By ShowMeStepByStepPublished Updated
Based on a video by Jacob Burton.
Spatchcocking is one cut. You take the backbone out, press the bird flat, and it roasts in roughly half the time with skin that actually crisps all over instead of only on top.
It is the single biggest improvement you can make to a roast turkey, and the only reason more people do not do it is that the bird no longer looks like the picture on the magazine cover. It carves better, it cooks evenly, and nobody at the table is eating dry breast meat while the thighs finish.
Roughly 6 to 7 minutes per pound at 450°F. A 14 lb bird lands around 70 to 80 minutes. A conventional roast of the same bird is closer to three hours.
Rough guide, oven at 450°F:
Go by temperature, not the clock. 165°F in the thickest part of the breast and 175°F in the thigh. Because the bird is flat, both hit their numbers at close to the same moment, which is the entire point.
A whole turkey is a thick, closed cavity. Heat has to work its way in from every side and the dense thigh meat sits furthest from the surface. Flattening the bird turns it into a single even layer maybe four inches thick, so the oven reaches all of it at once.
The second effect matters just as much. Every inch of skin is now facing up. On a conventional roast, the underside sits in its own juices and steams.
Anything up to about 16 lb spatchcocks comfortably and fits a standard half sheet pan. Above that the bird starts hanging over the edges, and you want a full sheet pan or two smaller birds. Two 10 lb turkeys cook faster than one 20 lb turkey and give you twice as much skin.
Frozen birds need to be fully thawed. You cannot cut through a partly frozen backbone with kitchen shears, and trying is how people cut themselves.
Heavy kitchen shears. Poultry shears if you have them, but any sturdy pair works. A knife is the wrong tool - the backbone has ribs joining it every inch and shears go through those in a series of short bites where a blade slips.
Cut down one side of the spine, then the other, and lift it out in one piece. Then press hard on the breastbone with the heel of your hand until you feel it give. It cracks. That is supposed to happen.
It is the best stock you will make all year, and it is free. Brown it in the roasting pan with an onion and cover with water while the bird is in the oven. The gravy is finished before the turkey comes out.
Salt the flattened bird and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight, ideally 24 hours. The salt draws moisture out, dissolves into it, and gets pulled back in seasoned. The surface dries out at the same time, and a dry surface is what crisps.
Skip the wet brine. It adds water to skin you are trying to dry out, and on a spatchcocked bird there is no cavity to hold it anyway.
Roasting too low. 450°F sounds aggressive and it is correct here - the bird is out before it can dry, and lower temperatures give you flabby skin.
Skipping the rest. 20 minutes minimum, and it will still be hot. Carving straight away puts the juice on the board instead of in the meat.
Crowding the pan. If vegetables are packed underneath, they steam the bird from below. Give it a rack, or accept that the underside will not crisp.
10 steps · about 9 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Put the turkey breast side down and cut along one side of the backbone with sharp kitchen shears.
It goes easily until you reach the joint where the thigh meets the hip. That part is tough, and it is exactly why you need proper poultry shears rather than scissors.
Tip
Cheap shears will fight you the whole way and can slip. This is the one job worth owning real poultry shears for.
Cut down the other side and lift the backbone free.
Keep it. With the neck and any trimmings it becomes stock, and you are going to want that for gravy.
Flip it skin side up and press down hard on the breastbone with both hands until you feel the keel bone crack.
That crack is the point. Until it goes, the bird springs back and will not lie flat.
Grab the bone through a towel if you push on it directly. It is sharper than you expect.
Boil a kettle and ladle the water over the skin.
You will see the skin tighten and shrink instantly. It renders a little fat out and, more importantly, pulls the skin taut across the bird.
This is one of two things that gets you genuinely crisp skin rather than flabby skin.
Weigh the bird and salt it with 1% salt by weight. For a 14 pound turkey that is about 64 grams.
Then put it skin side up, uncovered, in the fridge overnight.
Two things happen. The salt diffuses into the muscle and seasons the meat all the way through, and the uncovered air dries the skin surface out. Dry skin crisps; wet skin steams.
Tip
Weigh the salt rather than guessing. 1% by weight is the whole method and eyeballing it gets you a bird that is bland or inedible.
Brown the backbone and trimmings, then add onion, carrot and celery and let them take some colour.
Deglaze with white wine, cover with water, and let it go low and slow overnight.
This is the gravy base, and it is better than anything from a carton because it is made from the exact bird you are serving.
Lay the flattened bird on a rack over a roasting pan with a little water in the bottom.
That water turns to steam, and steam transfers heat far better than dry oven air, so the bird cooks faster. Meanwhile the skin on top stays in the dry air and browns.
Roast at 450F until the breast hits 150F, roughly five minutes per pound.
Rest for about 40 minutes before you cut anything.
That sounds like a long time and it is not optional. The internal temperature is still around 135F when you start carving, so it stays hot, and the resting is what keeps the juice in the meat instead of on the board.
Use that window for the gravy and the last of the sides.
Cut down along one side of the breastbone and take the whole breast off in one piece, then pull the tender off the back of it.
Flip the breast skin side down to slice it. Cutting through the meat first and the skin last stops you dragging and tearing the crisp skin you worked for.
Pull the wings apart and cut through the joint. Then the legs - underneath the thigh bone is a small plate of hip bone that pulls right off with your fingers.
A properly cooked spatchcocked bird comes apart easily, which is a good sign in itself.
Cross cut the thigh skin side down, flip it back for presentation, and leave the drumsticks whole.
Keep going
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How to Spatchcock a Turkey
How to Spatchcock a Turkey
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Question 1 of 5
What does spatchcocking a turkey actually mean?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.What does spatchcocking a turkey actually mean?
Answer: Removing the backbone and pressing the bird flat
The backbone comes out and the bird flattens, so it roasts as one even thickness.
2.Why does a flattened bird cook so much faster than a trussed one?
Answer: Everything sits at about the same thickness
Even thickness means the breast and thigh finish at roughly the same time.
3.You press hard on the breastbone until you feel a crack. Why does that crack matter?
Answer: The bird springs back until it cracks
The keel bone is what holds the curved shape, so it has to give before the bird stays flat.
4.Boiling water over the skin, then an uncovered night in the fridge. What are those two steps for?
Answer: Crisp skin instead of flabby skin
The water tightens the skin and the cold dry air pulls moisture out, and dry skin crisps.
5.Why flip the breast skin side down before you slice it?
Answer: So you cut the meat first and the skin last
Cutting down through skin drags and tears it, so you leave it for the final stroke.
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