OK, I’m throwing my original plan out the window after viewing Meathead article that Santamarina posted! Awesome write up! Sounds like my original plan to place grate on aluminum pan may have lead to disaster 🫣.
I now plan to spatchcock. Is there a different estimated cook time when spatchcocking? I have a 10 pound bird and will cook at 225° for 30 minutes and then 325°
So learned another thing today 😁 Decided to get ahead of the game on the spatchcock since I have never done that. Took the 10 pound frozen turkey out that has been thawing in the fridge of 3 days. FROZEN 😳 so into a brine bag and slipped into a 5 gallon bucket with water and ice. The bird is only in the bag, not the solution. I am hoping an hour in this setup will finish the thaw.
Help always appreciated!!!
Dig the neck and giblets out of the turkey cavity. Makes a huge difference to defrosting. Note, also, that a cold bird is a lot easier to spatchcock than a warm bird.
5 years ago, I bought a fried turkey from our local upscale grocery store and when I got ready to carve it, I found out they did not dig out neck and giblets in the plastic bag out of the turkey's cavity before they fried it. Not a good meal for the family that year but one that we all remember!
While I like the end result of a spatchcock Turkey, I don't like the presentation. I have too much generational Thanksgiving tradition and history with a whole Turkey. I am willing to end up with a minutely inferior cook so we get that annual picture of my wife and I basting the Turkey followed by family gathered around the table with a whole bronzed Turkey featured in the background as we remember all we are thankful for before carving and dishing out the portions. I'll be smoking a turkey for the third year in a row.
Thanks to ecowper for suggesting partially frozen will be easy to spatchcock, gave me the courage to just do it!
I also followed Meathead suggestion in the writeup by raising my grate higher above the water pan by adding in some aluminum tube. Helps get air/smoke under the bird.
My lovely bride picked that up at the grocery store, she says it was about ten bucks - it came as a unit, with the pan and frame attached. I never put the bird in it though, used it just to catch the drippings.
OK, out of my turkey coma, time for a post mortem.
Spatchcock 10# turkey on the pellet smoker with water pan below came out great!
Planned cook time was 90 minutes.
I put it on for 30 minutes at 225° but forgot to fill the pan with water so added water at the start of the cook which I’m sure cooled the smoker.
After 30 minutes turned the smoker up to 325°. It took almost an hour for the pellet smoker to register 325°. I think the pan with water was regulating the cook temp lower. The smoker was pumping out heat and the probe 2 inches away from the bird was running 350° - 375°.
All the water evaporated and the drippings started to burn in the pan 🙄, had to add more water which I think again cooled the cooker delaying the cook time.
Total cook time to 155° was 3 hours. I let it rest for about 15 minutes and breast IT reached 160°. Dark meat IT was 182°.
Did I mention it came out great?! 😁 I’ll do it again.
note to self:
remember to put water in pan at beginning of pellet cooker start up and keep checking it for evaporation
aluminum foil shoes on the turkey legs would help keep calf tender
225° smoke time does not count in cook time estimate
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