The Best Smoked Spatchcock Thanksgiving Turkey

One of the most tender, juiciest, flavorful turkeys you’ll ever eat! Spatchcock-style smoked Garlic herb butter-infused turkey meat smoked to perfection!

Recipe Time Management

This really is such an easy recipe to make but it does require you to have to things:

• Fridge Space
• Time

What takes the longest is honestly wet brining and drying the skin in the fridge. It’s so worth it as the flavors are INCREDIBLE and it’s truly what gives you the best, juiciest, and most flavorful turkey.

Grab Your Ingredients

I used a wet brine from ATBBQ from my friends over at Yoder Smokers.

• Thawed 12-pound turkey ( neck, giblets, and all pouches removed)
• 1 Classic Holiday Turkey Kit
• Water
• Kosher Salt
• Garlic Herb Butter
• Melted Butter

Spatchcock Your Turkey

I’ll create a separate post for this soon but you only need a few things – gloves, if you don’t like touching raw meat, a non-wood cutting board, and poultry shears. No, not kitchen shears but actual poultry shears that are curved.

1. Using poultry shears, cut along each side of the turkey’s backbone staying as close to the bone as possible.
2. Cut about 1/2 way down the turkey then turn the turkey 180 and cut the other end. It’s really difficult to cut straight through in a single stroke.
3. Using a sharp knife, make a small incision in the breastbone before flipping it over. *Note you can remove the wishbonefully if you want as that’ll make carving it easier.
4. Flip the turkey over, breast side up. Using the palms of your hands, give a forceful compression on the upper part of the breast (in the middle) until it’s flattened. This may take a few compressions to fully crack it.

Wet Brine Your Turkey

To a large plastic bag and or large bucket, add the Brine followed by the salt and water. Give it a mix. Place the spatchcocked turkey into the solution and cover more water if needed until it’s fully submerged. Close the lid or bag and place in the fridge for 12 hours.

Brining Rule Of Thumb

The rule of thumb is to wet brine your turkey 1 hour for every pound. Do not brine it for days on end or go over the timing rule. Over brining will result is super salt meat with a very unpleasant texture.

Dry Your Turkey In The Fridge

After the 12 hours, you want to now dry out the turkey in the fridge. We do this as this will help to crisp up the skin. Normally when you do this you’ll add salt to the skin but since we already wetbrined it, we don’t want to add any more salt.

1. Drain, and lay the turkey on a cooling rack in a rimmed pan. Gently lift the skin from the flesh to separate. Pop in the fridge uncovered for overnight or at a minimum of 2-3 hours.

Inject and Smoke The Turkey

1. When you’re ready to smoke the turkey, light up your Yoder Smokers 640S to 275F.
2. Remove the bird from the fridge, flip the bird over showing the undercarriage. Liberally sprinkle the underside with trail dust and flip.
3. Taking the injector, inject the flesh (go under the skin) with the butter injection all throughout. Coat the skin with olive oil and liberally coat the skin with seasoning.

4. Place the bird directly on the top rack and place a rimmed baking sheet underneath. Smoke for 1 hour then insert a MEATER probe into the thickest part of the bird, avoiding the bone.

Baste Turkey

5. Using the melted butter, allow the butter to drizzle over top of the bird for the first “basting”. Once the seasoning is all set in (1.5-2 hour mark then you can brush on the butter).
6. Baste with melted butter every hour until internal temp is 165°. I rotated the bird every hour until it’s reading 165F.
7. Once it reaches 165F, carefully remove from the smoker, tent with foil loosely and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.

Smoking Times Rule Of Thumb

For a spatchcocked bird, the rule of thumb is ~10-12 minutes per pound. A whole turkey would be ~15 minutes per pound.

Oven Roasted Spatchcock Thanksgiving Turkey

Many of you said you didn’t have a smoker but still wanted to make this in the home oven. You can do the same recipe but in the oven with a few changes.

1. You want to follow the brining and herb butter injection steps.
2. When you’re ready to bake, place the turkey on the cooling rack with a rimmed baking sheet in a 450F oven cooking for about 30-35 minutes then reduce the temp to 400F and bake for another 25-40 minutes or until the meat registers 165F. For birds larger than say 15 pounds start at 425F then reduce to 375F.

*Note if your bird is getting too dark too fast, reduce the heat to 350F. I always rely on a MEATER Meat Thermometer for accurate temperatures.

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