Questions regarding spatchcocking and smoking a turkey

[Cook_in_Colorado]

Greetings!

I am LOVING my 3D!!  I appreciate all of the wisdom and recipes posted!  After smoking a variety of items, I am convinced that the best advice and recipes are found here, since no other smoker recipes equate.

Last Thanksgiving, I spatchcocked a dry-brined turkey (cornish hen blind taste test showed that dry brining was preferred over wet brining by the family) and roasted it - high temp - in the oven.  It cooked SO quickly, my day felt ruined.  The timing was off by half of a day.  Then, the sides were ruined as I un-successfully raced to catch up.  It was a disaster. 

This year, since I have the 3D, I'm going to smoke the turkey.  I bought a 13 pound hen, after reading about the low temp/danger zone issues with larger birds and bacteria growth.  I am struggling to find a recipe with timings for a spatchcocked, 13ish pound turkey (again trying to have it all timed generally correctly), so I bought two chickens to test out timings.  My goal was to equate 5.5lb chicken cooking times to the 13 pound turkey.

I wet brined both, spatchcocked one and set the SI to 235.  They were on the same rack, breasts down (since that's how I roast a bird in the oven) and probes in each breast, with a IT goal of 160.  The intact bird cooked faster than the spatchcocked one, which goes against every pro-spatchcock post I can find.  I thought I had reversed the probes, but double checked my results were correct.       

I used 4oz combination of apple, wild cherry, almond wood shreds and loved that mix.

I also cooked 2 turkey legs (so amazing, and skin was not rubbery) with the SI probe in one and they cooked so quickly, the SI shut off.  By the time the intact chicken reached IT of 160 - breast - (spatchcocked chicken was IT breast 155), dinner was really late and I forgot to snap a photo.  But, the juices were not clear and I found it sort of gross, so I put both in the oven to finish.  This split the skin, which was fairly intact when coming off of the SI. 
 
Until I got the thermoworks smoke thermometer, I had never paid so much attention to charting temps, and my IT temps were always overshot.   

My questions are this:
1) Perhaps spatchcocking at a low temp makes the faster cooking time irrelevant?
2) Perhaps spatchcocking at a low temp is still a good idea to evenly cook the turkey?
3) Perhaps leaving the turkey intact will result in an evenly cooked turkey, in the SI, since it's so efficient?
4) Will a breast IT of 165 ruin the bird?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Deb

 

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[Grady]

I want a show of hands of all the folks that read this thread and instantly googled "spatchcocking"? 

[LarryD]

I want a show of hands of all the folks that read this thread and instantly googled "spatchcocking"? 

With rubbing butts, injecting meat, big breasts, probing, and everything else that is perfectly on-topic, you'd swear a 12 year old was involved in all of the language somehow.

I wet brined both, spatchcocked one and set the SI to 235.  They were on the same rack, breasts down (since that's how I roast a bird in the oven) and probes in each breast, with a IT goal of 160.  The intact bird cooked faster than the spatchcocked one, which goes against every pro-spatchcock post I can find.  I thought I had reversed the probes, but double checked my results were correct.       

I've never spatchcocked and probably won't...  despite being over the recommended size, I did a 16 lb ish Turkey whole last year and it was done so fast that I don't know how it could have possible ever been unsafe.  I always brine and that may be what makes the difference...  it seems brining is known to speed cooking.  I'll have to keep following this thread to see what others think.  It's interesting to me that your spatchcocked bird actually cooked slower.  Of course, every bird is technically unique so it could just be random variance over which you have no control.

[Cook_in_Colorado]

I agree that this could have been a fluke OR I think maybe a 5.5lb chicken was too small of a specimen for my experiment/comparison to a turkey. 

I bought a second turkey - about 13lbs but organic and it seems smaller than the conventional 13lb bird...

My plan was to wet brine/thaw the turkey for 3 days and then spatchcock and dry brine for 3 days; but both "fresh" turkeys are still frozen, after 3 days in a brine - chilled in the fridge. 

I always (wet) brine also, convinced it makes a better product. 

Dry brining produces amazing skin in the oven (higher heat) and since my chicken skin (smoked at 250) - only wet brined and then smoked - was nearly amazing, I had hoped that wet then dry brining would produce crispy skin, even in the smoker. 

I guess that experiment shall be for another day.

What I do know is that the SI is going to produce the best turkey I've ever made; my first one in the SI but it is such a great smoker, I'm confident in my claim.  Since I have 2 turkeys, I may spatchcock one and leave the other intact.  I think the 3D will hold both without needing to spatchcock either, but I feel like I need closure on this; and maybe help someone else who's overthinking a smoked turkey...

On a side note, I am going to smoke the sausage, first time ever, that I'm using in my dressing.  I have smoked mushrooms before and the flavor was overwhelming. 

I'm thinking I should have smoked my pumpkin for the pie...next time...

[es1025]

I have smoked turkey breasts for years, 165 is a good temp. If you brine, the bird will be perfect.

[Cook_in_Colorado]

OK - an update for anyone with the same questions -

I bought a 13lb costco turkey - conventionally raised
I also bought a 13lb whole foods turkey - organic

The organic turkey looked substantially better/healthier bird

They were both "fresh" but frozen when purchased and I put them in my freezer until I was ready to brine.

I used the Chez Panisse brine recipe, except I didn't plan for the juniper berries so added rosemary and added half of the salt because I was going to wet brine for days: my version of the brine:

1 cup kosher salt
2 gallons water
1 cup sugar
2 bay leaves, torn up
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 head of garlic, smashed
5 allspice berries, smashed
4 sprigs rosemary (instead of 4 juniper berries, smashed)

My initial plan was to wet brine/thaw for 3 days, and then dry brine for 3 days, but at the end of 3 days of wet brine, the turkeys were still frozen.  And so, they wet brined for 6 days.  The brine smelled amazing and my fridge smelled amazing too.

I spatchcocked the organic bird and left the costco bird intact.  I ladled boiling water over both birds, after poking holes in the skin.  I think this is why the IT at minute 0 was higher than expected on the intact turkey. 

I placed the birds on the same rack, with the intact bird to the back of the SI, spatchcocked bird closer to the SI's door.

The spatchcocked turkey started with an IT breast of 36.3, intact one was 43.5.  The SI was set at 250.  I used 4oz of almond, cherry and apple wood shreds.

At minute 90, the intact bird IT was 127.2 and the spatchcocked was 123.6 

At minute 120, the intact bird IT was 154.9 and the spatchcocked was 157.9....I turned the SI temp to 225 but this did not slow the cooking time. 

At minute 150, the spatchcocked bird's breast reached an IT of 165.2.  I failed to note what the intact bird was at, freaking out that my turkeys were cooking WAY faster than planned.

At minute 165, the intact bird's breast registered at 165.