Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Damned Authentic Jamaican Jerk Pork

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Longtime friends and readers know that we tend to favor spicy and robustly flavored foods around our camp; this week’s recipe – Damned Authentic Jamaican Jerk Pork – fits that bill perfectly.

I’ve always loved the floral heat that authentic jerk pork (and chicken) brings to the flavor table, though I have to admit, I’ve at times been a bit intimidated by what looks to be a somewhat daunting prep to prepare the spice paste essential to true jerk pork.

In all honesty, it’s simply not that big of a production, and can be done (with decent knife skills) in under 20 minutes (really more like 13-14 minutes) if you stay on task and work efficiently.

Jamaican Jerk features the floral heat of Scotch Bonnet peppers, which can be a bit of challenge to find in some parts of the States, but take note that habaneros are a kissin’ cousin to the Scotch Bonnet (though to our palates they not quite as floral).

The peppers are potent – try a recipe with the low end of the pepper range listed, and move up the pepper scale to suit your tastes – my wife loves the front-end, short burst of heat of the habanero and keeps telling me to up the pepper count in the next batch.

And while I typically handle all other peppers without gloves, I do wear a glove when seeding and cutting up habaneros or Scotch Bonnets – one eye rub after not doing so years ago taught me an indelible lesson.

Of note, you can cook this one entirely on the grill (indirect for most of it, finish direct heat) or do as we do and smoke the pork to an internal temp of 150ish, then finish on the grill (to 190-195) for a nice crispy and caramelized crust. That’s our latest cook in the smoker (left) and finishing on the grill (right).

Another point of Jamaican Jerk tradition has to do with the cooking wood involved – typically it’s pimento wood – which can be a bit tough to source in many locales. We’ve found that oak or pecan with a bit of apple works damned well with this prep, and while many recipes call for throwing bay leaves and or allspice berries on the fire, I typically don’t. (We’ll experiment more and report back in a few weeks…)

Hot damn, this one’s really good.

1/4 to 1/2 pound Scotch Bonnet peppers (see comment above about using Habaneros), stemmed and rough chopped
1/2 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, chopped medium
1 small white or yellow onion, chopped medium
1 medium shallot, chopped medium
1/2 bunch green onions, white and green parts cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped
1.5-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped medium
1 tsp dried thyme (a generous 2 tsp if using fresh)
3/4 tsp dried basil (3 large leaves chopped if using fresh)
2 and 1/2 tsp ground allspice, you’ll probably want more…
1 tsp good ground cinnamon
1 tsp good fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup coarse salt
2 tbsp avocado or olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce (perhaps more)

4-5 pounds of pork shoulder, deboned, butterflied

Combine the hot peppers, green bell pepper, onion, shallot, green onions, garlic, ginger, thyme, basil, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, salt, and your oil of choice in your trusty food processor bowl and process to a smooth paste.

Pulse in the soy sauce, and taste the robustly spiced, pretty damn salty mixture, adding more seasoning (allspice and soy sauce usually for me) as needed, along with up to 1/4 cup water to loosen the paste up if needed.

Now take the deboned pork shoulder and pound to a uniform thickness (shoot for 1 and 1/2 inches) if needed, then make a series of 1/2-inch deep cuts, 2 inches apart, aligned with the short side of your flattened pork shoulder. Now flip the shoulder over and make a similar series of cuts on the other side parallel with those on the first side.

Slather half of the spice paste onto a nonreactive pan (or whatever you’re using to marinate the pork), lay the pork on, then coat with the rest of the spice paste. Marinate for a minimum of two hours and up to eight.

When ready to cook, you have a couple of options – complete the entire cook on the grill or smoke the pork shoulder first, then finish on the grill for a nifty crust.

We like to smoke this over low heat (225-250) until the interior temp is 145 to 150 ( that’s 90-120 minutes typically for us pending the size of the shoulder), then finish over hardwood charcoal on the grill to get a tasty and attractive char on the shoulder sections. For those cooking to internal temp (as I do), you’re looking for 190-195 typically.

If completing the entire cook on the grill, most recipes call for a 40-60 minute cook using indirect heat, with a finish using direct heat to lay in a nice caramelization and crust.

Rest for 10-15 minutes, then slice or do as the Jamaican’s do and whack it into bite size pieces with a cleaver.

Beware, this one’s really good and you’ll be coming back for more. The spice paste recipe easily doubles and will keep sealed in an airtight container in the fridge for several weeks.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Two Fire Pork Belly

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As many of you have, we’ve played around with pork belly over the years, most often doing a home cure in the fridge to make pancetta, which then hangs in a closet during cooler winter months to dry and tighten up, though the inclusion of a bit of pork belly in our Christmas Eve tamale filling has been nothing short of revolutionary in terms of taste and texture too.

That said, a buddy was recently in Kansas City on business, and dined at what appears to be a damned nifty restaurant called Q39. My friend gushed poetically (an unusual move for him) about their smoked and grilled pork belly, and has been pestering me almost daily for a recipe to try and replicate the dish at home.

After consulting our own files, and finally me pestering Chef Libby down in Austin as well, she steered me to a recipe that Raichlen published a few years back intended to mimic this very dish pioneered at Q39.

While I didn’t have a full or half belly on hand last week, I did have some pork belly strips (attaboy Costco) totaling about 4 pounds, so I gave them a spin using our go to rib rub developed by my son and I some years back.

In a nutshell, the pork belly is trimmed (you’re cooking skin-off pork belly here), seasoned well with a flavorful rub, slow smoked at 225 to golden perfection, then chilled before a quick flash-type grill over high heat.

The idea behind the rest overnight (or at least 4 to 6 hours) in the fridge is apparently to tighten up the smoked bellies so they’re a) easier to slice, and b) the fat holds up better during a quick grill over higher heat to caramelize and crisp up the slices.

This is one of those stupid simple recipes that literally takes a few minutes to get started, and offers a fairly blank canvas for you to paint upon in terms of different rub spices and flavorings to consider.

As Raichlen noted, bacon is about smoke and salt, and barbecue is about smoke and spice. The marriage of the two in this dish yields a damned tasty, and most unusual treat most of us haven’t enjoyed before.

The main caution with this recipe is to smoke this one low and slow so as not to melt the belly’s fat off during the initial cook, and to grill quickly over higher heat during the second cook to crisp and caramelize the pieces to perfection.

Hot damn, this one’s good.

3-4 pounds pork belly, skin off

Your favorite pork rub
Good salt
Fresh ground pepper

Remove the skin from the pork belly, and score on all sides using a sharp knife in a 1-inch crosshatch pattern (roughly 1/4-inch deep).

Sprinkle the rub over all sides of the belly (pieces), and massage in.

Fire your trusty smoker to 225, and smoke to an internal temp of 165 (for most will be in the 3-4 hour range); you’re looking for the belly to tighten, become a nifty bronze color, and hit the temp target noted.

Set on a wire rack at room temp to cool, then into the fridge overnight.

Cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (against the grain), season each slice generously with salt and pepper, then grill over medium high heat until sizzling and caramelized on both sides (2-3 minutes per side).

Serve immediately with your favorite sauce or aioli; Q39 serves this with a bacon onion marmalade (savory marmalades are a great concept – we’ll post our favorite soon).

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: The Best Damn Chicken Salad

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Today’s recipe is one of those pulled from our family archives, an almost long-forgotten favorite that tumbled to the bottom of the proverbial stack years ago.

I first posted this recipe on our fly fishing blog ChiWulff years back in 2012, with the following introduction back then (the reference to my orthopedist and pending surgery was about a tibial plateau fracture I suffered on a trip to Montana…) –

The risk of opening with a trite platitude duly noted – life has it’s ups and downs.

One doesn’t have to look very for examples this week.

It’s still hotter than hell’s kitchen in much of the country, it’s already mid-August and not nearly enough fishing has been done, the domestic and world equity markets have been whipsawing up and down like a cheap roller-coaster and more than one pundit has proclaimed it’s the end of the economic world as we know it.

The proverbial shit has hit the fan a bit closer to home this week too, though we’ll leave our whining at that for now.

What’s a fly fishing foodie to do when the times get tough?

Easy – go fish and reach for some comfort food. As my ill-humored orthopedist has condemned me to crutches prior to surgery, rendering wading nigh impossible, reaching for comfort food has taken on new importance.

She Who Must Be Obeyed has returned home after a 10 day business excursion and graciously consented to make dinner last night – serving a camp Chi Wulff fave and powerful comfort food -The Best Damn Chicken Salad on the Planet.

Life looks a little better this morning. I don’t know how something so simple can look so good, but this one just works magic. Simple and direct with ingredients to cover all the essential elements of gustatory sensation – this is a great one.

Three points to note if you please; one – use any sort of cooked chicken you like in this creation, though our favorite of late is a smoke/grilled bird done on a pellet grill. You can use any rub or slather you like on your own smoke/grilled bird, oven roast your chicken, or even pick up a rotisserie bird from your favorite grocer.

Two, this, like most chicken salad recipes begs to be adjusted to using what’s on hand – though I’d challenge you to try it once as written – it really is damn good.

And three, we first stumbled across this recipe back in a pre-keto / pre-low carb days, and used to eat this one on the river (or hiking trail, or drive) on kaiser rolls with a hefty sprinkle of blue cheese crumbles thrown in, along with several generous shakes of Cholula. I have no idea what the hell makes that combination work so well, but it just does. Though we’re no longer in the sandwich camp, a sprinkle of blue cheese crumbles on this chicken salad sends it over the top. The inclusion of a few grapes might be seen by some as being too carb-friendly, though we make this one on our carb refeed day and call it good.

Just try it.

4 cups grilled /roasted chicken, chopped
1 generous cup celery, chopped small
1/2 cup sliced green onions, white and green
1/2 cup toasted pecans, rough chopped
1/2 cup grapes, halved
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced small
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, diced small
1/2 apple, grated (firm fleshed, tart – we like Granny Smiths or Pink Ladies)
1/2 cup avocado or olive oil mayo
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Crumbled blue cheese at service (optional)

This one couldn’t be easier to put together.

Prep, roast, cool, bone, and cut up your chicken, then combine with remainder of the ingredients and mix well.

Adjust the amount of mayo, salt, and pepper to suit; add the blue cheese crumbles at service.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Peppercorn Cumin Chicken Wings

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At the risk of repeating myself, I have to admit once again that I’ve probably never eaten a chicken wing that I didn’t find something about to savor and enjoy, even back in my pre-Primal / pre-healthy eating days when a wing or two might have been procured from a dubious source or two.

Ever since we stumbled across these TAGG wings (Turmeric Ancho Ginger Garlic) wings a few years back they’ve been the most requested wing around our camp, and they’re some of the most tasty wings you’ll find anywhere, anytime.

That said, a few weeks back I was chatting up friend and Chef-mentor Libby in Austin about wings and things, and she mentioned they’d just done 100 pounds (damn!) of these Peppercorn Cumin Chicken Wings for an event she covered at a lake outside of Austin a month or so ago.

Libby is one of the most level-headed, even-keeled, not prone to exaggeration or hyperbole folks that I know, so when she called these the best damn wings her catering company has ever done, I (metaphorically) sat up and started paying rapt attention.

Being a professional chef attuned to little details that make big differences, she insisted that the peppercorns be freshly crushed or cracked (she uses a coffee grinder on a coarse setting), and that spices be measured liberally – she and we like spicy food.

(One cautionary note, the recipe calls for coarse Kosher salt – you should have this in the pantry, if not, just get some. The proportions do NOT work for regular table salt…)

Interestingly she said another key to success for this recipe was to let the wings rest, uncovered, after applying the spices for up to 24 hours in the fridge, noting that they needed at least 2 hours to give the spices time to penetrate the skin for deeper flavors.

Wanting to follow her recipe to the T the first few times we cooked it here, I baked these in the oven until crispy and golden brown all over; they’d be killer on a pellet grill or over open flame, with care taken not to burn the spice coating.

I can almost guarantee you’ll put these on the menu again within days of your first batch.

4 pounds chicken wings, tips removed, flats and drums separated

2 heaping tbsp peppercorns, crushed/cracked
1 tbsp + 1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp + 1 tsp ground coriander
1 scant tbsp garam masala (a good curry powder works too)
1 tbsp Morton kosher salt
1-2 tsp ancho chile powder (optional)
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp avocado or olive oil

3-4 green onions, thinly sliced on a steep diagonal
1 lime, cut into wedges

Prep the wings and crush the peppercorns; double foil line a baking sheet.

Combine the peppercorns, cumin, coriander, garam masala, salt, ancho powder, baking soda, and sugar, stirring to thoroughly mix.

Place the wings in a large bowl, drizzle with your oil of choice, and sprinkle the spice mixture over the wings, tossing with your hands until they’re evenly coated with the spice mix.

Spread the wings on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer, then slide into the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.

Remove the wings from the fridge 23-30 minutes before starting your cook.

When ready to cook, place the wings in a cold oven and set the temperature at 425; cooking for 30-35 minutes (the wings should be beginning to brown). Turn the wings, then cook another 25-35 minutes until the wings are crispy and brown.

Pull the wings, plate artfully, sprinkle with the sliced green onions and lime wedges.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Pickled Shrimp Ceviche

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Back a few years ago I shared that I worked for a time helping to open a Cajun restaurant nearby in the far reaches of the DFW metroplex; I’d always wanted to peek behind the curtain of the restaurant industry and I was intrigued by the skills and gentle manner of the authentic Cajun chef running the place.

He was raised outside of New Orleans, came from a very colorful background personally, was immensely talented in the kitchen, and (like myself) profoundly influenced in terms of food by a beloved grandmother and other extended family back home in Louisiana.

Chef M had a killer pickled shrimp recipe (that we made in 5 gallon batches) and worked hard to reproduce what he insisted was a Louisiana Gulf Coast favorite in this Pickled Shrimp Ceviche.

Chef M and we kitchen minions had a lengthy discussion one morning about use of the term “ceviche” for this recipe; some of us pushed the point that ceviche (or cebiche) was historically Peruvian and classically prepared by marinating raw fish or seafood in a tangy, spiced citrus bath (in the Peruvian model that meant limes or what were/are actually less astringent green lemons). The citrus juices not only impart wondrous flavor but denature the proteins in the fish, causing it to appear “cooked” even though by the most strict food chemistry perspective it’s not.

Chef M countered that particularly in the states and Australia the term ceviche has evolved to encompass use of some gently cooked proteins as well as raw seafood, as in the pickled shrimp that we’re using here, and apparently as used for decades by his grandmother back home. It’s ironic how so often our taste buds “run home to mama” in terms of tastes and textures that we enjoyed during our childhoods…

I even double checked the concept with Chef Libby in Austin, and she concurred this recipe unquestionably deserves the ceviche label, and she’s even added a modified version to her catering menu.

He also noted (quite wisely I might add) that citrus-cured raw shrimp has a texture that many find off-putting (I sure as hell do), and that many of the shrimp preparations he grew up with back home involved a lightly cooked (you might even say par-boiled) shrimp.

Bottom line – argue whether it’s ceviche or not as you wish, but unless you’re a formally trained chef from Louisiana, raised cooking Cajun specialties from childhood, I’ll take Chef M’s word over whatever your opinion might be…

Chef M challenged us to give this recipe a chance, and while I’ve modified it a bit in terms of what you see here, this is largely the recipe that Chef M brought to the DFW area from home, and will be a perfect addition to your summer rotation. It’s one of those texture and flavor combinations that’s simply a divine pleasure to eat.

Try it once as written, and then riff on your own version to suit your tastes – I usually throw in a bit more avocado, cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro when making a batch for us…

3-4 avocados, 1/4-inch dice

1 pound pickled shrimp, 1/2-inch pieces

3/4 cup red onion, chopped medium
1/2 cup cucumber, chopped medium
1/4 cup fresh jalapeño, chopped medium
2 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

1/2 cup cilantro, rough chop (or more)
Juice and zest of one lime
1 and 1/2 tbsp pickling liquid
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Cut the shrimp to size and place in a medium bowl.

Into your trusty food processor go the chopped red onion, cucumber, jalapeño, and garlic; pulse to a fine chop/mince (do NOT puree). Add the mixture to the shrimp in the bowl.

Stir in the chopped cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, pickling liquid, and lemon juice.

If serving in the next 30-40 minutes, add the diced avocados and stir to mix well, making sure all the avocado pieces are coated with the mixture in the bowl. If not serving in the next 30 minutes, cover and throw in the fridge, adding the avocado 15-20 minutes before service.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Sesame and Parmesan Crusted Tuna Steaks

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Today’s recipe is another one of those recipes that’s so ridiculously simple it really doesn’t even need a formal recipe, though there are few things worth noting as you pull together these Sesame and Parmesan Crusted Tuna Steaks.

We first stumbled across this recipe in one of our favorite cookbooks of all time, a collection of restaurant recipes collected from eateries around Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico; the cookbook is long out of print, probably considered to be too simple even back in the day for repeat printings. The cookbook was a thick paperback, simply printed without any pictures, but probably the most used cookbook in our kitchen among a bookcase full of them…

Back in the day, looking for a tasty alternative to grilling tuna steaks over live fire (always good but you have to be very careful not to overcook), my wife found this recipe and we adopted it as one of our favorites after the first run.

There are several tricks that make the entire process much easier; one of which is pulling the tuna from the fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking, patting it dry, and then placing on a rack on the counter to let the surfaces dry even further. Any persistent moisture on the surface of the tuna will weaken the bond of the parmesan-sesame seed crust we’re after.

As you’re getting ready, grate approximately 3/4 cup of good block parmesan cheese (use the smaller holes) and mix with at least half of cup of sesame seeds (we like to use both dark and light sesame seeds for interest); spread the cheese/sesame seed mixture out on a plate. Common sense applies here; cooking only a couple of tuna steaks? Then grate less cheese and use less sesame seed. Cooking four or more tuna steaks? Then you’ll need more cheese and sesame seeds…

When you’re ready to go, heat a skillet over medium-high heat for several minutes, then add a tbsp (+/- more or less pending how many pieces you’re cooking) of avocado, olive, or coconut oil.

Now for a pro-tip from our friend Chef Libby in Austin; one of the tricks professional chefs use to ensure that coatings stick very well to proteins is to dry the proteins carefully, then lightly flour the protein’s surface before using a light egg wash to adhere the final coating.

So we’ll dip each tuna steak into flour (on the largest opposing sides of the steaks), dusting off any excess; you make the call on which flour you’d prefer. Now dip each coated steak surface into an egg wash, then immediately into the parmesan-sesame seed mixture to form the coating.

Reduce the stove temperature to medium, and cook the coated tuna steaks to the desired degree; be very attentive and do NOT overcook your tuna.

We like to serve these hot with a spicy salsa or sauce – the images today include the Mango Salsa Number 1 that I shared last week.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: The Versatile Okra Crisp

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A little over a year and half ago I shared that I spent several months helping a group of compadres open a little Cajun restaurant nearby; it was an eye-opening experience for me to work in the kitchen “behind the restaurant curtain”.

Of course this was back in the pre-COVID days, which for restaurants seems an eternity ago (as it does for all of us), and clearly life in the restaurant biz was very very different then.

One of my responsibilities back in the day was preparation of huge batches of gumbo, up to forty (yep, I said 40!) gallons at a time in a huge floor-mounted steam kettle. The restaurant then was being directed by a very talented, Louisiana born and bred, young chef who had adapted recipes from his family back home to production in a commercial kitchen setting.

I have to admit his gumbo recipe is one of the very best I’ve ever tasted (sorry Mama – pronounced maw-maw, his really is better…), and it’s become one of our absolute favorite cold-weather soups (or stews if you want to argue that point) in our rotation.

One of the tricks that this particular chef taught me was that precooking okra before adding to the gumbo effectively de-slimed it and enhanced it’s earthy, vegetal flavors. We did it in the restaurant by flash frying for no more than 4 minutes in a commercial fryer; yes it was done in terrible oils (canola or soybean pending what was available, it’s just part of the restaurant game and begs another discussion on a different day). Nonetheless, it was so tasty I’d have to stand over the 20 pounds or so we’d do in a batch to keep my kitchen mates from grabbing handfuls to snack from.

The prep was easy – just head the okra, trimming off the stem end, and slice into 1/3 to 1/2-inch pieces and go to it.

Chatting up the recipe one day with my friend Chef Libby in Austin, she recommended a trial of baking the sliced okra at home in a medium oven after adding a splash of a healthy neutral oil (we think avocado works best here, olive oil can impart more flavor that you’d think) and a grind of good salt and pepper.

We’d actually already started doing that before Libby and I talked about it; it’s a piece of cake to spread the prepped okra pieces out on a piece of parchment, and then throw in the over for 45-50 minutes (with a turn somewhere in the middle).

The okra comes out perfect for topping gumbo, though my lovely wife likes this prep so much we do it as a side dish now and again, top salads with it, and even as a healthy snack out of hand.

Enjoy.

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

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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.