Today we cook a Spatchcock Turkey.
December 2020, oh how plans changed at the last moment.
We were due to go to my parents and then the government changed the rules again and we had to stay at home.
Our lodger at the time as a turkey ready for Christmas Day and as her plans also had to change, I tried to cook it, rotisserie style.
I burnt the outside but the bird was cooked at least (learn, no sugar rubs with high heat).
Anyway, recently I saw an offer on turkeys at a local shop, £8, not per kg, just £8!
I sifted through and chose the biggest one I could find, thinking I would try on the BBQ again, this time spatchcocking it.
After defrosting for 4 days, I spatchcocked the bird, dried it off as best I could, put it on a rack and back into the fridge to dry the skin out some more in an attempt to make sure of crispy skin when cooking.
Now being an £8 bird, I was not expecting this to be a great turkey so wanted to make sure of getting flavour into it.
About 4 hours cooking, I took the turkey from the fridge, melted an entire block of butter, mixed in some Angus & Oink Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Rub and proceeded to inject just about anywhere I could. It had to remain juicy and full of flavour.
The butter solidified quite quickly, I knew I would need drip trays.
With the smoker up at 400F it was time to put this spatchcock turkey in for it’s cook.
Oh yes, I needed the drip trays, but the butter that was landing was burning off mostly so lots of smoke. However, it wasn’t pouring out so the bird was retaining it!
It also cooked quicker than I thought. Just over 1.5 hours after going in, the breast was temping at 166f so time to take it off and rest.
When probing to check the temp, there was a couple of small fountains of liquid, this is a very juicy bird!
And with resting done, time to carve.
I cut the wings and legs off and then removed the breasts for slicing, some needed cutting off the carcass separately so some shredded breast as well as sliced.
It was juicy, it was flavourful, some bits were a little tough (which I kinda expected with a cheap bird) and the skin….only the wings got crispy, the rest was chewy mostly.
But I am still happy with the overall result
More cheap turkeys
