I was looking for those blocks of achiote because that tasted amazing with the vegetarian pibil I recently made. For some reason I couldn’t find the achiote at the store and picked up a box of Sazon seasoning instead. So I made Spanish Style Stewed Turkey leg quarters with it and man did this come out FORKING Great! I also used local award wining James Beard Nominated chef Silvano Salcido Esparza’s BBMEXQ seasoning salt. I don’t mean to brag but I am very good at stewing chicken and turkey so I knew exactly how to come up with this. This recipe made 6 – 4oz portions of turkey for me. You might have to thin it a little with some water or stock. The next day the potatoes and vegetables will absorb even more liquid…Your idea of serving size may differ.

Ingredients for 6 servings

2 whole turkey leg quarters (preferably brined or dry brined)

4 carrots – peeled, chopped

2 parsnips – peeled, chopped

4 celery – chopped

2 small onions – diced

1 head garlic – fine chop

2 – 14oz cans chopped tomatoes (preferably Italian so they taste better)

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chilli powder

1 cup water

4 small bay leaves

2 teaspoons sugar

2 (heaping) Tablespoons reduced sodium better than bouillon vegetable base. (I use this as a substitute for salt sometimes…It adds more flavor and has less sodium in it)

1 lemon – quarter

24 olives

2 potatoes – quarter

1/2 oz fresh thyme sprigs

4 packs Sazon (4 unopened packs weigh 24g)

2 teaspoons BBMEXQ Saladito seasoning salt made by chef Silvano Salcido Esparza

Directions

Set the oven to 350 degrees F and have a middle rack ready for your two pans. Do not use the oven for cooking other things or your cooking time will be increased.

Use either two large baking dishes or two buffet half pans.

Fill the pans equally with the carrots, parsnips, celery, onions, garlic, chopped tomato, black pepper, cumin, chili powder, water, bay leaves, sugar, vegetable bouillon, lemon, olives, potatoes, fresh thyme.

It should look something like this.

Get your 4 packs of Sazon.

Rub one packet on the front of each leg quarter and one pack on the back of each leg quarter.

Then place one leg quarter in each pan.

Sprinkle the BBMEX Saladito seasoning salt evenly over the tops of everything.

Cover tight with foil. Place on middle racks in the oven.

This stays in the oven till fully cooked and you can pull the leg apart. Ovens do differ so timing may differ. Mine took 3 1/2 hours. The house smells insanely delicious just before this gets done.

I don’t use thermometers for meat anymore because every thermometer that I have reads a different degree and they differ by a lot.

You want the turkey to be fully cooked with no blood and you want the leg to fall apart between the leg and thigh and you know it is done.

Pull the turkey quarters out of the pan to cool and in about an hour you can pull the skin off and pull the turkey meat from the bones.

In the stew part you want to remove the lemon wedges, the bay leaves and the thyme sprigs. This needs to cool to room temperature and then you can refrigerate it or freeze what you don’t need.

You might want to add some cilantro and pickled onions to serve.

DELICIOUS! ENJOY!