Spatchcocking
Spatchcocking
A few years back, I started cooking poultry by taking out the back bone. This process is called spatchcocking. Although vulgar sounding this process is highly effective and functional. It makes your bird cook drastically faster. It lays flat while brining and cooking so you can keep your space in your refrigerator(more cold white wine to keep your in laws content) and cooking other things in your oven as your turkey will not take up the whole oven. You can cook a turkey in as little as 1 hour 20 minutes.
I know I can hear you now ”My Grandmother did not do it that way!”. Well Lord knows your Grandma was not eating Lean Cuisine either. Change is okay. Others might boast that they cannot stuff their turkey if it lays flat. Well if you have not heard by now stuffing your bird is begging to get your whole family sick as the stuffing rarely gets to temp(165 degrees) before your outside of your bird is black.
You can achieve this technique in a few short steps:
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Find yourself a good pair of kitchen scissors or poultry shears. Cut as close to the back bone as possible on both sides of thebackbone. Save the backbone as you can make stock for your gravy. (Please tell me you did not buy gravy in a pouch)
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Open up the bird flat and press done on t
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he sternum of the bird as like you were giving CPR and press until it lays pretty flat. You will hear a crack or two.
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Tuck the wings under the bird.
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You can go ahead and brine your bird now yet many turkeys you buy at the store are already in a 10-20% solution already. More brining might affect how crispy you can get your skin.
