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Ovens & Ranges

5 reasons to spatchcock your turkey this Thanksgiving

Crispy skin, juicy meat, and speedy cooking. What's not to love?

A person brushing a spatchcocked turkey with cooking oil Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

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When you think of Thanksgiving dinner, you probably envision a huge, round, whole-roasted turkey, trussed up and set at the center of your dining room table. It's beautiful, sure, but is it really the best way to prepare the iconic holiday bird?

No, definitely not. We cooked turkey three ways, and found that spatchcocking is a superior method in almost every way.

But what is spatchcocking, you ask? It's the culinary term for butterflying your bird and roasting, grilling, or smoking it while it's laid out flat. This method does require a little elbow grease, a lack of squeamishness, and a good pair of poultry shears, but in the end, it'll get you the best turkey you've ever tasted.

Here's why.

1. Your turkey will be ready faster

Spatchcocking can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend roasting your bird.

Opinions differ on how quickly you can cook a spatchcocked turkey. Serious Eats' J. Kenji Lopez-Alt—perhaps the internet's foremost spatchcocking evangelist—says you can cut the cooking time in half, to about 80 minutes. Mark Bittman of The New York Times, meanwhile, claims your turkey will be done in just 35 minutes.

Either way, your bird will cook a heck of a lot faster than the two to five hours Butterball says it'll take to roast a whole bird.

Why is it so much faster? Because a flat turkey cooks more evenly, it can handle higher heat. With a whole turkey, you have to keep it at a low temperature (around 325°F) to avoid overcooking and drying out the outermost layer.

When the bird is butterflied, you can crank up the heat (up to 450°F) without worry. As you'd imagine, the cooking time drops precipitously.

2. Your turkey will be crispier and juicier

A person removing a roasted spatchcocked turkey from the oven
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

Say goodbye to eating dry turkey meat.

One of the biggest benefits of spatchcocking your turkey is that it keeps the meat moist while providing you with crispy skin. According to López-Alt, this has to do with how the flattened turkey sits in the pan—all of the skin faces upward in open air, while the exposed meat is on the bottom.

That means the skin has plenty of uninterrupted dry heat to get nice and crispy, while the meat stews in all the fat and juices that render out, keeping it perfectly moist.

3. Your gravy and stuffing will be tastier, too

On left, person arranging chopped vegetables on baking sheet. On right hands placing spatchcocked turkey atop vegetables.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

Roasting your turkey on a bed of veggies means extra flavorful juices to make gravy afterwards.

We hear you: "But how can that be? You can't stuff a flat turkey!"

True. Technically, it won't be real "stuffing." (We'll save the stuffing vs. dressing debate for another day.) But whatever you choose to call it, your starchy stuff will be more flavorful (and more plentiful) if you use this method.

Roasting the spatchcocked turkey over a bed of mirepoix (cut-up onions, carrots, and celery) and thyme sprigs will add moisture to the oven during cooking, and give you more flavorful drippings for making gravy afterward.

If you're desperate for stuffing that's enhanced by the richness of turkey drippings, we recommend making your stuffing in a large casserole dish and laying browned turkey wings (purchased separately) over the top. You'll get all the flavor of the drippings without the hassle of scooping it out of the bird. Plus, this method allows you to prepare more stuffing than you'd be able to safely cram into a whole turkey's cavity (which isn't technically food-safe anyway).

4. You can spruce up your presentation

Sliced turkey on a baking sheet.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

Spatchcocking a turkey means you can easily carve your turkey before presenting it to guests.

Sure, a plump, whole-roasted turkey is an iconic Thanksgiving centerpiece, but it's not the most convenient mountain of meat to tackle come dinner time. Maybe your uncle takes pride in his hard-won carving skills, but meat that comes to the table ready to eat is preferable to us. Plus, who wants a half-carved carcass in the middle of the dinner table?

A spatchcocked turkey is far simpler to carve and can be just as visually appealing when presented the right way. Serious Eats and MarthaStewart.com each offer mouth-wateringly gorgeous ideas for how to plate the carved-up turkey to best effect.

5. There’s more than one way to spatchcock

The lid of a smoker lifted to reveal a smoked spatchcocked turkey.
Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Renzi

You can also smoke or grill a spatchcocked turkey.

A roasted spatchcocked turkey is crispier, juicier, and quicker than a conventional whole bird, but you can cook a butterflied bird in plenty of other ways.

If you want a different taste, you can smoke your spatchcocked turkey. If you're a hardcore smoking fanatic, feel free to use a smoker. The rest of us can do it on a regular charcoal grill.

We've covered a whole cornucopia of different turkey cooking techniques here at Reviewed, but none of them compare to the ease and speed of spatchcocking. Don't be intimidated by the butchering process; with a good pair of poultry shears—like our favorite comfortable, spring-loaded shears from OXO—you'll be done with the hard part in no time.

Product image of OXO Good Grips Spring-Loaded Poultry Shears
OXO Good Grips Spring-Loaded Poultry Shears

Our favorite poultry shears make spatchcocking turkey a breeze, thanks to the ergonomic handles, sharp blades, and spring-loaded design.

$28 at Amazon

So go ahead and give it a try! Who knows, maybe this year you'll actually want to eat some turkey along with all those great sides.

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