The purpose of the dowel jig is to make sure your holes are properly aligned. What might work well for you are dowel alignment pins. Basically you drill one hole, pop in one of these pins, then line up the mating board and press down. It'll leave a little divot/mark you can use to drill the mating hole.

In order of strength for leg+apron constrution:

1. Mortise and tenon (you should try it! It's not as hard as you think!)
2. Dominos/Beadlock/other loose tenon
3. Dowels
4. Biscuits
5. Pocket holes (might actually be stronger that biscuits TBH)
6. Butt