The Best Tender Crispy Southern Fried Turkey Wings (Made Easy)

Crispy Southern Fried Turkey Wings are a true Southern classic! If you’re looking for wings that are well-seasoned from skin to bone, with crunchy skin and tender, buttery meat, you’ve found the best recipe right here.

Fried turkey wings might be better than fried chicken wings… ok maybe not but they give them a run for their money that’s for sure, especially these ones here. These fried turkey wings are moist, juicy, and crispy as crispy gets.

I think I’ve fallen in love with fried turkey wings which is something my parents didn’t make much as a kid. I feel like a kid who just met a new best friend they feel they can be friends with for life or an infant who has found a new best toy. Hahaha!

That’s how good they were. Surprisingly, unlike with most of my recipes, it didn’t take me a million times and years of experience to absolutely perfect them. These were a hit, which is why I’m so excited to share this recipe with you all. 

My first time hearing about fried turkey wings

Everyone who knows me knows I can cook so I often get people asking if I can make this or that. And like most cooks, we all haven’t made every food known to man. There’s always something we’re making for the first time or haven’t made before at all.

And so my homie, G Handsome, asked if I knew how to make some good fried turkey wings. This was back in 2013 so I had to be about 26 or so. I gave him instructions on how to make them just using my cooking knowledge and common sense, but this is with me never having made them before myself.

I assumed you have to boil them to get them tender than season and fry them. Well, turns out that that is the way you make them but there’s a few small things that make the difference and I’ll hit on that later.

But I never got around to actually making them. I think I took so long to create a recipe for them or to even experiment and try them for the first time because the idea of fried turkey wings just never interest me???

I dont know if I thought I wouldn’t like them or just didn’t like the idea of turkey wings because fried. Plus, everyone knows how much I love turkey wings and one bad habit I have is sticking to what I love and know.

Im open to trying things but if I like something one way, its hard for me to deviate from it. Plus, when I think of turkey wings, baked and smothered with gravy is what comes to mind because that’s the way I grew up eating them.

Baked in the oven and smothered in a nice savory gravy. I think that’s what most of us think of when when we think of turkey wings… crispy fried turkey wings dont come to mind when someone says ‘Im cooking turkey wings tonight. Lol!

What inspired this recipe

Ok so, life is all about timing and I guess it was just time to finally try and create a crispy fried turkey wings recipe. I was on IG scrolling through my feed and came across a video of a cook making fried turkey wings.

And let me say, they were the crispiness most delicious looking fried MEAT I’ve ever seen. It suddenly put me in the mood for fried food. Most importantly it put me in the mood for fried turkey wings… and I guess that’s all it took right?

Me actually wanting to try some and being “IN THE MOOD” FOR SOME! And that’s what was different from any other time I saw or thought about fried turkey wings… this time I was actually in the mood to try some.

So… days later one of my homies, Armand came thru, shot out to him for actually making me make this recipe. We were chilling in the crib, chalking it up, even took a few shots and got hungry. Haha!

He helped me with this frozen margarita recipe I have coming soon which came out so good. And by the time we were done we were hungry! I was getting ready to order some fast food and Armand said, “Bro, stop wasting money on door dash and let’s just cook something.

You a cook bro”. I was like you’re right. And the first thing that popped in my mind was the frozen turkey wings I had sitting in my freezer. I just went shopping and stacked my freezer up and I bought like 7 pounds of turkey wings

I told yall they’re like my favorite thing to eat. Lol! Well, a few days ago, I had cooked some baked turkey wings, and since I had been wanting to make some more, I thought to myself, instead of making baked turkey wings, this would be a good time to make some crispy fried turkey wings like I saw on that IG video.

Armand further convinced me by talking about how good they are. Ok now let me first get into the unspecific and specific ingredients you’ll need for this recipe and get into the best way to prepare fried turkey wings so they come out tasting as delicious as ours did.

I give Armand some credit for this recipe because there were some thing he recommended and some things he told me not to do that made this recipe so fire. 

Key ingredients for this recipe

• Seasonings: I used a combination of Seasoning salt and adobo for taste and flavor. I also used garlic and onion powder, italian and thyme for flavor, paprika and parsley flakes for color, just a pinch of cayenne season for heat, and a little black pepper. You can use whatever your favorite seasonings are. 
• Binding ingredients: For my binding ingredients I’ll be using hotsauce, mustard, an egg and water.
• Coating: To coat the turkey wings Im using just flour, all purpose flour and cornstarch to get the wings nice and crispy.
• Oil: I keep it simple with vegetable oil which is the standard. 

How to clean turkey wings

To clean or not to clean…. listen this is a ongoing debate amongst cooks that will never end. Some believe cleaning your meats is unnecessary, it spreads germs, and cooking it in scortching hot oil kills whatever bacteria maybe on it but cleaning my meat before cooking it is what my family always did, it’s what Im use to and it’s always worked for me so I continue to do it.

So if you’re like me and always prefer to clean your meat below are a list of cleaning products commonly used to clean meat and a combination of products I use. With turkey wings, sometimes that can be either hairy for some reason, or have calamus sticking out near the tips, make sure you pull them out and remove them.

• Salt water: Ok so you can use a combination of salt water which is the most typical combination people use to clean their meats. You just let your wings sit in the solution for maybe 30 to 45 minutes, then scrub them well, and rinse. It’s that simple. Use enough water to cover the wings in a bowl and a few tablespoons of iodized salt.
• Lemon of lime juice: Now this is what I use when I’m preparing meat that may have been stored in the freezer for a little too long and have maybe changed colors and look a little grey. To bring it back to life I use lemon or lime juice, something citrus to restore it’s color because they have lightening properties in them.
• Vinegar water: Another common combination that may not be as common but I remember a lot of old folks using is water and vinegar. Now people will typically use white vinegar but apple cider vinegar will do the job. Again, cover the wings with cool water and add a few tablespoons and let them soak for a while then scrub and rinse well.

How to tenderize turkey wings?

Ok so as you know turkey wings are not tender like chicken, so you have to tenderize them. When baking them we do this by simply covering them with aluminum foil as they bake for an hour and a half. When it comes to frying them you have a few options Im going to give you below.

Baking or boiling them

• Baking them: Just like with baked turkey wings you can bake them under aluminum foil for 90 minutes to get them nice and tender. A lot of people prefer this method because they feel like baking food allows it to hold onto all of it’s natural delicious flavors I haven’t done it this way yet but it’s an option.
• Boiling them: Ok so this is how I tenderized my turkey wings. I didn’t do anything fancy I simple put them in a pot, filled it with water, covered it with a lid and boilined them over medium heat for 90 minutes until they were nearly fall off the bone tender. The knife just slid right through them.

Some folks dont like boiling their meats to get them tender like with ribs, pork chops, and steak before grilling them because they feel the meat loses it’s flavor while boiling it.

I’ve even heard people say this about sweet potatoes which is why some folk like to bake them first when preparing sweet potato pie. If you have any concerns about the turkey wings losing their natural flavor to the water while boiling them, then bake them or brine them first.

I wanted to try it this way first because we were short for time and I wanted to see if they were still flavorful, and folks, i didn’t notice a lack of flavor. 

Brining methods

Brining with water or broth

When it comes to brining, there are quite a few common and popular ways. You can use a basic brine consisting of just water, salt, and sugar. Let the turkey wings soak in your brine overnight or for however many hours you like, and then you’re ready to fry. With brining, you have to make sure you’re using the right ratio of salt to water, or your meat will take forever to get tender or become way too tender to where it becomes MUSH and loses its texture.

That’s always the risk when you brine meat, especially if you experimenting with it.You can get creative with brines, though. You can replace the salt and water with broth or stock, which are liquids with high contents of sodium, to break down the meat’s molecules and tenderize it. You can even be creative with your brine by adding your favorite and desired herbs, spices, condiments, juices, etc. to infuse your meat with whatever flavor you want it to have.

Like when I brine my whole turkey for Thanksgiving, I use turkey broth instead of salt and water, and I add whole onions and peppers to it for flavor and a bunch of herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, etc to infuse it with all those flavors I want it to have. So you can do the same thing with your turkey wings here.

Brining with buttermilk

Good ole buttermilk is another popular way to brine meats with it’s acidity. Typically when using a buttermilk brine you will sprinkle in your seasonings and herbs to add flavor and it’s common to find people adding hotsauce to their buttermilk brine with adds flavor and assist in tenderizing the meat with it’s salt and vinegar content. 

Expert tips on frying meat the right way

I often gets questions about fried food, but fried chicken in particular and how to get the crispiest fried wings… and I always ask my subs who I famously refer to as PBJ’s to take me through their preparation process step by step so…

I know what they’re doing wrong and what’s preventing them from achieving the perfect golden brown wings. The most common thing they tell me if they didn’t double dip and the other thing they commonly say is they aren’t sure if the oil was hot enough.

These seemingly small details are major factors in why your wings, pork chops, or fish arent as crispy as you’d like it. Im going to address and touch on everything “fried food” and what you need to do to get better results because frying food is an art.

Make sure the meat is dry

The first and one of the most important steps to great fried meat is making sure it’s dry before seasoning it. Drying the meat by patting it dry with paper towels removes excess moisture that prevents it from browning and frying properly. So always make sure you thoroughly pat the meat dry with paper towels before you do any seasoning.

Season EVERYTHING!

During this process it’s important to season EVERYTHING! And by that I mean season everything from the turkey wings, to the flour/cornstarch mixture you’ll be coating the turkey wings with, and and egg wash aka wet mixture.

This ensures the turkey wings are perfectly and well seasoned and you can taste all that goodness from the seasoning everywhere, from the meat to the crunchy skin.

Use binding ingredients

When it comes to frying meats, such a fried chicken, pork chops, fish, etc the one dilemma people are faced with most is flour breaking off from the skin. To ensure this doesn’t happen, use a binder.

These are ingredients you coat your meat with. It serves as a gluing agent so that the flour adheres to the meat and don’t come off while frying. The most common binding ingredients consist of buttermilk, and eggs. You can use binding ingredients to also add flavor to your meat.

I use a combination of hotsauce, mustard, 1 large egg, and water just to loosen the mixture up a bit so it’s not too thick. If it’s too thick the flour wont stick properly so the right consistency of the binder is important. You want it loose but not too thin.

Use cornstarch

A crispy exterior is probably one of the most common things new cooks have a hard time achieving when frying meat. To get a nice crispy skin, use cornstarch. Cornstarch is the secret ingredient.

Some people use baking powder but cornstarch has always worked best for me. I like to use a 2:1 flour to cornstarch ratio, which means double the amount of flour as cornstarch.

• Why does cornstarch make things crispy? Cornstarch makes food crispy because it absorbs the moisture on the skin when it makes contact with hot oil. It expands when heated which creates a barrier trapping moisture within the meat on the inside forming a very crunchy crust, which makes it a must when frying food.  

Double-coat the meat

Double dipping enhances the crunchiness and crispiness of the skin because you’re coating the meat with 2 layers of flour/cornstarch. The first layer of flour cornstarch cover the skin.

Then after dipping the coated meat into the egg wash, a double coating just ensures that the meat is fully and well coated. I talked about how the wet binding mixture are a glueing agent.

Well the combination of the egg wash and the first coating of flour/cornstarch mixture, creates a sticky glue like mess that allows the second coating of flour/cornstarch to stick and adhere to the meat.

With double dipping, you definitely dont have to worry about the crust falling off or your turkey wings, chicken, pork chops or whatever not being crispy enough.

Pressing and resting

And another thing I like to do and want to mention that’s just as important if not more important, is HOW YOU DOUBLE DIP! When you add the last coating of flour/cornstarch mixture, make sure to light PRESS THE MEAT INTO THE MIXTURE. You just want to do this to ensure it sticks and adheres. 

Another thing that I do as you may notice in the photo below, is there is always a little flour mixture left over, I sprinkle that over the meat as well. I make sure to shake it off before frying it but anything to make sure every part of your wings are crispy is a plus.

Allowing the wings to rest for 30 mins to an hour helps as well. Give it time to stick and most importantly dry, dont just coat and add it to the oil because it may loosen up and all your hard work with go to waste.

It may look well coated and it is, but you need to give it 30 minutes to an hour to dry and stick just like when you glue something together. Give the wings and coating time to become one. 

Make sure the oil is hot

I can’t emphasize how important this step is. When you add the wings to the oil, make sure it’s HOT. Now dont make the mistake of preheating the oil for too long to where it darkens and your wings burn when you add them to the oil.

You want it very hot but you dont want a volcanic explosion and burnt wings. You can test the oil by sprinkling a little flour into the skillet and if it bubbles a lot, you know it’s hot and ready.

Also, be careful but place your hand above the skillet and if it feels pretty hot you can tell the oil is hot that way as well. But preheating the oil and getting it nice and hot is important because it fries the meat as soon as you add them.

If the oil is still cool, when you add the wings to the skillet, and I think we’ve all prejudged it and done this before, you run the risk of the oil loosening the flour as it sits in the oil, and it coming off.

Think of what would hit if you were to sit it in water, the coating will loosen up, same thing when you add your coated meat to cool oil before it’s hot.

How to make crispy fried turkey wings

1. Boil turkey wings until tender.
2. Combine the flour and cornstarch.
3. Create an egg wash. 
4. Combine seasonings.
5. Pat turkey wings dry.
   
6. Add seasoning to turkey wings, coating, and egg wash.
   
   
   
7. Coat turkey wings with flour, then dip in egg wash.
   
   
8. Coat with more coating, set aside, and preheat oil until hot.
   
9. Fry turkey wings until crispy and sit on a cooling rack.

Tips for best results:

• How to get an even coating: When coating your meat with the flour cornstarch mixture, it’s important to dust off the excess flour before dipping it into the egg wash. Doing this gives the meat a crunchy but even coating. 
• Leave them alone: After you add the meat to the oil, it’s important not to touch it during this time. The coating is still soft and needs time to harden. Moving the wings around will prevent it from getting crispy.
• Dont overcrowd the skillet: So when me and Armand created this recipe, I was impressed that he knew not to overcrowd the skillet. Cooking a few at a time keeps the oil hot and allows them to get done much faster. So cook 3-4 wings, then fry the remaining wings once they’re done and remember, the 2nd batch always cooks quicker because the oil is hotter.

What to serve with crispy fried turkey wings

• Southern-Style Green Beans Recipe
• Frozen Green Beans Recipe
• Easy Southern Baked Macaroni & Cheese Recipe 
• The Best Soul Food Style Candied Sweet Potatoes
• Worlds Best Southern Potato Salad Recipe

Frequently asked questions

• How to store the turkey wings? You can simply wrap them in aluminum foil or place them in a Tupperware bowl and store them in the coolest area of the refrigerator.
• How to reheat crispy turkey wings? Put them in a air fryer so they get nice and crispy again. A microwave wont do the job and may cause the exterior to soften up.

Alright I hope you all enjoy this recipe. Leave a comment below and let the readers know how the recipe went for you and if you enjoyed it or not. If so rate, and share and make sure to subscribe to receive notifications everytime I post a new recipe. God bless!

Enjoy, later!

Pbj~

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