They are truly easy to make, and they emerge from the oven gorgeous, browned, juicy, and flavorful! I rarely roast a whole turkey for Thanksgiving. I much prefer cooking individual parts like turkey breast and turkey legs. Turkey wings are another great option. They are fatty and flavorful, and roasting them in the oven is an effortless method that yields fabulous results.
Ingredients
Recipe Card
Turkey wings: If you buy them from your butcher, ask them to split the wings for you. It’s not that difficult to do it yourself, but it’s a tad challenging. If you get a package of wings at the supermarket, like the one shown in the image below (I got these wings at Kroger), you will likely get whole wings that you’ll need to split at home. Seasoning mix: This mix is inspired by my chicken drumsticks recipe. It contains olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Use a sharp chef’s knife to split the wings at the joints into three parts - drumettes, wingettes, and tips. Pat them dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika into a seasoning paste. Arrange the wings in a 9 X 13-inch rimmed baking dish. Drizzle them with the seasoning paste and use your hands to coat them all over. Baste the wings with the pan juices and serve. Look at this perfectly cooked drumettee! I wish you could have a bite. It was sooo good. Medium wings need around 60 minutes in the oven. The huge ones will need 75-90 minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs. The wings I cooked today needed 75 minutes.
Cutting the Wings
Turkey wings are usually sold whole. As shown in the photo below, they have three parts - drumette, wingette, and tip. Unlike chicken wings that can be cooked whole, these are big, so you’ll want to split them. Ideally, your butcher will do it for you, but if you bought a package at the supermarket, the wings are likely whole, and you’ll need to split them yourself. To cut the wings, cut the skin flap between the drumette and wingette, and then locate the joint between them. You’ll want to cut through the joint and cartilage, not through the bones. As you cut, adjust the knife to make sure you’re cutting through the joint and not attempting to cut the bone. The photo below shows that I cut the drumette away from the wingette through cartilage, not through the bone (that would be impossible!).
It’s Best to Use a Baking Dish
I experimented with baking the wings on a sheet pan fitted with a rack, as shown in the image below. While the skin turned out crispier, and we did enjoy the wings, you can see in the photo comparison below that the meat was a bit drier, especially the drumettes. So, I recommend baking the wings in a baking dish, not on a sheet pan. When you bake them in a baking dish, they’re baked in their own juices, which helps keep them moist. When I serve them throughout the year, I like to serve them with a side dish I can bake in the same 400°F oven, such as roasted asparagus, baked shiitake mushrooms, roasted mini peppers, and roasted carrots.
