Y’all it is not a holiday meal without my southern seasoned butter beans. This year I decided to change them up a bit and use the turkey wing meat from Trinas Make Ahead Turkey Gravy that I roasted off for the gravy. I used two of them, but as you can see below, you can just as easily use 2 smoked chicken wings. My original recipe calls for 2 smoked ham hocks. As you can see, you can change recipes up any way you want to make your own or make something new. I hope ya’ll enjoy this little twist. Heck, you could even use some of the left over Turkey from Thanksgiving and make a big pot of these for a meal after the big day.
- 1 lb dry butter beans (the big white ones)
- 2 smoked Turkey Wings
- 1/2 onion,diced (or 1 small one)
- 2 teaspoons butter
- water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Sort beans; remove bad ones,rocks or other foreign materials. Rinse beans in a colander under cold water. Set aside.
- Dice half an onion and place in small pot and sauté in the butter until translucent.
- Add some water to deglaze pot then add beans and cover with water to about 3 inches above the beans. Add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then cover and turn heat OFF for 45 minutes. (You can also just soak your beans overnight and put in the slow cooker in the morning as well on high for 4-5 hours.)
- Now put the beans/onions in your slow cooker along with the turkey wings. Set on low and cook over night.
- Before serving, shred the meat off the chicken wings and discard skin and bones. Add meat to the beans and stir.
- Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
This is such a great use of Thanksgiving leftovers, yum!
Years ago a friend of mine made some Lima beans and smoked turkey wings, I was curious about if I would like it, but it was very good, so I am going to try your butter bean recipe as it does sound very good and when it is cold outside it will warm you up inside plus it is feeling as well.
”Butter bean” is a term that some use for particular types of lima beans; the only difference is in regional terminology. The lima bean is a domesticated legume with the scientific name of Phaseolus lunatus that gets its name from its place of origin, Lima, Peru. Some in the American South and the United Kingdom call particular types of lima beans “butter beans.”
Dried lima beans that are more flat and yellowish than the common rounded and green variety are often called “butter beans” in Southern States. In the South, lima beans and butter beans are considered to be two different types of bean, however, in their scientific name is the same and they are not two distinct species of bean.
The culinary terminology used in the United Kingdom differentiates between lima and butter beans more in line with the Southern United States distinction, where lima beans that are dried, larger, and light yellow are referred to as butter beans and the smaller green bean is called a “baby” or “junior” lima bean. These distinctions do not change the scientific terminology, and the two common terms used for the lima bean are often interchangeable regardless of regional or culinary preferences.