Spatch cutting

erniemcclain

Ok, The only spatch chicken I did was great.   When I tried to spatch my turkey, I ended up with four quarters.  Obviously I cut more than the "keel" bone.  When you do a turkey, do you try to take that out or just cut the back?  As you can see in the pic, it might have been best that I was able to arrange the turkey pieces with the sweet potatos.  But again, keel bone in or out?

Skiddymarker

Don't think the keel was the problem, i don't take the keel out, I just palm flatten it to get the breasts to lie flat - or at least I did. When you take out the back bone, maybe a 1" strip, the thighs and legs are not held on by much, will come pretty easy. If you take out the keel, the breasts will come apart because the only thin holding them together mis skin and maybe some wishbone. 

I "chop shop" my birds even further than quarters, I take the wings off too so I have 6 piece "parted out" bird. The thighs legs go on first (cook to 175-180) and then maybe 15 minutes later the breasts (cook to 150-160) and then 10 minutes later the wings. First time I did this was to make it all fit on my MBGE. Now I do it with chickens too. 

erniemcclain

The chicken I did was beautiful and the keel bone came right out.  Turkey?  Not so much.

Skiddymarker

To part out a turkey, if it is fresh ask the butcher to do it for you, if you do it, good shears and knives are a must. I find legs/thighs first, wings second, split the breasts last. We often buy 10 to 12 pound turkeys and freeze 1/2 at a time. For the two of us a 5 pound cook is great for a meal and leftovers without getting tired of it. 

twlangan

I did a turkey a week ago and did not take the keel bone out. I cut the backbone out, flipped it over, and pressed down to flatten it. Worked just fine. I use the same method on chicken.

I've even been known to not completely cut the backbone out on chickens. Just cut along one side of it, flip it, and push it flat. Why cut it completely out and lose the meat that is there? We don't do homemade soups often enough that it would get used up.

Skiddymarker

twlangan said:

I did a turkey a week ago and did not take the keel bone out. I cut the backbone out, flipped it over, and pressed down to flatten it. Worked just fine. I use the same method on chicken.

I've even been known to not completely cut the backbone out on chickens. Just cut along one side of it, flip it, and push it flat. Why cut it completely out and lose the meat that is there? We don't do homemade soups often enough that it would get used up.

We do use the backbone for broth, cut it out completely, very little meat on it. After boiling, the meat peeled off the bones makes the dog smile. To each his own.....

jfm0830

I was looking at videos on spatchcocked turkeys and they stood the turkey up vertically and used a big cleaver to chop along one side of the breast bone. They mentioned that the breast bone is much harder and you really can't use most poultry shears. They also used a boning knife to score the keel bone to make it easier to flatten.