Spatchcocked...faster...easier...moist


 
S

Steve Petrone

TVWBB Platinum Member
I have experienced varying degrees of success cooking turkey. In the oven. On the smoker. Brined or not.
This year I traveled to Charlotte to cook for 10 plus. I wanted EASY. And FOOLPROOF.

After researching turkey cooking, I decided to spatchcock the bird. I bought a butterball so I would not have to brine.
The 13.5 lb. bird was spatchcocked the day before and salt & peppered. My son has a new large Green Egg.
Once we dialed in 350...it did not budge. Cooked skin side up for less than 2 hours. Target temps of 150 in breast, 165 in thigh before resting 20 min and get some carryover heat.

It was fabulous and oh so moist. Could not have been easier.
Carved all the meat off the thighs and breasts for easy serving...I followed Alton Browns video on carving.

If you want simple, easy, predictable...spatchcock next time. Oh so easy.
 
Steve Petrone said:
I have experienced varying degrees of success cooking turkey. In the oven. On the smoker. Brined or not.
This year I traveled to Charlotte to cook for 10 plus. I wanted EASY. And FOOLPROOF.

After researching turkey cooking, I decided to spatchcock the bird. I bought a butterball so I would not have to brine.
The 13.5 lb. bird was spatchcocked the day before and salt & peppered. My son has a new large Green Egg.
Once we dialed in 350...it did not budge. Cooked skin side up for less than 2 hours. Target temps of 150 in breast, 165 in thigh before resting 20 min and get some carryover heat.

It was fabulous and oh so moist. Could not have been easier.
Carved all the meat off the thighs and breasts for easy serving...I followed Alton Browns video on carving.

If you want simple, easy, predictable...spatchcock next time. Oh so easy.
Click to expand...

I've done Alton Brown's rub on some butts I did, and it was a bit sweet. I don't actually follow anyone's carving, but I have seen others carving a bird like I do, I remove each piece from the carcass, and especially the entire breast off each side of the keel bone. This allows you to slice the entire breast and get nice pieces and you can leave the skin on also...one thing my wife has taught me is that I don't need to save every piece of hanging skin or even some of the difficult to remove meat, we get enough meat that it doesn't matter, there are more turkeys were all these come from...

As per spatchcock, I have done it with a turkey in the past and it works well, I just normally cook my birds low/slow, not sure why...but I do. It does cook nicely. This also depends on several factors, but it does cook quicker. I do chicken spatchcocked more often than turkey, but I typically do it low/slow, even for cut up pieces of chicken. Just had a turkey, avocado, cheese omelet for breakfast...I never get tired of left over turkey...had some sandwiches on toasted olive bread yesterday...so frickin' good...hmmmm....

Your smoke sounds like it went well Steve, and you spent it with your son doin' the spatchcock, no better way to spend a TG...(even if on a *gasp* green egg ;) j/k it's a joke son! ).
 
The removal of each whole breast, then slicing as you said keeping the skin on works well. Alton deboned the thighs after cooking and sliced much like the breast is sliced.
It was a first for me, going to the dark (green) side.
 
I have spatchcocked the bird once. It really did well although I like the presentation of the whole bird better. Did you have to do anything to get the breast at a lower temp than the thighs, such as icing the breast or a shield? That alone might make me go back to spatchcocking.
 
Nope. I did nothing special.
I did have an issue however. When I pulled the bird to lose the chill of the fridge, it was folded one side over the other. I did rotate but upon cooking, one side was slower to cook. so either lay flat or rest out of fridge evenly on each side.

I was amazed how moist the meat was without a brine...but it was butterballed
 
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