Foolproof Spatchcocked Turkey With Garlic-Thyme Butter
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If you’re looking to get your Thanksgiving main dish cooked in a flash—and tasting its best—this foolproof spatchcock turkey recipe is your golden ticket. Spatchcocking, or butterflying, is a technique commonly applied to chicken, but it’s also the key to cooking your Thanksgiving turkey evenly and quickly (we’re talking just over an hour of cooking time—and even less prep).
Allow us to explain: When roasting a whole turkey in the traditional manner, the lean breast meat is exposed to more heat and has a tendency to go dry (and nobody likes dry turkey breast). Once you know how to spatchcock a turkey, you may never go back to that old method. When you remove the backbone and press down on the breastbone, the turkey flattens, promoting evenly cooked light and dark meat and golden, crispy skin. Instead of a roasting pan, cooking the turkey on a wire rack set inside a sheet pan encourages the skin to crisp all over the bird while the drippings collect in the shallow pan below.
For the most flavorful turkey meat, dry-brine the bird with a simple mixture of salt, black pepper, and brown sugar. It may seem like a lot of salt; as it dissolves and penetrates the meat, the excess will drip into the bottom of the pan to be disposed of before the roast hits the oven. Be patient and let the turkey brine for at least 12 hours—this allows the skin to dry out and the seasoning to permeate the thickest part of the thighs and breasts. If any condensation has collected on the turkey’s skin, dab it dry with a paper towel, taking care not to rub off any remaining dry brine.
Rubbing seasoned butter underneath the skin before roasting adds flavor and eliminates the need for basting the turkey. We flavor the butter with thyme leaves, but feel free to add the fresh herbs of your choice.
Recipe information
Total Time
2 hours 15 minutes, plus brining
Yield
8–10 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Mix ¼ cup Diamond Crystal or 2 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. Morton kosher salt, 1 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper, and 1 Tbsp. light brown sugar in a small bowl; this is your dry brine.
Step 2
To spatchcock the turkey, place one 12–14-lb. turkey, neck and giblets removed, patted dry, breast side down, on a cutting board. Using sharp kitchen shears, cut along both sides of the backbone to remove it. Using a chef’s knife, make a small incision down the long oblong bone in the center of breast. Turn turkey skin side up and press down on breastbone to flatten—you should hear a crack.
Step 3
Place turkey, skin side up, on a wire rack set inside a large rimmed baking sheet. Rub dry brine all over turkey, pressing to adhere, and chill, uncovered, 12–18 hours. (The skin should look tight and dry.)
Step 4
Place a rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 425°. Remove wire rack with turkey from baking sheet; set aside. Rinse off excess salt from baking sheet and dry. Place a few layers of aluminum foil on baking sheet (this will make clean up much easier) and return rack with turkey to baking sheet. Tuck wing tips behind breast to prevent then from burning in the oven. Let sit at room temperature 30 minutes.
Step 5
Mix ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, ¼ cup thyme leaves, from 8–10 sprigs, and 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, in a small bowl. Using your hands, carefully separate skin from meat as best as you can and rub butter mixture under the skin. Rub turkey all over with 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil.
Step 6
Pour ½ cup water into baking sheet and roast spatchcock turkey, rotating baking sheet halfway through, until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of breast registers 150°, about 1 hour 25 minutes. (Start checking temperature after 1 hour, or use meat thermometer with a probe that you can leave in the breast while it roasts.) Transfer cooked turkey to a cutting board. Let turkey rest 15–20 minutes before carving.
Now onto the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner. Sweet potato casserole, roasted veggies, and more of our favorite Thanksgiving side dishes await →
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Reviews (7)
Back to Topso easy, so beautiful, so delicious! our first, but definitely not our last! thank you.
heidi_mac
fallbrook, ca
12/3/2023
Made a 11lb and followed the recipe to a T and it was amazing! Be sure to tuck the wing tips, have the bird in the middle of the oven (not just setting the rack in the middle). Mixed all the seasonings as directed but didn't use the full amounts to not over season due to it being an 11lb. I didn't tin foil under the wire rack so it would have more space for the drippings to fall down into. It was amazzzing. Temp hit 150 right at 1 hour 25 minutes.
Anonymous
Orlando, FL
11/24/2023
I did this recipe and made some modifications 1) cutting out the back bone required my game sheers and a small game saw to get through the bones. 2) when breaking the rib bones my Apple Watch thought something happened and wanted to call 911 because of the pressure required to break the ribs flat. 3) when the bones were broken and I laid the bird flat but the legs were too big for my flat pan, so I removed the thighs and used two pans. One for breast and one on another rack for thighs. 4) I used the method of 300F for 45 mins, rotate and 45 mins for 300F and 400F convection for last 25 minutes. It was perfectly brown all over !! 5) I used butter injected in the breast and thighs Perfectly juicey and very tasty!
Redbull Wi
Wisconsin
12/24/2022
My review is for the method rather than the recipe, since I have been using the Brown Sugar Cured Turkey recipe since I saw it in my issue of Bon Appetite in 2004 (<a href="https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brown-sugar-cured-turkey-with-wild-mushroom-shallot-gravy-4378" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer ugc">https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brown-sugar-cured-turkey-with-wild-mushroom-shallot-gravy-4378</a>) Although I spatchcock chickens all of the time this was my first attempt with a big bird: 18 lbs! It was not a great time to realize my poultry shears were not up to the job but after wrestling a bit I got it done and boy, was it worth it. I adjusted my times for a larger turkey: 300F for 45 minutes, rotated, 300 for another 45 minutes, then 400 for another 45. I couldn't believe it when my thermometer registered 162 in both the breast and thighs. I will never do a turkey any other way. Even the leftover breast meat is juicy and delicious.
Tam
Seattle, WA
11/27/2022
I cannot believe this is the first time I made a spatchcocked turkey. It made the whole Thanksgiving process so much easier. This recipe was fabulous. The turkey was so moist that no gravy was needed.
KB
Long Island
11/26/2022
Best turkey I've ever made. So easy, fast, and delicious. It was a bit of a process to butterfly the bird, though it was well worth it as it was done cooking in 1.5 hours. The garlic thyme butter combination was perfect. Definitely brine it and use high-quality butter, fresh thyme, etc. Thank you for this recipe!
Anonymous
Hawaii
11/25/2022
I just got into spatchcocking my chickens, and I’ve been extremely pleased with the results so it was with interest when I saw this for turkey. Right off the bat, though I saw some concerns with this recipe the first one cooking it at 425°. I chose to cook it at the temperature I normally use for chicken which is around 325. I also saw no reason to put butter under the skin and I have to say the results were fantastic… one of the most moist turkeys I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Total cook time for a 10 pound turkey was about 2 1/2 hours or so using my my gas grill with indirect heat, and that’s bringing it up to an internal temperature of 165°. I have no idea why they recommend 150.
Jay Robertson
Suquamish WA
11/24/2022
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