Where some see the Thanksgiving dinner table as the realm of tradition and long-established flavors, others see an opportunity to experiment. Chef Jimmy Carey is squarely among the second camp.
Jimmy’z Kitchen, Carey’s Marietta restaurant with Miami roots, has unveiled a Thanksgiving menu that blends Turkey Day classics with recipes from the chef’s Puerto Rican childhood.
“It definitely kicks it up a notch,” Carey said.
The chef’s Latin take on Thanksgiving began taking shape in a former restaurant in Miami, where the customer base in the heavily Hispanic city was looking for “something not as traditional, not as bland, a different type of flavor in their turkey.”
When Carey moved his restaurant to the Atlanta region in 2020, he brought his reinterpretation of Thanksgiving food with him.
“The first time people get it, it’s an adventure, not knowing what they’re getting themselves into,” Carey said. “But then they realize that it’s something they wish they would have known about earlier.”
The menu
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
The centerpiece of Jimmy’z Kitchen’s Thanksgiving menu is, of course, the turkey. The restaurant prepares it “pavochón” style, a portmanteau between the Spanish word for “turkey” (pavo) and lechón, the slow-roasted pork dish prepared across Latin America and a holiday season mainstay.
Carey’s pavochón is a “very bold, very flavorful, Latin-seasoned turkey.”
It all starts with a homemade adobo, a wet marinade with a “garlicky taste profile and a cumin and oregano punch to it,” mixed with sofrito, a mixture of cilantro, onions, peppers and garlic. The mix is used to brine the turkey for several days.
“All that flavor penetrates inside of the turkey. That’s what people are looking for,” Carey said. “It doesn’t mask the flavor of the turkey, but it just adds to it.”
Backing up the turkey are arroz con gandules – a combination of rice, pigeon peas, and pork; a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine – and mofongo stuffing. Mofongo is a dish made of fried, unripe plantains mashed together with garlic, pepper, salt and crackling pork rinds.
Carey’s Thanksgiving version omits the pork rinds and features a generous dose of chicken stock, making the mofongo more “loose” and moist, giving it a consistency similar to stuffing.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
The menu’s last Latin touch comes courtesy of the dessert: pumpkin flan. It’s made with a caramel flan base mixed with roasted pumpkin puree and a trio of autumnal spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and “a little bit” of clove.
Jimmy’z Kitchen’s full Thanksgiving menu feeds up to 12 people and costs $255. A “turkey/mofongo package” is available for $150.
Lautaro Grinspan is a Report for America corps member covering metro Atlanta’s immigrant communities.
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