Over the next couple weeks, we are compiling our favorite Lakelander magazine recipes so you can start prepping your ideal Thanksgiving meal.

We are just over a week away from Thanksgiving dinner, and if you want to welcome your guests into a world of new and exotic flavors while staying true to tradition, then you must try Sheila Barcelo’s Smokey Jamaican Jerk Turkey recipe.

This recipe was originally published in Issue 21. Find more recipes and original article here.

Recipe by Sheila Barcelo 
Photography  by Tina Sargeant

Step 1:
10- to 12-pound turkey
Remove gizzards, liver, and neck bone from inside of turkey. (Rinse well. Reserve, and keep them refrigerated, as they will be roasted with the bird and then cooked to make gravy.)
Rinse turkey well.

Step 2:
SMOKE MARINADE
1/2 cup smoke salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups orange juice concentrate
1-1/2 gallons water
Combine smoke salt, cider vinegar, orange-juice concentrate, liquid smoke, and water.
Completely emerge bird in marinade, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.

Step 3:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F

SEASONING
4 tablespoons Jamaican jerk seasoning (available in ethnic aisle of major grocery stores) Remove the turkey from the marinade, and discard the marinade. Pat the turkey dry with a paper towel. Massage the turkey liberally with jerk seasoning, under and on top of the skin.

Step 4: 

STUFFING

1 large onion, roughly chopped
4 sprigs thyme
Put the chopped onion and sprigs of thyme inside the cavity of the turkey.
In the bottom of a roasting pan, place:
3 large carrots, roughly chopped
5 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon pimento berry
2 cups water

Place the turkey on top of the chopped vegetables in the roasting pan. Add the gizzards and neck bone to the pan and roast them with the turkey.
Cook the turkey for 20 to 25 minutes at 450 degrees F, until skin is crisp and slightly chard.Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F.
Smoked Jamaican Jerk Turkey

Remove the roasting pan from the oven.

Use heavy-duty foil to create a tent over the turkey. (To ensure foil does not touch the bird, use bamboo skewers.)
Return the turkey to the oven and cook 2-1/2 to 3 hours, or until the internal temperature of the bird registers 165 degrees F.
Remove turkey from oven and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Remove gizzards, liver, and neck bone from the pan and set aside to be used in Jerk Sauce / Gravy recipe below.

Step 5
JERK SAUCE / GRAVY
Puree half of the cooked vegetables and drippings from the roasting pan.

In a sauce pan, combine the:
Pureed vegetables
1 tablespoon chicken base
1 tablespoon jerk seasoning
4 cups water
Roasted gizzards, liver, and neck bone
Simmer to desired gravy consistency.
Remove gizzards, liver, and neck bone.

Serve jerk sauce / gravy with the meal as desired