Wild Turkey Legs in Rhubarb Sauce

Turkey season opens in Arkansas right about the time the apple blossoms open up, the red buds show off their fleeting purple blooms, and the first fruits of my garden emerge above the surface of the soil that has sheltered them all winter. When I can pull everything together, produce grows under hoops or overwintered brassicas producing an ugly but fruitful harvest. 

But even when the previous fall or winter is too busy to plant fresh seedlings, the perennials take up my slack. Their faithfulness to surface on these overcast spring days without my provocation or effort always inspires me to bring my garden its most essential ingredient for growth: my footprints. 

When Clay brought a Mississippi turkey home two weeks earlier than the Arkansas season started, the only companion I had for it in the garden was the rhubarb that emerged earlier and bigger than it ever had. This meal–made with some of the final packs of tomatoes I roasted and preserved last summer–was a perfect meal to celebrate these early spring gifts.

Ingredients

• 2 Wild turkey legs or chicken legs and wings
• ⅛ c olive oil
• 1 Red onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 big shoots of rhubarb
• 29 oz of roasted tomatoes
• 2-3 cups of chicken broth
• 1T Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Turmeric
• ½ T basil 
• ½ T Parlsey
• 1 t salt 
• 1 t red peppers (or more if you like heat)

Instructions

1. Cover turkey legs or chicken in salt and glisten with turmeric. Place in a big crockpot.
2. Saute red onion and garlic cloves in olive oil on medium heat until tender and caramelized. 
3. Add herbs and spices, roasted tomatoes, and chicken broth. Start with 2 cups of chicken broth.
4. Add chopped rhubarb on top. 
5. Stick in a crockpot on the lowest possible setting for 4-6 hours. It should fall off the bone with little effort once ready. See notes below about cooking and serving. 

Notes:

You can serve this on lentils, Mediterranean yellow rice, cucumbers, and plain greek yogurt. This is incredible on flat bread with cucumber, red onion, hummus and taziki sauce.

You can eat this immediately, but it’s even better if you stick it in the refrigerator and reheat it the next day. This is just something I used to do because of time, but I learned when I read Jessie Griffith’s incredible book, The Turkey Book: A Chef’s Journal of Hunting and Cooking America’s Bird that this is actually a technique used to allow wild meat to reabsorb liquid as it reheats. It results in an incredibly tender bird. And by the way, you should get Jessie’s book if you eat wild turkey. It’s incredible and beautiful.

If you want thicker sauce, you can remove the meat, take the bones out and use a hand-blender to incorporate the onions and rhubarb in the sauce. You can also just keep it brothy.

Time Management

I start the meat after work, let it cook, and then reheat it in the crockpot when I get home from work the next day. If you’re one of those productive morning people, you could also start in the morning and then put it in the crockpot on the lowest setting. It will be ready when you get home.

Substitutions

If you don’t have wild turkey legs, don’t worry, this is still an easy recipe that you can substitute bone-in chicken (legs, wings, and thighs). With smaller meat like chicken legs, you can more easily cook in a Dutch oven. You probably don’t need to cook it as long either.