How to Spatchcock a Turkey | Traeger Staples

hi I'm Dennis Prescott today we are making lemon coriander spatchcocked turkey with a jerk butter [Music] so really whenever you're making poultry of any kind turkey chicken you definitely want to take the time to brine that bird that is the difference between a super juicy turkey and something that's a little bit dry so we're gonna get our brine ready to go first in here we've got some water to that I'm gonna add some brown sugar and a nice bit of sea salt and I don't want to bring this water to a boil I just want it to be nicely warmed through so that the sugar and the salt dissolve into the water after they have I'm gonna let this cool slightly and then we're gonna crack on with the next step what I want to do next is grab these beautiful oranges and lemons citrus just goes so perfectly with Turkey and it's gonna help to flavor the brine we're gonna go in with these oranges and lemons a nice bit black peppercorns and our aromatics we've got some fresh thyme and rosemary that's gonna go into the pot I already smell all of those beautiful aromatics coming out and then we're gonna go in with the turkey so with the turkey I have the neck and the giblets removed already from this you definitely want to keep these put them to the side that's what goes into your gravy into your stock or any other way that you find to use these don't waste them they're gold but with our turkey we're gonna go right in with the brine and we just want to make sure that that's submerged and then that's going to go into a refrigerator where we're gonna leave it to sit for six hours minimum best-case scenario 24 hours that gives us time to add a flavoring agent to that bird today we're gonna make a jerk compound butter it is really gonna set your turkey apart it's unique it's not the turkey that you're used to but your friends and we'll definitely love it and the nice thing about compound butters is they store so well you can make them weeks ahead of time put them in the freezer days ahead of time put them in the fridge and they're ready to go this is beautiful on steak it's beautiful on pork and today we're gonna use it with our turkey so in a bowl a nice chunk of butter to that we're gonna add some spring onions just finely dice them about two tablespoons worth and then in this bowl we're gonna go in with a little bit of maple syrup for sweetness we've got some allspice nutmeg and some cayenne pepper the combination of allspice cayenne and nutmeg is beautiful it reminds you of being somewhere in the Caribbean just a really unique flavor and with Turkey honestly it's just gonna be the star of the show we're gonna add some ginger to that too and a nice hit of lemon juice the freshness that citrus is gonna compliment really well with the citrus that we add it to the brine then the last thing that we want to do is add some fresh thyme leaves to this once you have about two tablespoons worth of time in here we're gonna give this a nice mix and then just grab a fork give it a mix once everything's worked through you're good to go so when your butter is all mixed together and ready to go like I said we're gonna transfer this to the fridge we'll let that sit when it's turkey time we're gonna pull that out and then we'll rub the inside of that turkey with this compound butter okay so our Turkey has been brining for 24 hours we let it sit overnight the brine has done its job next step is just to pull it out of the brine and we're gonna add that to a board so with this turkey we're gonna spatchcock this that means we're gonna take the backbone out of it and flatten it out that is gonna make the cooking process a lot shorter and also it makes for the crispiest skin you've ever had in your entire life and there's nothing better than crispy turkey skin so if you've never spatchcocked a turkey before or a chicken honestly it's much easier than you think it just takes a little time a little bit of extra effort but it's well worth it and it sets that turkey apart from kind of the normal bird that you're used to eating at Thanksgiving or Christmas or some kind of celebration so we have it here breast side down the backbone runs straight through their bird here and we're going to get some kitchen shears or if you have a cleaver a sharp knife whatever you have on hand just make sure that you're safe have a steady hand and you know what you're doing and then we're going to take this knife remove any of the excess skin from the back of the bird and slowly but surely working through this bird we're going to remove the backbone and once you've made it through one side of the bird we're just gonna flip it around and continue running our shears down the other side and then we'll remove the backbone then once you're done just take that backbone we've removed that for now definitely keep that you remember we reserved the neck and the giblets from earlier this is liquid gold you want to keep that for your gravy for your stock set that aside definitely do not toss this away then what you want to do is just flip this bird around and we're gonna tuck the legs underneath here just like so and then strong and steady hand just give it a nice crack that's gonna break the chest plate on this and then we're ready to stuff okay so our turkey is all ready to go I've got that compound butter that we made earlier I am just gonna spoon that over here and stuff is absolutely much as I can up underneath the skin don't be shy this is gonna work its way into the turkey as it cooks it's gonna flavor it it's gonna help it to stay super moist it's gonna taste incredible the last thing I want to do is grab a spice mill here I really want to add kind of an extra hit of deliciousness to the outside of this turkey and keeping in line with the flavoring that we have going on things like nutmeg and allspice and thyme and ginger I've got some coriander seeds so I'm just gonna add that to the spice mill and grind these and that smell is absolutely beautiful super fragrant it's gonna marry really well with the other flavors we have going on we're gonna hit the top of this turkey it's with a little bit of olive oil nice pinch of sea salt don't be shy hit a black pepper and then we're gonna go on with this coriander seed and you really need to get your hands in there rub this bird all over make sure that all of those flavors are coating every single last part and then once you're all done once this is rubbed we're going to just transfer this over to our sheet pan that we've prepared and we already have our trigger grill preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit this turkey is going to go on there it's probably going to take about 2 to 3 hours but we're gonna check it for temperature throughout the cooking process for pellets we have the turkey blend in here today oak hickory maple and just a hint of rosemary those flavors are gonna complement beautifully with our turkey so we're gonna add the turkey under the grill we're probably looking at about two to three hours but really it's all about temperature every bird is different every bird weighs a different weight so what we're looking for is a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit when we take that off the grill the turkey is gonna continue to cook because of the internal temperature that the turkey is at the residual heat will continue to rise to 165 degrees Fahrenheit which is the perfect temperature for turkey it's gonna create the most juicy moist turkey you've ever had in your entire life so let's add it to the grill and then let's come back and check on it in a couple hours [Music] like I said before it's all about temperature you never want to cook the time because every turkey is different every bird is different and they all take a different amount of time about 160 degrees is where we are hoping to be [Music] and we're perfect we're right at 160 degrees so I know I can pull this off right now as it rests I'm gonna let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes the internal temperature of the turkey is going to increase to 165 degrees that is exactly where we want to be for the perfect turkey so we've let our bird rest we've given it the time that it needs the only thing left to do is carve up so I'm just gonna grab my serving platter here grab a sharp knife and we just want to separate this at the joint the beautiful thing about spatchcocking is this skin is so crispy it's gonna taste incredible we're just gonna remove the wings here this is my favorite part I keep the wing for myself because I don't like to share them so really the last thing we want to do is break down these turkey breasts we're just going to slice them into generous portions they're absolutely beautiful so this is definitely enough Turkey for a big family obviously you can see we've got some leftovers here best next day sandwiches you can use this in a million different ways I'm gonna serve this up really the last thing I want to do is I'm gonna garnish this we added these oranges to the brine obviously they added a beautiful amount of flavor so we're gonna garnish them with a little bit of orange and I know that in the turkey blend pellets there was a hint of rosemary we're gonna garnish with a little bit of rosemary for color and it's a beautiful aroma as well and then you're ready to serve for this and many more recipes head to trigger grilles dot-com slash recipes or download the app [Music]

Channel: Traeger Grills

Views: 78,469

Keywords: Traeger, Traeger Grills, Traegering, Pellet Grills, Wood Pellet Grills, BBQ, Grilling, Pellet Smokers, Grills, thanksgiving, thanksgiving recipes, how-to

Id: MvbaLiLUoH8

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 02 2019