1st turkey cook, its a spatchcock

LostinQn

Hey all, plan on doing a turkey for easter, along with some seafood. Turkey is for the kids mostly, and those who do not like salmon,silly fools.

As i am time limited, spatchcock is the way to go, and i was wondering about a few things. i have read the T-Rex method and was planning on using that for the most part, with some modifications.

1. to brine or not to brine? it would be more for flavor then anything else.

2. Direct or indirect? so far the chickens i have done are all direct on a raised grid and work well. any reason to run indirect?

3. whats the best time limited way to get skin crispy on a turkey? I would normally let it sit in the refrigerator for a day or so, but i probably wont have time for it this go around. i was debating boosting the temps up a bit, or even going with high 450+ temp for the first 20-30 minutes or so.

Doug in Eggmonton

The turkey will take longer than the chickens so the skin will get darker and crispier all by itself. Flipping it over in the raised direct setup during the last 20 minutes or so helps crisp them up too.

Raised direct spatchcock chickens works nicely 185 legs 165 breast . One thing that happens when I cook larger chickens or the turkey spatchcock was the legs get done at 185 long before the breasts got to 160. I ended up having to split the thighs off. You might want to consider splitting the legs from the breasts before every thing gets hot in case that happens to you too.

Doug

Frank from Houma

I did this one at 400 dome. I think it was 1-1/2 hours. Like Doug said, spatch and separate the breast so you can pull it before the thighs. I didn't do it on this one but will in the future. The thighs actually finished before the breast on this one because I had iced dow the breast for about an hour.

BTW - it has a tray of veggies under it.

Clay Q

I finished this bird at 400° indirect. The bird was brined (light salt brine) for 2.5 days. It was great.
Not 'crispy' skin as in crunchy but crisp enough.




This bird was as juicy as a fryer chicken spatchcocked.
From now on I roast turkey on high heat.

Jasper

Hey! I'm doing the same thing for Good Friday! I got a small turkey, almost 7lbs and am cooking it up spatchcock style based on NW's "Dead Simple Spatchcock Chicken" method. I've done this with chicken a few times and all turned out great so I'm going to give it a go with turkey.

Good luck with your cook, post some pics too!

Hungry in Lilburn

Clay, what seasoning did you put on this bird? Looks great! I am doing one Sunday.