I am SO excited to kick off the Holidays with you today. Right off the bat, we are talking TURKEY!! In my house, we basically have two months of turkey eating and I am pumped to dive right in. While Turkey will obviously be gracing our Thanksgiving table, I often roast a turkey on Sunday afternoons during the season as well. The smell is intoxicating and the kids and Pete absolutely love it (as does Wilbur who sits next to the oven drooling for the better part of a day when I do this.) You get the incredibly roast turkey day of, and then get to feast on leftover turkey everything: sandwiches, pasta, soups, salads- all the good stuff.

And you know me well enough to know that I had to share something with you guys that was special- not just your average roast turkey, but something really unique.
Spice Rubbed Turkey with Mole Sauce. Homemade mole sauce. The real stuff.

And the Turkey!!! Let me just tell you, I teamed up with Diestel Family Turkey Ranch to prepare this recipe for you, and there are no better turkeys out there. These birds come from a family run turkey farm in Northern California that runs four generations deep. I LOVE that these turkeys are given plenty of space to roam and fresh air allowing them to develop naturally. They are also fed an all-natural or organic premium vegetarian diet (also gluten free!!)of grains that are milled and mixed each day at the ranch.

The results of all that are delicious, juicy and flavorful birds. I am personally excited by the sustainable farming of these Turkeys and it makes me feel good about feeding these birds to my family. While these turkeys are available at many natural, upscale and independent grocery stores, including Whole Foods- I actually had my Organic Diestel Turkey shipped right to my door via their on-line store, what a great service! Also, learn about how Diestel turkey products (like deli slices and turkey sausage) are available year round here. You can learn more about Diestel Family Turkey Ranch on Facebook, Twitter or their website.

The turkey is so delicious on it’s own that I roasted it with just a light spice rub mixed in with coconut oil. You get a touch of sweetness and spice along with a gorgeous golden color from the oil. Then it is drizzled with the most incredible homemade mole sauce.

Warning- this mole sauce is majorly intensive. It takes a couple hours to make it the first time (it gets faster and faster with experience) but that is why I am sharing it with you now. What better time to create a labor of love dish than at the Holidays? And, you will see that when you make something like this, it is best to make it in big batches! You have to make sure that you have extra to freeze and use the next time you are craving mole! The other thing is that you could make this a month ahead of time and freeze it, thawing it and heating it when you are ready to serve it. Or you could make this several days ahead of time and let it develop even more flavor in the refrigerator in preparation of serving. (It’s sort of like a stew or a Bolognese in that it is just better a day or two later.)

I served this by covering a platter in kale leaves and cilantro. I piled the carved turkey onto the platter along with the roasted butternut squash and garnished it with radishes, bias cut green onions, cherry tomatoes and hot corn tortillas. Serve it with the Mole Sauce on the Side or drizzled over the top of the turkey and with more on the side. I also sprinkled the turkey with pomegranate seeds and marigold petals. We piled the turkey, sauce, green onions and squash into the tortillas and were soooo happy!

Here is how I made this Spice Rubbed Turkey with Mole Sauce:

For the Spice Rubbed Turkey:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Discard giblets and neck from turkey. Rinse and pat dry the turkey. Place it on a rack set over a roasting pan. In a small bowl mash together the turkey, onion powder, chili powder and cumin along with the kosher salt. Rub the combination all over the turkey evenly. Roast the Turkey until a meat thermometer in the thigh registers 165, or I cooked my 11 pound turkey for about 2 ½ hours. Remove the turkey from the oven and loosely tent the turkey with foil while you let it rest for about 30 minutes. Carve the turkey and arrange it on a platter.

For the Roasted Butternut Squash:
As soon as you remove the turkey from the oven, turn the heat up to 400 degrees and roast the squash for 15-20 minutes until golden and tender.

For The Mole Sauce:
Starting with the dried chilies, remove the stems and seeds and separate them by variety (the chilies will crack into pieces).

Using a heavy pan (I recommend a cast iron skillet) first toast the Arbol chili’s (they are the spiciest, so I like to start with them.) Get the pan really hot before adding them and then tossing them often until they are toasted and fragrant. They will be darkened but not burnt. This will take about 5 minutes. Set them aside. When they have cooled, pinch the stems off of these chilies if you have not already done so.

Next toast the Chili Negro in the same way and set aside. Then toast the Guajillo and the New Mexican chili’s together. This will take about 1 minute for each batch of chilies. They can all be added to the same bowl afterwards.

The Anchos will be soft and pliable and take a little longer to toast because they are more oily. Toast them until they go from soft to crispy and evenly toasted- this will take 2-3 minutes.

Use the same pan and toast the sesame seeds over medium heat, stirring continuously for another 2-3 minutes until a deeper golden brown- don’t burn!

Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Toast the whole cloves (which will smoke!) over medium heat for 1-2 minutes and then add to the sesame seeds.

Toast the pumpkin seeds over medium heat for 2-3 minutes while continuously stirring. They will be popping and crackling and golden brown when done- transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Toast the garlic cloves over medium heat, stirring often, about 6 minutes until dark golden in places.

In the large pan place 7 tomatoes and 3 tomatillos and turn the heat to medium-high. Let the tomatoes and tomatillos cook about 5 minutes and then flip them. There will be a dark brown charred mark where they cooked. Continue this every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes total. The tomatoes should be very soft and have charred skin on the outside.

Meanwhile, in a large pot add ¾ cup of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes and then add the garlic cloves. Fry until browned about 10 minutes.

Add all of the toasted chilies to the pot and cook over low heat. Add the sesame seeds, cloves and ½ cup of water and raisins, the tomatoes and tomatillos and add a lid to the pot. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, add the pumpkin seeds and 1 cup of hot water to a blender. Puree on high until you have a paste. Push the contents of the blender through a strainer and keep the liquid and discard the solids (the really fibrous parts left from the skin of the pumpkin seed). Add the liquid to the pot and pull it from the stove top.

Puree the mixture in the pot in batches (because you want it to get really smooth) if you need extra liquid to puree, add a few tablespoons of chicken broth or hot water- but I found that pureeing in batches solved that problem.

I used a high power blender that got everything so smooth that we didn’t need to strain the mole. If you don’t have a super powerful blender, you will want to strain it through a medium-fine sieve so that you don’t have anything fibrous in your sauce. Place the pureed sauce into a large bowl.

Rinse and dry the large pot. Add ¼ cup of vegetable oil to the pot and heat over medium heat. Add the paste and fry, stirring often for 10 minutes. Add the salt and the dark chocolate and cook stirring often, another 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth and simmer on low heat with no lid, about 20 minutes but up to several hours if you add a lid and continue on lowest heat. Season to taste with additional kosher salt if needed.

You can make the sauce up to several weeks ahead of time and freeze it, or a few days ahead of time and refrigerate, letting the sauce develop in flavor. Gently re-heat over low heat and serve with the turkey, drizzling it over the top or serving on the side in place of gravy.

*Diestel Family Turkey Ranch provided me with product for the purpose of this post as well as compensation for my time. As always all opinions expressed are my own.