Smothered turkey taco with goat cheese, pickled red onions and celery leaf on a blue tortilla
I crave charred turkey tails in spicy barbecue sauce in the summer. It’s fatty and succulent and a bit spicy. Depending on your mood, it’s ideal with a lemonade or a beer. It’s the most perfect dish for a picnic.
But I also love it because it breaks up the monotony of the common summer cookout. You know the one: gingham, a grill and dull coversation. If you take this dish to the cookout, everyone will be talking about ‘that dish they’ve never eaten before’, and probably a bit about you too!
But, as I’m writing this, it’s not picnic season. It’s getting cold. I don’t mean all the way cold, just cold enough that the you need gloves, but not a jacket quite yet. And when it’s cold, I want a turkey with a deep and rich umami flavor. I want comforting herbs: sage, marjoram, rosemary. And I want gravy, lots of it.
I usually make make a smoked turkey in fall, for the past 13 years acutally. It’a three days recipe, but it’s worth it. This recipe can (and does) change the mind of life-long turkey skeptics.
Maybe the best part of this recipe is the skin. First of all, it will be the most appetizing brown you’ve never seen. It’s like looking at a computer adjusted brown, so perfectly brown that it doesn’t look real. And it’s crispy, smoky and salty, a snack on it’s own.
People tear up this smoked turkey. They greedily dip their biscuits into the smoked turkey gravy. And it makes the best sandwiches the next day. A smoked turkey salad sandwich with a bit of apple in it will change your life!
But this year, I decided to do something different. This year, is the year of smothered turkey. If you don’t know, smothered turkey is turkey that has been bathing in a luscious, spiced gravy. That’s what I’m craving this year.
I’m skiping the breast for this recipe. This is a purely dark meat recipe. Dark meat has a more intense turkey flavor. It is juicier than white meat. It’s also less expensive than white meat. You can use any dark meat you want. But I’m going for wings, and I’ll tell you why.
1/3 of a wing is about the perfect serving size for a person. It’s enough meat to fill you up if you pair this dish along with some sides. It’s also small enough to pick up and gnaw on if you’re in the mood. And because wings have so many different textures, their simply delightful to eat.
If you’re like me, you like crunching on a bit of cartilage every now and then and cleaning the bones like a cob of corn. Then, there’s the skin. The bits that cooked outside the gravy will be crunchy, like fried chicken. The rest will be unctuous, fatty, and rich. This dish is a feast of textures as much as flavor.
And remember the gravy. In most roasted turkey recipes, the gravy just sits on top. It doesn’t really seep deep into the bird, the meat. But smothered turkey is an entirely different game.
The meat is fall off the bone tender. So, there are little pockets and folds between meaty sections into which the gravy will cook itself. The age of dry turkey is over if you make this recipe. Let the juicy turkey era begin!
Also, because of the gravy, this dish is easy to keep warm in the oven. You can hold it at temp while you cook other things or wait for guests to arrive. And when you take it out of the oven, it will still be warm, juicy, and delicious.
I know the tradition is for a whole bird to show up to a completely set table, usually in that family member’s house with the giant dining room. I understand that the ritual is for a person to stand up, wield the recently sharpened knife, and make the first dramatic cut into this beast. I am familiar with the ensuing arguments about who gets the breast meat, how it’s their birthright. But I want to offer another idea that can be just as iconic.
I want to suggest that a platter of steaming, juicy, and tender wings in gravy in the center of the table will look impressive. You can surround them with greens just like you would a whole turkey. You can even get fancy and add baby radishes, carrots, tomatoes and baby flowers. Since you’re starting a new tradition here, nothing is off the table.
I’ll bet whoever serves these wings will be met with a smile. And I’ll bet there will be a few people at the table that breathe a sigh of relief that they won’t have to pretend to like the turkey again this year.
You can serve with this dish with the same menu you’d normally put on the table this time of year. Cranberries, mashed potatoes, and green beans would all be great with this. But you can serve these tender wings a bit more informally, too, if you want.
Here are a few ideas to get your mouth watering:
–with green salad and cornbread
–with french fries and peas
–pull the meat off the bone and make a taco with goat cheese and pickled onions
Ok, now that I’ve piqued your interest, here’s the recipe.
Recipe
Servings: 8
Ingredients
4 turkey wings, cut into pieces
4 cups water
4 tbsp butter
1 tbsp chicken powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp dried sage
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 sprig rosemary, destemmed
1 spring thyme, destemmed
2 tbsp flour
1 cup celery leaves, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
–preheat oven to 450 degrees
–rinse the turkey wings and singe off any remaining feathers
–put all of the ingredients into your container except the flour
–cover the container with aluminum foil and cook for 1.5 hours
–baste the meat every 15 minutes
–after 1.5 hours, turn the oven down to 350 and cook covered for 1.5 hours more
–check often to add more water if the meat isn’t half submerged in water
–fifteen minutes before taking the turkey out of the oven, put the flour into a cup and mix in 2 cups of the juice from the container. Stir until you get a smooth gravy. Stir the gravy mixture back into the main container. Cover the container and let it complete cooking.
–serve on a platter, garnished with celery leaves