We were guests at my MiL's home, and we were only responsible for the pie this year. Thus, we have no leftovers.
I really like turkey, and since there are so many around right about now, it's a great time to fire up the pit and get cooking!
One of my favorite dishes to put together at this time of year is Mole' Turkey. Mole is a complex sauce/stew made up of a host of different spices and ingredients. No two recipes are the same, and there are huge regional differences in approach to the final product. I am a fan of the Oaxacan Style mole, and make a similar blend to act as the base for my dish. Three chilie powders, Ancho, Mulatto, and Pasilla Negra, make up the Holy Trinity and form the basis for the sauce. I like True Cinnamon, cumin, Allspice, toasted ground pecans, raisins, sun-dried tomatoes and stewed tomatoes, epazote, Mexican oregano, dried sourdough...
I attached a recipe below. It gives a good breakdown of the ingredients and preparation. Obviously, I mix and match to suit my own tastes. (Example: I detest cloves, so those are 86'd. But I think chocolate is
lovely in mole, so a hockey-puck of Abuelita is chopped in towards the end. YMMV.)
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/teotitlan-style-black-mole-232061
A quick search will show you dozens of mole recipes and preparations. I treat them like a Chinese buffet: take what you like, leave what you don't. The prep is really the magic, with the slow buildup of many flavors and the toasting of each ingredient to bring out the oils and aromas.
I have found that turkey, being a native bird and all, blends well with the mole spicing. Cooking the bird, especially the dark meat in the mole sauce, allows the flavors to meld beautifully. I serve the finished sauce and bird together and allow guests (or myownself) to simply build tacos with the bird and side goodies such as cheese or other things. A whole bird doesn't last long...
