Spatchcocked Turkey

I would guess a 10lb turkey would still take over 3 hours to get to 165 at breast, although I am just going by the estimate of 20 to 25 minutes per pound at 275 that I saw online. I am not sure how accurate those estimates are though.

You've motivated me to try a spatchcocked one too in the Cookshack.  Here is my plan below. The recipe is the YouTube video you sent plus a gravy recipe from Fine Cooking.  I haven't tried any of this before so I am not recommending it. Even though I have a lot of directions below on the gravy, I will pretty much wing that as I don't know what to expect with the drippings.  My main concern is to slowly add any smoked drippings while tasting to ensure I don't get too much smoke flavor since I never tried gravy before with cookshack drippings.

Smoked Spatchcocked Turkey on Cookshack

10 - 12 lb turkey that is already store-brined (such as Butterball turkey)
1 stick butter, softened at room temperature overnight
salt and coarse black pepper
2 medium to large yellow onions, unpeeled and cut into eighths
2 medium carrots, unpeeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 medium ribs celery, cut into 1-inch chunks

Cooking Wood:
1 chunk of pecan (3 ounces or less)

RICH TURKEY BROTH:
2 tsp vegetable oil
Giblets (liver discarded), neck, and backbone from the turkey (cut into 1-inch pieces)
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped

PAN GRAVY:
Defatted drippings from drip pan below the turkey (add slowly and taste - don't add all at once to avoid a gravy that has too much smoke flavor)
2 Tbs Cognac
1/2 cup dry vermouth
2 1/2 cups Rich Turkey Broth
2 tsp lightly chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat the smoker to 275 degrees with 1 chunk of wood. Add the vegetables to a roasting pan and place below the rack that the turkey is on to collect the drippings for gravy.

Spatchcock the turkey (do not discard the back bone or giblets which will be used for gravy, although liver should be discarded).

With skin side down, drizzle olive oil all over the inside. Season with kosher salt and coarse black pepper.

Flip the turkey over and distribute the the stick of softened butter under the skin over breast and thigh meat.

Spread olive oil over the skin. Season the skin side with kosher salt and coarse black pepper.

Place turkey in the smoker. Insert temperature probe into the thickest part of the breast. Cook until breast meat is 165 degrees.

FOR RICH TURKEY BROTH:
Heat the oil in a 5 quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the giblets (don't use the liver), neck, back pieces, and onion; sauté until the giblets lose their raw color and the onion softens and begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes; the turkey parts will release a lot of liquid. Add 1 qt. water, bring to a boil, partially cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium low or low, and simmer gently until the broth is flavorful, about another 30 minutes. Strain the broth into a fat separator or a 1-qt. heatproof measuring cup. Let sit until the fat rises to the surface and then pour off or skim the fat from the broth.

FOR PAN GRAVY:

1. Without scraping off any of the fond, strain pan drippings through a fine-mesh sieve; discard solids. Defat the drippings with a fat separator and set aside.

2. Set the roasting pan with the any remaining fond over two burners set on medium high. Add the Cognac, vermouth, and 1/2 cup of the rich turkey broth (not the smoked drippings but the broth made from the back bone); cook, stirring with a wooden spoon or wooden spatula to loosen the browned bits in the pan, until the liquid comes to a simmer. Strain the contents of the roasting pan through a large sieve and into a large saucepan. Add the remaining 2 cups turkey broth and the thyme to the saucepan.

3. Add a little of the reserved smoked drippings at a time while tasting to ensure you don’t get too strong of a smoked flavor in the gray.

4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce the heat and let simmer to blend the flavors, about 5 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, put the cream in a small bowl and whisk the flour into the cream to make a smooth paste. Gradually whisk the cream mixture into the turkey broth mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to low, and gently simmer to thicken the gravy and cook off the raw flour flavor, about 10 minutes. Keep hot until ready to serve.

I'm not doing gravy, but otherwise that's my plan. I agree on the 3 oz or less wood, and that's Smokin's recommendation in his Turkey 101. I'll probably go with cherry or peach. I have a ten pound Butterball thawing in the fridge. I guess I'll plan for about 3 1/2 hours and keep close track. It'll be fun to compare notes afterward!

(Smokin's other rec is to never plan to serve guests your first try at anything new. Oh well...)

Also, I'm thinking to take it off at 160F in the breast to allow for some carryover heat to bring it up to 165.

Followup: I followed the youtube video method pretty closely. It was actually pretty easy after I managed to get the backbone off (next time I'll use a heavy knife or buy better kitchen shears). The 10 pounder just fit in my SM066. Since I had a quarter pound of butter under the skin of the breasts and thighs, I opted to use a 9 x 13 drip pan on a shelf under the turkey, with the pan lined with foil to extend its drip collection range.

The video example was 15 lbs at 275F for four hours. I allotted 3 1/2 hours with a possibility of 4. Well, the darned thing took just a bit over five hours to get the breast to 165, even though I boosted the temp to 300F (the limit of the SM066) at 4 hours. No real damage, just an unexpectedly late dinner. But, oh man, was it good. The breast meat was tender and juicy, the dark meat was perfect, and the smoke flavor was great (I used 2.5 oz of peach wood in three small chunks).

I am thinking that in using the drip pan the way I did, I really impacted the heat flow under the turkey. If I do this again (as I am being urged), I'll maybe just depend on the smoker's grease removal process, or maybe just a small pan to protect the top of the wood box to avoid any flare-up.

All-in-all, very satisfying result, even if frustrating ("Is it done yet??"). I'd read about smoked spatchcock turkey, but probably wouldn't have tried it without having watched the video.

Looking for bobmc's update!

I'd been using kitchen shears for years..

I replaced them with a pair of poultry shears a couple months ago and have NEVER been so happy!

I wrote "kitchen" but they really are poultry shears, just not very good ones. I need a bigger one with loop handles and a sharper blade. I'd never spatchcocked a turkey before. Chickens are a piece of cake in comparison.

I just wanted to post an update on my spatchcocked turkey.  I scrapped the entire plan to experiment with some of the Cookshack drippings in a gravy.  I just didn't feel like dealing with that while also whipping up potatoes and getting the stuffing out of the oven.  I did a 10 lb turkey at 275 degrees with 2 ½ oz of pecan wood.  The seasoning was the just salt and pepper with softened butter under the skin and olive oil over the skin as shown in the YouTube video shared above.

It is interesting that I had the opposite experience than @jay1924 in that my turkey finished quicker than I expected.  I will post a picture of my timer below, but I hit 165 in the breast at 2 hours and 22 minutes.  The only difference is I didn't have any sort of heat deflector in the Cookshack and Jay used a 9 x 13 drip pan on a shelf under the turkey.  I would expect that to make a difference but it is surprising that it sounds like it took his turkey almost twice as long to finish.

The turkey tasted great.  The breast meat was moist, although next time I will probably pull the turkey at 160 at the breast.  I liked the pecan but I think I will try a softer fruit wood next time.   I was thinking apple wood but peach sounds interesting to try too.

It is hard to imagine you could fit a turkey any larger than 12 lbs spatchcocked in an SM025, SM045, or SM066.  Here is a picture below of a 10 lb turkey on the Cookshack rack.  12 lbs might be really pushing it.  The good thing is I could easily 3 or more 10-lbers in the SM066 if I need to cook for a crowd.  But because most of us prefer the dark meat in my house, I would probably just put turkey thighs on the other shelf/ shelves next time and let the healthier dorks fight for the white meat.

Wow, that IS amazing! I used the drip pan because I was afraid of a flare-up with 1/4 lb of melted butter dripping on the heat shield. Then I guess I compounded the problem by using heavy foil to widen the drip catch area of the pan. Did you have any kid of flare-up problem? On the positive side, the smoker was really easy to clean up afterward! Glad it worked out well. THe outcome was so good I'll definitely be trying this again. Great pics, BTW.

Changed my ID - great outcome, I'm assuming we'll both do again!

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