Spatchcock Turkey | FULL WALKTHROUGH How To Make a JUICY Spatchcock Turkey | Camp Chef Pellet Grill

hey everybody welcome back to everydaybarbecue my name is Mike you know I’vecooked so many turkeys in the pastcouple of weeks practicing and cookingone for SNS girls on their Channel Iwanted to get one done for my channelwhich is what we’re gonna do today but Ireally want you to settle in relax andspend some time with me don’t skiparound in the video just relax I’m gonnago through this with you step by stepthere’s some really important parts toputting together a really good turkeycook having something that’s deliciousjuicy the right skin texture that youwant on the outside the right flavor andI know that I can show you if you justsettle down and hang with me so let’s dothatright nownow to start with there’s a lot ofdifferent ways that you can cook turkeyinside-outside butterflied or spatchcockor regular you can stuff a turkey it cannot stuff a turkey you can inject theturkey you can not inject a turkey andI’ve found that the best way to cook aturkey is to butterfly it or spatchcockit and if you really think about itlet’s just take this turkey here forexample if you put this whole thing inthe oven or on your grill the heat hasto penetrate from the outside in so bythe time your meat is done on the innerside the outside can be dry and ofcourse there’s things you can do tocounteract that like inject it or brineit but if you really want to assureyourself and even cook and moist juicysafely done me all the way throughspatchcocking it or butterflying it isthe way to go and so that’s what we’regonna do today and I’m gonna show youhow to do it now there’s a couple thingsyou have to do before we get to cuttingoff this backbone so let’s do those allright so we want to start by trimmingsome of this fat off the turkey thatwe’re not going to need or some of thisextra skin so to start with I’m gonnaturn this thing to the front nowobviously I’ve taken out the neck andthe bag of giblets that stuff’s gone thebag of gravies out of there I’ve rinsedthis out and it’s defrosted so that’swhere I’m at right now what I want to dois just take a pair of kitchen shearsand I’m gonna try to turn this towardsyou and here’s my little girl stay awayfrom the turkey sweetheart okay and I’mjust going to start by cutting some ofthis excess off I can always trim it alittle bit more when I’m fine-tuning ita little bit laterso that’s gonna be good for right nownow on the back this weird part on theback that the feathers grows out of onthe turkey that’s actually referred toas the Pope’s nose I’m gonna go aheadand remove it and this is what I’ve donewith every one of these so far now I’mjust gonna go ahead and flip this overand you can see here that there’s stillsome extra fat back in that area andsome skin we’re just gonna go ahead andtrim that now keep in mind this doesn’thave to be perfectyou want a pretty good presentationthough if it’s Thanksgiving like it’sgonna be here in a couple weeks and Inormally don’t put timelines on videosbut this is when we do turkeys it’saround Thanksgiving time so if you’rewatching this chances are it’s probablyaround Thanksgiving time and whateveryear in the future it might be so I’msure people aren’t going to expectEmeril quality presentation but you knowif you do the best you can you don’thave to sit here and worry about everylittle thing just try to make it looknice and this front area here around thebreasts I’m just gonna leave this fornow I can always trim this tomorrowafter I brine it which we’re gonna getto in a second but I want to leave itfor now just because when I do the saltbrine it’s gonna tighten up the skin alittle bit so I just want to see howmuch extra is there after tomorrowmorning when we’re ready to actually putthis thing out on the cooker for now I’mgonna leave it just like that the otherthing is these wing tips some peopleactually really like the wing tips Idon’t we never eat them here at home andto be honest during the cook they’rejust gonna get in the way so what I’mgonna do is I’m going to remove thosewing tips at the joint and I’m justgoing to use a set of kitchen shears forthatthere’s one and the other one all rightit’s time to remove the backbone whatyou’re gonna do is just feel up and downjust to get an idea where that backboneis it’s not hard to find then what Ihave found are actually the one whoturned me on to this idea was Greg overat ballistic BBQ I see a lot of peopleuse kitchen shears to take this backboneout and you can do that especially onsmaller birds but if you really want tomake the job a little bit easier getyourself a set of pruning shears and Ibought these specifically for food sothey’re only used on food I keep themoiled with cooking spray we clean themand sanitize them after every use andthis is a really good tool to use to getthis job done it’s gonna make it a loteasier and a lot faster couple things tonote you want to take your time withthis process as you go through and cutthrough those bones some of those can bepretty sharp so don’t rush this justmake sure that you’re taking your timeand that you get this thing out in onepiece without hurting yourself okay solet’s go ahead and get startedokay we’re through one side now we’regonna go up the other so there you go ittakes a few minutes just take your timebe safe and don’t rush through thisprocess it could be a grating if you letit be but if you just take your time itshould only take you a couple minutes toget this out the other thing to noteabout this backbone is it’s great forstock so you don’t have to discard thisand waste it you can use it to make somegreat stock along with those wingtips bythe way okay now we’re getting to themost important part of doing this batch method so a lot of people at thispoint will just flip the bird over andpress down on the breastbone until itflattens and you can certainly do thatbut I like to make things easy wheneverI can and I’m going to show you a littletrick there’s a little piece ofcartilage right here that’s part of thekeel bone this is what really gives youthe most resistance when you go toflatten this bird so what you’re goingto want to do is take a sharp knife andmake a small incision right here rightin the center if you can this is goingto make flattening the bird a lot easierso the next step is going to be flipthis bird overyou’re gonna want to turn the legs outand now just apply some pressure here inthe center and listen and feel for thatbone to crack there you goso now you can see how flat that burr islaying this is what’s gonna promote evencooking and it’s gonna make the bird alot juicier because you’re gonna be ableto pull this off at the righttemperature without having to worry ifsome parts are done in some parts aren’tdone alright let me clean up some ofthis mess and then we’re gonna do thebrining the salt brining alright so I’vejust tried to clean up a little bit herenow what I’m gonna do is Pat this dry Ialready patted the outside dry but I’mjust patting the inside right and I’mgonna start my salt brine here on theinside now the dry salt brine let’s talkabout that a little bit I learned aboutthis from working with adrenalinebarbecue company or S&S girls now Inever really used to be a believer inthe salt brine but I’m gonna tell youwhat I’m a believer now I’ve made enoughgood food to know that it’s veryeffective the dry salt brine is going toallow the bird to retain a lot moremoisture it’s gonna help get our skinnice and crisp on the outside and it’salso gonna help tenderize the meat itdenatures the proteins as this sits inthe refrigerator and breaks it down andallows for this meat to be a lot moretender and there is a scientific formulathey say half a teaspoon of coarsekosher saltper pound of meat but I like to justkind of salt it like I would saltanything that’s in front of me that I’mgonna heat and you can kind of go eitherway with that but I’ve got a fewteaspoons of kosher salt here this is a17 pound turkey just in case I haven’tmentioned it so let’s just go ahead andgive this a nice generous coating okaylet’s flip this bad boy over and nowlet’s get salt on the outside hereso just cover all the surfaces with thiscourse kosher salt and I use Morton’s bythe way in case anyone’s wonderingalright we’ve got a pretty good coatingof salt on here this is really justabout perfect for what I want a lot ofpeople ask how long you need to do thisbrine for you can do it up to 48 hoursbefore your cook and the closer you getto 48 hours the better the effects arejust gonna magnify the longer you do itmy schedule for now just because I worka full-time job and I’ve got to filmthis tomorrow is this is gonna be ableto let’s see it’s like 8 o’clock nowthis is gonna be able to be salt brinefor probably around 16 hours and that’snot optimal ideally you want to do atleast 24 but 16 is better than nothingand you’re gonna see when you see thisthing tomorrow how much different thislooks is gonna have a more yellow colorit’s gonna be a little drier so for nowI just need to get this on a rack into apan where it’s gonna be elevated youdon’t want this to kind of touch thebottom of the pan you want it to beelevated so that any drippings can go inyou don’t want the meat to hit thosedrippings because essentially you wantthat drying process to take effect soI’m gonna get this on a panI’m gonna put it downstairs in myrefrigerator I don’t need to tell youwhere my fridge is but I just did that’smy second fridge for brining stuff andI’ll take this out tomorrow and we willfinish up getting this thing ready forthe cooker so that’s it for tonight I’llsee you guys tomorrowit is the next day and as you can seethis turkey has a much more deep colorthe salt has penetrated the meat anddone what it does I would have likedI’ve brined it a little bit longer but Ionly had so much time I’ve got the CampChef pellet smoker preheated and readyto go and it’s time to do our lastcouple of steps to get this thingprepped so we’re gonna start byinjecting this turkey and what I havehere is some melted butter that I’ve puta small amount of garlic powder in justfor a little bit of flavor and you canadjust that I’d say I put about ateaspoon in there and this is almost afull stick of melted butter we’re gonnago ahead and inject these breasts nownow the trick to injecting this is tryto get as much butter inside the breastsas you can using one injection point andI’ll explain why as I do it will insertthe injector and we’re gonna slowlyinject this butterpull out a little bit and just sort ofinject as we extract now using the sameinjection point I’m going to go intoanother direction and I’m going tocontinue injecting this butter now againanother direction same philosophy youcan see how the breast is plumping up asis taking in that butter in that garlicand we are going to do the same thing toboth breasts now the reason why we wantto use one injection point is because asthis turkey cooks it’s going to beextracting moisture a little bit themore holes we poke in here the moreplaces we have for moisture to escape soyou can do one or two injection pointsin each breast that should be about asmuch as you want to do I’ve got a littlebit of butter left I’m gonna reservethat for something else in a moment hereso let’s get this out of the way let’sgo ahead and make our rub now one thingI want you to know is that there’s nosalt in this rub now there’s no saltbecause we did that dry salt brine so wedon’t need to add any more salt to thisand that butter that we just injectedwas also unsalted if I didn’t mentionthe only thing I added to that was somegarlic powder so let’s get this rub madeso I’ve got some garlic powder onion[Applause]powder some coarse black pepper for sometexture I have some parsleyoregano basil sage some thyme somerosemary and I’m going with a little bitof chili powder to give me a spice hereyou don’t have to use chili powder ifyou don’t want any heat just don’t MITthat from this recipe now I’m just gonnaget this all incorporated it smellsabsolutely delicious now I’m gonna takea little bit of this rub and place itinto a separate Bowl here that’sprobably about a third of it maybe aquarter not that small amount that Itook out I’m just going to add a littlebit of water to that and I’m gonna stirthis until I get a paste type ofconsistency and you want to start withless water than more because you canalways add but you can’t take away solet’s add a little more so this isreally what I’m looking for here as faras consistency goes now let me show youwhat we’re gonna do with this this is areally important step if you want tomake a great turkey this breast meat isreally the most sought-after meat onturkeys as far as most people areconcerned so we want to really makethese things taste outstanding so whatwe’re gonna do is take some of this rubthat we made that we made this pastewith and we’re gonna get this right onthe breasts underneath the skin the wayyou want to do that is you want toslowly work your thumb underneath theskin now you can see if you just slowlymove your fingers around the skin willgive wayand you’ll be able to get your hand allthe way back there and now that we’vegot that space we’re going to take ourrub a generous amountwe are going to apply that underneaththe skin right onto that breast meat I’mgonna do this on both sides all rightnow let’s flip this bird over I’ll takesome of this paste rub and rub it in becareful when you do this because youwill have some of those bones from thebackbone that stick out just be carefulwhen you apply it because they can be alittle sharp okay now I’m going to takesome of our dry rub and apply that tothe inside also all right that sidesgood now we’ll do the outside and whatI’m gonna do is take the rest of thatbutter that we have left I’m just gonnago ahead use this as a binding agent onthe outside here it’s also gonna help togive flavor and form a good skin on theoutside and now I’m gonna go ahead andcover this bird on the outside with somemore of this dry rub all right that’s agood generous coating last thing I’mgonna do is take some tin foil wrap itaround the ends of these drumsticks justto keep them from burning and then we’regonna get outside to the cooker so I’mgonna just go ahead and do that offcamera I’ll meet you guys outside at thecamp chef okay this is my mini salt Bayshe wanted to be a part of the video sothere you go I’ll see you guys outsideat the grill I just got this all set upturkey is on and I have to Propst I haveone in the deepest coolest part of thebreast and one monitoring pit temps nowI have that sort of bag so I know thatto probably get her give me a little bithigher reading than actuality based onwhere the internal temp probe is on theCamp Chef and I’ll be monitoring tempstoday with the zinc bird this is goingto take a couple hours I currently havethe pit set on high smoke which is about220 degrees average temperature I’mgonna give it about 30 minutes of smoketime then I’m gonna crank it up to 325for the remainder of the cook I mighteven go to 350 at the very end and if Ineed to rotate this I will if it lookslike it’s cooking more on one side thanthe othersometimes with pellet grills thathappens if it does I’ll rotate it no bigdeal and I’ll bring you along for theride on that I’m using oak pellets todayand the goal is going to be to pull thisbetween 158th and 160 degrees and I knowthat that’s not traditional a lot ofpeople will tell you have to go 165 orhigherI’m going to attach an article downbelow in the description just to let youknow that it is safe to pull it at thetemperature that I’m going to pull it attoday the key to it is make sure youhave an instant-read thermometer todouble check the temperature in bothbreasts and the deepest coolest part andit will be safe and it will be a lotjuicier now let’s just sit back relaxenjoy this cook enjoy these beautifulsmells coming off the cooker I’ll bringyou back for the next stepit’s been 30 minutes I cranked this upto 325 this is what it looks like so itis taking on some color it did get alittle bit of smoke in that first 30minutes now I’m just gonna close thisand I’m pretty much just gonna leave italone okay our turkeys at 126 degreesinternal temperature and I did go aheadand spin it around it really didn’t looklike it needed to be spun but just totake a precaution I decided to go aheadbecause I do want to pull it at theright temperature so just to get someeven cooking going on I did spin itaround we have some good color the skinis hardening the last step for thisbefore I pull it off is gonna be atabout a hundred and forty degrees I’mgonna take that foil off the drumsticksthen we’re just gonna ride this up to158 159 160 right in that areadefinitely a minimum of 158 and then I’mgonna take this turkey off so I won’tbring you back for the foil coming offthe drumsticks part but I will bring youback when it’s time to take this turkeyoff I’ll see you then so it got darkoutside and I was unable to kind ofbring you along for removing the turkeybut it hit 159 I probed in three or fourother parts of both sides and we were at158 159 160 so we were good I alsochecked the dark meat the dark meat was175 to 180 so we’re good on that too nowthis total cook took about two and ahalf hours maybe a little bit more and Iknow it really added some time for me toget that 30 minutes of smoke at thebeginning but I think it’s gonna beworth it the only thing left to do is tocut this thing open now check out theskin I hope you can hear that and youcan see it’s oozing here so all the workthat we did from start to finish and Iknow there was a few steps to this butall the work we did from start to finishshows up in the finished product andthat’s what I’m about to show you so mynext step is just to go ahead and startdismantling this bird so just give me afew minutes this thing’s like a juicewaterfall just took it out juicy thisbreast meat isjust dripping everywhere my board’sdrenched my kids are here they can’twait to try this you can hear that skinI also wanted to show you that this iswhy we put that rub underneath the skinso it can get on to meand flavor itand you can also see a pretty goodpronounced smoke ring here if you’relooking right here just lick it outtender and juicy that is rub under theskin all right it’s time to taste thisstuff you guys ready it’s hot by the wayif I haven’t mentioned that alreadyTurkey is something that you justremoved from the cooker and serve youdon’t have to let it rest if you do itcan dry out and it’s gonna lose flavorso just serve it right away when you getit off the cooker if at all possibleall right taste test cheers buddy youknow what you want try some all rightfirst you said she didn’t want any nowshe said she wants some a little bit alittle bit all right let me get a littlepiece a widdle piece how is it she likesit wait hold on I’m gonna let our guestsgo one more shot at how beautiful juicyand glorious this is this technique isgoing to work on just about any cookerso the key to it is getting the prepdone correctly doing everythingstep-by-step like I showed you andremember there’s flexibility with thatrub so do what you like to do with theROE make sure you have still be curvesmy family’s laughing at memake sure you have herbs in that rugbecause poultry loves herbs it sucks itup and it just adds so much flavor thiswas absolutely glorious I’m gonna getthis cut up send some over to myneighbor Kevin and we’re probably doneeating turkey till Thanksgiving I hopeyou get I got to give them some more Ihope you guys enjoyed this video givethis a try this Thanksgiving okay mygreasy fingers here I’ll see you on thenext episode