Turkey Spatchcocked or whole, hung or placed on grill

[Bruce Z]

Thank you everybody for your input. Spatchcock works well on chicken so I am going that route. But I admit hanging concerns me. How can the bird not burn with the drums so close to the heat? I don't have a sausage hanger so I will have to figure that out. What kind of sausage do you prefer and do you put it on at the onset or wait until????

[Duanessmokedmeats]

I have done whole and halved hung chickens, and one halved and hung turkey.
I vote for halving and hanging. Of course dry brine overnight.

[bbqLuv]

I went and cooked a Butterball turkey breast. The Frozen ones are in a bag. They are in a salt solution, so no brining is needed.
Seasoned with Traeger Pork and Poultry rub, Super Smoked for an hour at 225*F, basted with Ghee and set temp to 325*F, wrapped in foil with butter and honey. Finished at 165*F for rest time. The taste was really good. Made turkey gravy.

[fzxdoc]

Thank you everybody for your input. Spatchcock works well on chicken so I am going that route. But I admit hanging concerns me. How can the bird not burn with the drums so close to the heat? I don't have a sausage hanger so I will have to figure that out. What kind of sausage do you prefer and do you put it on at the onset or wait until????

The goal of smoking a turkey (or chicken for that matter) is to end up with breast meat at 160-165° with the drumsticks and thighs simultaneously at 180-190°. So I don't worry that the legs and thighs are closer to the fire, but I do make little foil booties to protect the end bone areas of the drumsticks. By the time the breast meat reads 155-160° throughout and it's time to take the bird out of the PBC, the drumstick and thigh meat is in the neighborhood of 180°-185°ish. It's almost like magic! Let carryover cooking take the breast to 165°.

I picked up a generic sausage hanger and sawed the handles short to fit in the PBC, hung from a hook on the rebar. I like it better than the one sold on the PBC website because mine holds 6 sausages and theirs only holds 4.

The fresh sausages I like best come from Fresh Market--they have so many flavors--Bangers, Chorizo, Hot Italian, Mild Italian, Chicken sausages (not my jam), etc. I've gotten fresh sausages from other markets, but sometimes they're sort of mealy in texture. So I stick with Fresh Market for artisanal sausages because they're always just right.

I've also smoked Johnsonville fresh Hot Italian and Sweet Italian sausages in the PBC. They're always consistently good too.

I put the bird in first and right away (10 min or so later, actually) I add the sausages. When the sausages are done in 30-40 min at around 185° or so, (I think the skin is more snappy at 180-185° than at 165°), I take them out of the PBC put them in a warming oven to keep them hot. When you take them out of the sausage hanger, they may have little tan lines from the hanger's wire grid, and if they do, I pop them under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to even them out, purely for cosmetic reasons. They eat just as good with the tan lines as without.

Kathryn

[Bruce Z]

thank you so much, you are the best.

[fzxdoc]

Don't forget to poke the bottom sausage a few times so some of the fat can drip out and hit the fire, Bruce, to add flavor to the turkey. I'm happy that I could help.

Kathryn

[John Henry]

Bruce Z: Yes on great advice from so many great PitMasters to spatchcock.

Please also remember that spatchcocking will allow you to have the neck and wing tips in your stock pot for your best gravy ever!

So when yer cuttin' the back outta that bird, be sure to have a pot nearby to begin that operation. (Apologies if another member had mentioned this, but did not so notice catching up on your post.)

[fzxdoc]

Mark N , I've only done turkeys in the 13 to 14lb range. The entry you mention, the 20lb turkey was cooked by someone else and the details were provided to me for inclusion in that list.

In general, for the 13 to 14 lb turkeys I've done, at temps around 300°ish, they take around 2 to 2.5 hours. At temperatures around 340-350°, spatchcocked, they take around 1.5 to 2 hours.

Since I've not smoked a 20lb turkey myself, I'd have to go on the info provided in that list, just like you, if I wanted to smoke a very large bird.

If I need a lot of turkey, I smoke two 12-14lb turkeys rather than one large 20+lb one, both for convenience and to ensure that the surface meat doesn't dry out as I wait for the tissue deep in the breast to hit the safe temperature. That said, I know plenty of people who have posted successful results on this forum when smoking a 20+lb bird on the PBC. I just prefer not to smoke that large a bird.

Maybe someone who has smoked larger turkeys in the PBC will chime in here with more information.

Kathryn

[Alan M]

can someone explain how spatchcocking grates an even cook?
since the breast and wings cook differently and are done at different temperatures, it would seem that spatchcocking would either overcook the breasts or undercook the legs.
vertical works because the legs are close to the heat.

[fzxdoc]

I hang spatchcocked birds in the PBC. Works great.

Kathryn

[darth_mulligan]

For Thanksgiving I wet brined a 16lb bird and just used the PBC Poultry hanger. Turned out great!