Spatchcock Turkey • Easy and Juicy Turkey Recipe {Video} • Two Purple Figs

Once you have your whole turkey defrosted, place it on a non stick surface like this baking sheet above. Have the turkey lay down in such a way that the back bone is facing up.

Use a sharp scissors on one hand, and hold the turkey back bone using the other, start to cut on one side of the bone.

Now cut the other side of the back bone exactly the same way. You should have the entire back bone come out as shown above. Now stretch open the cavity of the turkey where the back bone has been removed to open up the turkey as best as you can. Remove any extra bones sticking out.

Flip the turkey so the breast is facing up now. Use the palms of your hands and press firmly on the breast bone until it cracks and flattens out. You may need a rolling pin to crack it if it’s too hard, that depends on the size of your turkey. Likewise, feel free to remove any excess bones that are pointing out in the breast area.

At that point the turkey will be flat and you’ve successfully spatchcocked a turkey! Time to move on to the next step.

Brining the turkey is a critical step to extra juicy meat and super flavorful turkey. This requires an overnight wait time, which is ideal the night before thanksgiving.

You’ll need a large roasting pan to fit the turkey and cold water in that pan. You’ll add equal amounts of salt and sugar and dissolve that in the water.

Then you’ll go in with flavorings: quartered onions, whole garlic cloves, orange slices, fresh herbs, whole peppercorns is what we used today.

The prepared turkey goes in to the brine solution overnight. Make sure it’s submerged into the water so that it absorbs the flavors and juices to the max. If you don’t have a large enough pan, then make sure to flip the bird halfway through the brining.

The next day, when you’re ready to flavor and roast the turkey, you’ll need to first remove it from the brine. Place it on a kitchen towel lined baking sheet to absorb any excess water.

Pat the turkey dry on all sides.

To allow maximum seasoning and flavoring of the spatchcock turkey recipe, you’ll start by separating the skin from the meat in a gentle way without removing it.

You want to create space in between to add in your seasoning and butter, while still maintaining the skin intact. Your hands are the best tool for that.

To flavor this spatchcock turkey recipe, we use lots of BUTTER and the spice blend above.

You can basically here be as creative as you’d like. Our favorite base spices include: Salt and pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and pinch of nutmeg.

We blend all that with the butter along with some orange zest. The perfect citrus for turkey is orange, so we love adding notes of orange along the recipe.

Make sure the butter you use is at room temperature so it spreads easily over the turkey. Blend all ingredients together in a bowl and start using your hands again.

Go in between the turkey skin and meat and spread a layer of the flavored butter. Press down the skin to make sure the butter spreads evenly and then go on top of the skin as well. Make sure to flip the turkey and repeat the same process. You’ll need the butter to cover as much of the bird as possible.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. You need to start with a high temperature here to get the skin really golden and crisp skin. In the meantime prepare the roasting pan. Layer some onion slices, whole garlic cloves, orange slices and sage leaves at the bottom of the pan.

Place the spatchcock turkey, cut side down on the bed of onions, orange, celery and garlic. Then take some chicken stock and pour that around the turkey. This ensures even MORE juicy meat, along with flavor of course! Plus this helps you create the gravy.

Roast the turkey on high heat for 30-40 minutes until you see the golden color, then drop the temperature to 350 degreesF.

Continue roasting the turkey for 1 hour max until the turkey internal temperature reached 165 degrees F at the thickest part of the meat. Keep checking on your turkey as it could take between 40-70 minutes roasting at 350 degrees F depending on the weight of the bird.

Remove the turkey from the roasting pan on to a cutting board, and the remaining liquid is used to make your gravy. Follow the step by step details in this Turkey Tenderloin Recipe to make the BEST gravy.

This is a CRUCIAL step for juicy meat. Once the turkey is on a cutting board, you’ll need it to be covered with foil. It has to rest for at least 8-10 minutes before carving.

Resting allows the juices to redistribute and absorb by the meat instead of flowing out as you carve the bird. This is the perfect amount of time needed in order to make your gravy–so take advantage of it. Here are two videos explaining how to make turkey gravy: Turkey Tenderloin Recipe and Dry Brine Turkey Breast.

To carve the turkey, use a super sharp knife. Begin be removing the thighs. This includes thighs and drumstick, so the entire thigh junction. Repeat the same with the other side.

Once you’ve cut the thighs separate the drumsticks from the thigh. How JUICY does this LOOK!!!!!

Next you’ll move on to the breast. Using the same knife, you’ll cut in the middle separating the turkey breast apart. Go all the way through cutting any bone and removing excess of the small bones if you find them.

The final step would be to separate the wings from the breast meat. You will find a junction where the breast meets the wings, let it guide you and cut right through the cartridge, not the bones.

Now your turkey is fully carved and all you need to do is thinly slice the breast meat.

You can serve it as is, or of course with our easy gravy that’s made using the pan drippings after roasting the turkey.

Arrange the carved spatchcock turkey recipe on a platter and surrounded that with more fresh sage, orange slices and cranberries. Make sure to try our Sugared Cranberries Video as they make a festive addition!