Name: SMOTHERED TURKEY WINGS
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 150 min
Ingredients: 4-5 lbs resh turkey wings, thawed if previously frozen; 1 tbsp Salt (plus more to taste); 1 tbsp black pepper (plus more to taste); 1 tbsp garlic powder; 2 tbsp paprika or smoked paprika, divided; 2 tbsp canola oil or other neutral cooking oil; 1 stick butter (1/2 cup ); 2 large yellow onions (sliced thin ); 8 cloves garlic (chopped); 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste; 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 6-8 cups chicken or turkey stock,; 2 bay leaves; 1 Zest and juice of Lemon; 1/4 cup parsley (finely chopped)

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SMOTHERED TURKEY WINGS

Prep Time30

Cook Time2 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Ingredients

4-5 lbs resh turkey wings, thawed if previously frozen
1 tbsp Salt plus more to taste
1 tbsp black pepper plus more to taste
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp paprika or smoked paprika, divided
2 tbsp canola oil or other neutral cooking oil
1 stick butter 1/2 cup
2 large yellow onions sliced thin
8 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
6-8 cups chicken or turkey stock,
2 bay leaves
1 Zest and juice of Lemon
1/4 cup parsley finely chopped

Instructions

After separating the wing parts if necessary, pat dry and season liberally with salt, garlic powder, black pepper and paprika; about a tablespoon each for 5 pounds of turkey.
Drizzle the wings with a couple tablespoons of canola oil and rub all the seasonings and oil into the meat. If you have time, refrigerate the turkey for a couple hours or up to overnight. It's okay to proceed with cooking right away otherwise.
Place your roasting pan over the stovetop so that it's covering two burners; heat to medium high heat. If you don't have a stovetop safe roasting pan you can use a large Dutch oven pot and work in batches.
Melt a couple tablespoons of butter into the pan, until sizzling. Sear the turkey wings until golden brown on all sides. This will take a few minutes. You want to get some good color on the wings and also start building flavor in the pan.
Set the browned turkey wings aside. Melt the remaining butter into the pan, then add the sliced onions, chopped garlic, remaining paprika and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook for a minute just to soften the onions, being careful not to burn the garlic and peppers.
Sprinkle the onions with flour. (If you need to make this gluten-free, skip the flour in this step and read my tips towards the end.)
Now stir the flour into the onions and cook for another minute. This is just like making a roux for any other gravy. I err on the side of less flour, because you can always thicken the sauce later. Too much flour can muddle the flavors and make the texture gloppy.
Once the flour has cooked for a minute, pour in about 6 cups of warmed stock. Stir to make sure all the flour is dissolved, scraping up any browned bits in the bottom of the pan.
If you feel like your store-bought stock is a little underwhelming, you can always amp up the flavor by adding some finely chopped herbs to the pan as well. The color of your stock also impacts that of the gravy, which you may notice in some of my photos that were taken from different batches.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 300°F. If you're in a rush, you can cook these up to 350°F, but I liked the results better with a slower cook time.
Return the turkey wings back to the pan. You want the gravy to reach at least halfway up the wings but it doesn't need to cover them. Add more stock if necessary. I like a lot of gravy, and the wings will really suck up the sauce after they're cooked, so I add a little more than I think I need at this stage.
This is where it gets tricky if you ended up with drumsticks that are too big. Your flats may be covered adequately but if your drumsticks are not they won't braise at the same rate. In one instance I switched to a smaller pot so that the drumsticks were submerged and flats could float closer to the top. Another way around it is just to make sure you turn the drumsticks more frequently during the cooking process.
Cover the pan tightly with foil, or cover the Dutch oven pot with its lid slightly ajar. Transfer to the oven and cook for one hour.
After an hour, flip the wings over to bake on the other side. Cover and cook for another hour, or until the meat is tender and starting to pull away from the bone. Flip the wings again and return the pan to the oven one more time, but uncovered.
Turn the heat up to 375°F and cook for 15 minutes, until the skin is caramelized, gravy has thickened a bit, and meat is falling off the bone more readily. If you were stuck with an unfortunate batch of mismatched sized wings, it's best to remove the smaller wings from the pan earlier in the process once they are done, and allow the bigger wings to finish cooking.
(This was my way of getting the best of both worlds. The skin won't get super crispy like a chicken wing, but it does help to dry the surface a bit and get some additional browning.)
Transfer the wings to your serving platter. Discard the bay leaves.
To the gravy, stir in the finely chopped parsley and lemon juice. Both will bring some freshness back to the sauce. Give the sauce a final check for salt and pepper.
Gluten-free modification: After transferring the wings out, prepare a cornstarch slurry by dissolving 2 - 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in half a cup of warm water or stock (more or less, depending on how thick you want the sauce to be.) Pour the slurry back into the pan, and bring the liquid up to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for a few minutes, until thickened. To skip thickeners altogether, simply simmer the sauce by itself until it reduces down to desired consistency. Once gravy has thickened, proceed with parsley and lemon.
Pour the finished gravy over turkey wings to serve! I enjoy smothered wings most over plain white rice, but mashed potatoes or grits are also options. This is not knife and fork fare, so be prepared to get your fingers dirty. The wing tips are my favorite parts. Last week, I enjoyed some braised lima beans on the side, something else I couldn't stand as a child. Interestingly enough, my second trip to Charleston changed that too! I'll save that story for a future post...