My favorite thing to do with legs and wings is braise them. You can eat them right out of the braiser, or you can pull the meat off the bones, store it in the cooking liquid, then make the meat part of another dish, such as tacos, seasoned to suit.
My method is extremely Plain Jane - meat, fat, salt, stock. If you want something fancier, Google can find it for you.
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| Left: Meat, browned in batches. Right: Meat simmering in stock (this was a huge batch, so some pieces were submerged) |
What you'll need
A braiser. This is a covered, wide pan - I have an enameled cast iron Lodge braiser. A Dutch oven would do, as would whatever wide pan you have, covered with foil. Don't overthink it.
Bird legs and wings - enough to fill the pan without stacking them in layers. Skin-on is best, but skinless is fine. If you have to stack, it's not the end of the world - more on that later. Don't use bird breasts - they need to be cooked fast; this method is not kind to them.
Salt.
Fat or oil. I like duck fat, because I have it, but use what you've got - a neutral oil is fine. If all you have is olive oil, go for it.
Stock. I like homemade, but use store-bought if you don't make your own.
Time: Wild bird legs can take 6 hours or more to submit, i.e. for the meat to become fall-off-the-bone tender. But this is passive time - all you have to do is check on them once in a while.
Instructions
Salt the legs and wings.
Put your braiser on a burner and set the heat/flame to something a bit lower than medium. Add enough oil to coat the pan.
When the oil is shimmering, start adding the legs and wings, with the sides that have the most skin facing down. Cook them, uncovered, until they are nicely browned, then flip them and cook until the other sides are browned as well. This will take a little while, but it's worth it because it develops flavor.
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| Browned meat, cooked in batches. |
Flip the meat again so the most-skin sides are facing up again, and add stock until it almost reaches the skin. If you do this right, the skin will stay crispy, which is lovely. If you have too much meat and you end up stacking pieces, this is not the end of the world - it just means that skin will become soggy.
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| Meat simmering - many pieces submerged here because it was a big batch and I didn't care. |
Allow the stock to come to a gentle simmer, then adjust the heat downward so it stays at the gentle simmer. This will take some tinkering. Add the cover, leaving a little bit of room for steam to escape, and walk away.
I start checking for doneness about two hours in, which is when some pen-raised birds are good. I check by squeezing each piece with tongs, and if it looks like the meat's about ready to come off the bone, it's done - you can remove that piece to a storage dish, and splash a bit of that stock on it to keep it moist. I like to catch it before it falls off the bone merely from being picked up, but it's not the end of the world if that happens.
Pieces finish cooking at different times. Wild birds take longer than domestic. Old birds take longer than young ones. Drumettes take longer than thighs.
When all the meat is done, if you are storing it for later use in another recipe, you can remove the meat from the bones (my preference) or store it bone-in. Pour enough stock over it to cover. This stock will turn to gelatin in the refrigerator. That means it is silky and delicious. It will keep the meat moist too, and when it cooks down in whatever you're making later, it is a FLAVOR BOMB.
You may have extra stock in the pan. I save this, pouring it through a strainer lined with a paper towel and keeping it in jars. If I don't think I can use it in the next two weeks, I freeze it, making sure there's 1-1.5 inches of air space under the lid to keep the jar from breaking as the liquid expands while freezing.
Enjoy!
