the Older Bolder Life Thanksgiving Friday Feast 2020: Texas Style Recado Turkey

For millions around the country it’s soon to be turkey time again; and yep, for now, let’s not even think about COVID induced restrictions on your upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Last year, I posted this damned tasty Ultimate Adobo Turkey recipe, one incredibly delicious – and certainly different from the usual – turkey recipe for your Thanksgiving table. In that post, I wrote about another spicy turkey we’d enjoyed as a family for years…

Years ago (and by that I actually mean several decades ago) there was a small quarterly magazine featuring spicy foods of the American Southwest published out of Albuquerque that we subscribed to.

It was simply titled Chile, in all honestly wasn’t that professionally done, but was packed with great recipes, tips and tricks for growing chiles of all sorts, and a smattering of advertising for all things chile-heads loved back in that day. Sadly, and I’m guessing in part given their laser-sharp focus on spicy foods of the Southwest, the magazine vanished in 2006 or 2007, leaving behind little or no trace of their prior work.

We folded a number of their recipes into our family food lexicon, including one for what they called a recado turkey, which was a turkey rubbed with a vinegar and olive oil based rub, actually more like a slather, rich with toasted and coarsely ground peppers and other big, vibrant spices.

Truth be told, it wasn’t my wife’s favorite turkey preparation – the flavors were pretty bold and could be almost astringent at times – but the kids and I loved it, enough that we’d often do two turkeys (especially if entertaining), one a classic brined and roasted bird, and then our special recado turkey…

Much to my chagrin, that old recado turkey recipe was lost in a move years ago, though with a bit of digging this fall, and some trial and error in our and Chef Libby’s kitchens, we’ve recreated that recipe with a TexMex twist (the addition of the dried New Mexico chiles).

The classic recipe (which Libby assumes was Oaxacoan in origin given the spice and pepper profile) used only dried chilaca chiles (a chile negro here in the States) and chipotles; we think the addition of the New Mexico chiles softens the astringency of the final pepper slather and adds a fruity note.

By the way, the garlic oil adds a wonderful additional flavor, though this works very with avocado or a good olive oil as well.

One caveat worth mentioning: the dried chilaca chiles (the chile negro) are of course more or less black in color, and when applied to your bird, the rub/slather is quite dark. It remains very dark throughout the cooking process, and when you remove your turkey from the oven, it will look burnt, but by no means will it taste burnt. The image below is my most recent recado turkey pre-cook before resting in the fridge overnight.

Finally, when cooking a turkey with a rich, dense slather or rub (like the two mentioned here), we both think using the technique of cutting the bird into pieces pre-roasting works far better for two reasons. One, it allows you to coat each piece more completely (and far more easily), and two, your bird cooks incredibly faster and more evenly. You make the call.

10-12 dried chilaca chiles (chile negro)
8-10 dried New Mexico chiles
2-5 dried chipotle chiles
2 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp Mexican oregano
5 whole cloves
2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp distilled white vinegar (ACV in a pinch)
3/8 cup garlic oil (or healthy oil of choice)

Optional: 1-inch piece of cinnamon, crushed

12-14 pound turkey, see comment above

Toast the chiles using your method of choice (skillet, over live fire, or in a 325 degree oven) until fragrant; then stem, seed, and grind to a medium-fine powder in your trusty food processor. Pour into a small bowl.

Using your trusty spice grinder, grind the black peppercorns, cloves, and oregano until finely ground; add to the chile powder bowl.

Now stir in the vinegar, salt, and oil of choice to make a paste; if too thick, add a teaspoon more vinegar and oil as needed to loosen the mixture up. Now coat your turkey with a thin layer of recado paste and let rest uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Now roast the turkey according to your routine (and pending whether you’re roasting a whole bird or one cut into pieces as we’ve suggested above); here’s how we do it around our camp.

If using the cut-up bird as I’ve imaged here – preheat the oven to 425, and triple foil line a baking sheet, then place a wire rack on the sheet. Add a cup of water to the sheet, then place the turkey so that the pieces are not touching. Roast for 10 minutes, rotate the pan, then roast another 10 minutes before reducing the heat to 300. Total roasting time for a cut-up bird should be in the range of 75-90 minutes pending its size. You’re looking for an internal breast meat temp of 150 and thigh meat temps of 170 on your trusty instant read thermometer.

Rest for 20-30 minutes before carving and go to it.

Don’t forget to save those recado turkey bones for an amazing turkey broth later.

Enjoy.