Shortly after making my Spatchcock Chicken last year, I had lots of readers telling me that they would love to have a recipe for Spatchcock Turkey. Immediately, I knew I needed to get on this for Thanksgiving. What a great way to cook a moist and flavorful turkey in a shorter time span! This recipe for Spatchcock Turkey has the perfect balance of flavors and cooks up your holiday bird much faster than a traditional roasted turkey. You will love this delicious and easy method for cooking a whole bird. Increasing the surface area of the bird also allows more of the meat to be seasoned which increases flavor. The crispy golden skin and tender juicy meat that result are perfect!
Remove the backbone. Find the small piece of tailbone that sticks out of the bottom of the bird. Use very sharp kitchen shears or a sharp knife to cut on one side of the backbone all the way to the top of the turkey. Then repeat on the other side to fully remove the backbone. Read more about this below. Press the turkey flat. Flip the turkey over and spread the turkey out flat. Press down so it lays fully flat. Make the compound butter. Combine the seasonings with the room-temperature butter and spread the mixture over the skin of the turkey, covering the breasts and thighs evenly. Add olive oil. Coat the turkey with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake the turkey. Cook until the thickest part of the turkey breast reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. You may need to cover the turkey with aluminum foil to prevent it from browning too much. Make a gravy. If desired, after the turkey has baked, and is resting, you can pour off the pan drippings to make a turkey gravy.
I prefer to use dried herbs in my compound butter rather than fresh herbs because they hold up to the high heat of the oven so much better. At the same time, they impart great flavor into the butter and the turkey. I made this recipe with a 15-pound turkey and it took about an hour and 20 minutes. If your bird is bigger or smaller than this, your spatchcock turkey cooking time will a little longer. This is why it is so important to use a thermometer and to check the temperature of the thickest part of the breast meat. If you want to freeze the leftovers, I have a great post with all of my tips for freezing leftover turkey!
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