Spatchcock Turkey is the easiest way to prepare your Thanksgiving turkey if you’re on a time crunch. Your turkey will cook more quickly and evenly than a typical roast turkey, resulting in a perfectly cooked, juicy, and flavorful bird.
If you want a turkey done in under 2 hours. this is the method that you need to use!.
Are you looking for a show-stopping Thanksgiving turkey recipe that’s bursting with flavor and surprisingly easy to make? Look no further than the herb butter spatchcock turkey. This culinary masterpiece combines the juicy tenderness of a spatchcock turkey with the irresistible richness of herb butter, creating a dish that’s sure to impress your guests and leave them wanting more.
What is a Spatchcock Turkey?
Before diving into the deliciousness of herb butter let’s talk about the spatchcock technique. Essentially, spatchcocking involves removing the backbone of a turkey allowing it to lay flat and cook more evenly. This method not only reduces cooking time significantly but also ensures perfectly crispy skin and juicy, flavorful meat throughout.
Two Amazing Herb Butter Spatchcock Turkey Recipes:
To help you master this culinary delight, we’ve compiled two fantastic herb butter spatchcock turkey recipes from renowned culinary sources:
1. Herb-Rubbed Crisp-Skinned Butterflied Roast Turkey by Serious Eats:
This recipe from Serious Eats focuses on creating a flavorful herb butter that’s rubbed under the skin and painted on the surface of the turkey. The result is a crispy-skinned, juicy bird infused with the aromatic goodness of herbs like parsley, sage, thyme, and chives.
Key Ingredients:
- 10-15 pound turkey, butterflied and brined
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped chives
- 1/4 cup parsley leaves
- 1/4 cup sage leaves
- 2 tablespoons thyme leaves
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 stick butter
- Salt and pepper
Recipe Highlights:
- Flavorful Herb Butter: The combination of garlic, chives, parsley, sage, and thyme creates a vibrant herb blend that infuses the turkey with incredible flavor.
- Crispy Skin: The spatchcocking technique and high oven temperature ensure perfectly crispy skin that’s irresistible.
- Fast Cooking Time: This recipe cooks the turkey in under 90 minutes, making it ideal for busy Thanksgiving cooks.
2. Lemon Herb Butter Roast Spatchcock Turkey by Plays Well With Butter:
This recipe from Plays Well With Butter features a zesty lemon herb butter that adds a bright, refreshing twist to the classic Thanksgiving turkey. The combination of lemon zest, rosemary, sage, and thyme creates a harmonious flavor profile that’s both comforting and exciting.
Key Ingredients:
- 10-12 pound turkey, spatchcocked
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
- 1 tablespoon chopped sage
- 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
- Salt and pepper
Recipe Highlights:
- Zesty Lemon Flavor: The addition of lemon zest adds a bright, refreshing touch to the herb butter, making it perfect for Thanksgiving or any time of year.
- Easy Herb Butter: This recipe uses a simple blend of herbs that are readily available and easy to work with.
- Versatile Recipe: This recipe can be easily adapted to your preferences by adding different herbs or spices to the butter.
Tips for the Perfect Herb Butter Spatchcock Turkey:
- Brine your turkey: Brining helps to keep the turkey moist and flavorful.
- Use high-quality butter: The quality of your butter will significantly impact the flavor of your herb butter.
- Don’t overcook the turkey: Use a meat thermometer to ensure the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.
- Let the turkey rest: Allow the turkey to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving to ensure juicy, tender meat.
The herb butter spatchcock turkey is a delicious and impressive dish that’s perfect for Thanksgiving or any special occasion. With its crispy skin, juicy meat, and flavorful herb butter, this recipe is sure to become a family favorite. Whether you choose the Serious Eats or Plays Well With Butter recipe, you’re in for a culinary treat that will leave your taste buds singing.
Additional Resources:
- How to Spatchcock a Turkey: https://playswellwithbutter.com/how-to-spatchcock-a-turkey/
- The Food Lab’s Definitive Guide to Buying, Prepping, Cooking, and Carving Your Holiday Turkey: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-labs-definitive-guide-to-buying-prepping-cooking-and-carving-your-holiday-turkey
extra tip for crisp poultry skin
Whether it’s a whole turkey or chicken, I always let them rest in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered, to let some of the moisture evaporate from their skin.
This will help you get a perfectly crisp skin every time.
Next, combine all the ingredients for the spice rub and apply it under and on top of the meat to allow it to absorb the delicious butter.
Additionally, just like with prime rib, you can sear the skin to make it crispier by increasing the oven temperature to 450F for the first 30 minutes and then lowering it to 350F for the remaining cook time.
What is a spatchcock turkey?
A whole chicken or turkey can also be prepared using the spatchcock technique, which involves removing the backbone and butterflying the bird to lay it as flat as possible on a roasting pan.
By laying it down flat and removing the bone, this accomplishes a couple things:
- Level surface: You’re maximizing the exposure to heat because the turkey isn’t on a level surface but rather has a rounded bird shape (man, I love technical terms).
- Cooked evenly: Now that the turkey is arranged flat, it cooks more evenly. It will be more difficult to prevent the breast from drying out while waiting for the legs to finish cooking because leg meat takes longer to cook than breast meat. This is why one method to try and prevent turkeys from drying out is to stuff and bast the carcass.
- Crispy skin: Everyone loves a turkey with crispy skin. Spatchcock turkey has a crisp skin each and every time. The skin’s moisture can evaporate more quickly due to the larger surface area exposed to the heat, resulting in gorgeous, crisp, golden skin.
