Applewood Smoked Turkey

Ingredients

• Print Recipe
• Email

• Save Recipe
• Add to Shopping List

4 to 6 cups wine-infused wood chips* or shavings, lightly packed

3 tablespoons olive oil $

2 tablespoons minced fresh sage leaves or 2 tsp. dried sage

1 tablespoon minced parsley

2 teaspoons minced fresh marjoram leaves or 1/2 tsp. dried marjoram

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 turkey (16 to 18 lbs.)

1 Golden Delicious apple $

1 medium onion $

Sprigs of fresh sage and marjoram

Preparation

1. Soak wine-infused chips or shavings in water at least 20 minutes. Mix olive oil with sage, parsley, marjoram, and pepper.

2. To prepare turkey, remove and discard leg truss. Discard lumps of fat; remove giblets and neck. Rinse bird inside and out and pat dry. Rinse giblets and neck (save liver for another use), drain, and reserve for Zinfandel Gravy. Brush turkey all over with 2 tbsp. oil mixture. Cut apple and onion into 1-in. chunks and stir into remaining oil mixture; place mixture in body cavity. Put foil caps on drumstick tips and wing tips. Insert a meat thermometer straight down through thickest part of the breast to bone (if using an instant-read thermometer, insert later).

3. Prepare grill for indirect medium heat (about 325°; you can hold your hand 5 in. above cooking grate only 5 to 7 seconds). If using charcoal, light 40 briquets on firegrate. When coals are covered with ash, about 20 minutes, bank evenly on opposite sides of firegrate and let burn to medium. Place a metal or sturdy foil drip pan (about 9 by 12 in. and 2 1/2 in. deep) between coals and fill halfway with water. To each mound of coals, add 5 briquets and 1/2 cup soaked wood chips or shavings now and every 30 minutes while cooking; if needed, keep grill uncovered for a few minutes to help briquets ignite. If using gas, remove cooking grate and turn all burners to high. Place 1 cup wood chips in the grill's metal smoking box or in a small, shallow foil pan set directly on burner in a corner. Close lid and heat 10 minutes. Then turn off 1 burner and lower other(s) to medium. Set a metal or sturdy foil drip pan, filled halfway with water, on turned-off burner. Add another 1 cup wood chips or shavings now if first ones have burned away (add 1 cup chips every hour or so while cooking). Replace cooking grate.

4. Set turkey, breast up, on cooking grate over drip pan and cover grill. Cook until thermometer registers 160°, 2 1/2 to 3 hours; during cooking, loosely tent turkey with foil if it starts to get too dark.

5. Drain juices, apple, and onion from cavity; reserve for Zinfandel Gravy. Place turkey on a platter and let rest 15 to 30 minutes. Remove drip pan from grill; skim and discard fat from juices. Reserve juices for gravy. Garnish platter with herb sprigs.

*Buy wine-infused chips from Just Chips ($15 for a roughly 2-lb. bag;justinwine.com or 800/726-0049). Or soak mesquite or applewood chips in equal parts red wine and water and omit soaking in step 1.

Note: Nutritional analysis is per 1/4-lb. serving (white and dark meat with skin).

TURKEY ENCHILADAS WITH MOLE

• 1 small onion 
• 3 cups cold turkey
• Chopped Cilantro
• Mole Sauce
• Corn Tortilla's
• Monterrey jack

Apparently, turkey (aka guajolote) with mole is a typical celebration meal in parts of Mexico. Turns out the flavor combination can be easily re-configured as turkey enchiladas. To start, pull out your food chopper and pulse one small onion and about 3 cups cold turkey. Do this separately, and then add together in a mixing bowl with some chopped up cilantro.

Next you make your mole. There are a number of different ways to tackle this, ranging in purity of approach. You could make it all from scratch and lose two days of your life, or, on the other extreme, just buy it pre-made at the store. I prefer to split the difference and buy a starter paste from one of our favorite Oaxacan restaurants in LA: Gualeguetza. Simply chop up about two cups fresh tomato, sautee in a heavy bottom pan, add the mole paste. (It will be thick, sticky, and most likely stain your fingers and any surface it touches so proceed with caution.) Then add about a quart of stock--I use chicken, but you could use that broth that you made from boiling the turkey neck that you set aside and never used. Bring to boil, adjust the heat down to med-low, and let reduce for about ten minutes while you tackle the tortillas.

Like the mole sauce, you could go all out and make tortillas from scratch. But given the fact that we are going to give these guys a double flavor dip, store bought corn tortillas will work just fine. Using a nonstick pan and a trusty bottle of spray oil, lightly fry each tortilla, turning after about 20 seconds or until they start to bubble up a bit and get slightly browned.

Stack on a plate and keep covered so they don't lose all their heat. Once the whole stack is fried, you are ready for assembly. Take a tortilla and dip in the mole sauce. Dios mio, it will probably still be a bit warm so don't burn those fingers.

Plop down the sauced tortilla in your baking dish, fill on one side with about 1/4 cup of the turkey mix, and roll it up.

Proceed with the rest until you have nice little assembly line of delicious turkey cylinders. Now, wash your hands (they'll be gunky from all that mole dunkin') and open up a cerveza. The hard part is over and it is smooth sailing from here. Preheat the oven to 350, pour some of the remaining sauce on top to give the enchiladas a nice steamy bath and cover with some shredded queso, a good melting variety like monterrey jack works best.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, garnish with some chopped cilantro and sour cream (or crema or thick yogurt as you see here), dar mas gracias, and grub.