mac and cheese. “Don’t sleep on the mac and cheese,” he says. “It goes fantastic with turkey.”
Another one of the city’s best barbecue restaurants, south side joint Smoke-A-Holics BBQ (1417 Evans Ave.) recently began serving stuffed turkey legs on Tuesdays. Owner Derrick Walker serves three heavyweight, Insta-worthy beauties, decked out with inventive, housemade toppings.
The Cajun-influenced Big Grit is drowned in a sea of garlic cheddar grits, Cajun-style shrimp, and a sausage-spiked roux. The appropriately named Dirty South is topped with a mound of Walker’s specialty dirty rice, and the Ragin’ Cajun wears a cape of chicken and sausage pasta.
