Two excellent videos. I've been spatchcocking birds for several years with much success, but after watching your two videos, I think I'll be able to take my game to the next level! I had an extremely difficult time breaking the breastbone, so I scored it with a knife and that made it easy to break. Thank You.....
I cooked a Turkey this way yesterday and everyone was blown away. It was the juiciest Turkey I’ve ever had. I will never go back to cooking a Turkey the traditional way. Thank you Ben. My wife and I started watching Master Chef from Season 1 a few months back so your season was just on at our house recently. One day I’ll try my hand at that Carrot cake you made on the show.
My third year following your method and third year for a perfect turkey. Super moist, takes half the time and space. ..and I love the way your explain everything. Thank you!
This is an excellent, EXCELLENT, series (two videos) for spatchcocking and baking turkey. I’ve saved this, watch it every year, and have forwarded it to several people. It definitely deserves more views and likes! Ben Starr, score yourself ten bonus points! Do not pass GO! Do not collect $200.
One teaspoon kosher salt for every lb of meat 7:26 1% salt of the net weight of the bird 8:29 add baking powder to salt, ratio 1 part of baking powder to 3 or 4 pts of salt.
Ben, Yoshio did this this year and it turned out so great. Miss you and the gang! Mmmwah! (I edited this because I just saw Yoshio said the same thing. But it's true!)
Cutting through the hip bone of a 22 lb turkey was intense. A hole/handle thinguie broke on my shears, and I’ve cut through all kinds of bone with them! Good luck with yos spatchcocking, y’all. And have a nice, warm, awesome Thanksgiving.
It will go well...and get better each time! I’ve been brave and did a wet brine a couple of years AND THEN saw a dry brine video....swear but it!!! Enjoy
It turned out to the the juiciest turkey EVER! I normally avoid eating breast meat, but I couldn’t get enough of it. Even the leftover breast meat is still juicy! This was my second time doing spatchcock and first time dry-brining. Oh - and first time using a leave-in digital thermometer! Oh - and only using olive oil - and nothing else!. Simple and amazing. I just wish we could have had family and friends over to share it. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanks again!!!
I have made his sourdough recipe, and I spatchcock everything. Turkey, chicken, even Cornish hens ( they were done before I put them in the oven). Ok I confess, I never spatchcocked a Cornish hen. lol. I just thought the joke was funny. 😁 I see now I was wrong. lmao
I just spatchcocked and cooked a turkey. I didn't watch this or really any videos before hand. Kinda wish I did. I took liberal amounts of salt apparently to far. Turkey turned out alright but I had to peel the nice crispy skin off because it's way to salty. Even some of the top layer of the meat has a very strong salt flavor. I liberally coated the whole bird with salt and let sit in the fridge 3 days cooked tonight. Guess I can always turn the left over meat into casseroles lol.
/Shrug - I get the reasoning, but I do my Turkey at 500 for the first 30 minutes, then back down to 350 or so for the rest and those have never melted, deformed or even smoked itself. Is there a place to check and see what kind of polymer they're using? Maybe it's something special for high temps?
google recommends a turkey can be stored in fridge 2 days before cooking. if we want to dry brine for a 3rd day is that risky? or do we take precautions with loosely covering it?
I have 18 lbs turkey please help me calculate how many salt do I need to use to brine it and how many baking powder also. Thank you for sharing this video. Very helpful because this will be my first time to cook turkey.
Really nice Ben! I just finished putting my prepped bird in the fridge before I saw your video. Can I add baking powder on top of the existing rub or wait for next year?
I didn't put the powder on, but I will next time. However, I smoked it at 225 for 2 hours, then 375 until the breast hit temp. It was the bomb! I've tried all sorts of outdoor methods and this is the favorite of the clan. Thanks.
Would it be ok to get some of that salt/baking powder mixture under the skin as well? I usually do that with other seasonings before roasting a bird. My thought is that it would help the meat to brine better instead of just the skin. I plan of smoking the bird after the 3 day dry brine. Thoughts?
Omit the baking powder if you are going to smoke. The skin will end up like jerky. You can work the salt under the skin if you want to, but the salt penetrates it just fine if you have 3 days to wait. Cover the bird with plastic wrap so that there is no dehydration of the skin. Smoking is really the only preparation method where this skin dehydration technique runs contrary to the final product.
Ideally it should he fully thawed. However, if there is some frozen flesh at the core of the muscles, you can start. If the turkey is still hard to the touch on the surface, it's not wise to start this process. You can jumpstart the process in a cold water bath for a few hours.
If you are measuring by weight, then no. I use Morton's course kosher salt, but if you are using diamond crystal, it has a larger crystal size compared to the amount of salt by weight, So a tablespoon of diamond crystal kosher contains less sodium than a tablespoon of Morton's kosher. Ultimately, I don't ever weigh my salt, I just salt liberally. And it always turns out great.
Just a reminder...in the kitchen we “sanitize”, we don’t “sterilize”...unless you are putting things in an autoclave and actually sterilizing them, haha. Otherwise I love your videos!
You are correct! But within the general populace, "sterilize" has a clearer connotation that "sanitize." It's certainly not possible to actually sterilize any surface in the kitchen. But the word carries a more wildly-known concept to the lay person, for whom this video was made.
I noticed you were able to get quite a small bird. The ones I am seeing around me run around them pounds at the smallest. How do you deal with the overhanging parts? Do they drip in the refrigerator?
You will need to have a pan large enough to contain the bird when you roast it, so that pan should be large enough to contain the drippings in the fridge. If that size pan will not fit in your fridge, fold the bird back up to a more natural position so it fits on a smaller pan while it dries in the fridge. Then spread the bird back out onto the larger pan when you bake it
@@suran396 that depends on what you mean by special equipment. Because the bird takes up a larger surface area when it is spatchcocked, you definitely need to have a pan large enough to accommodate it. If you don't have one, a 2/3 size sheet pan from your local restaurant supply store should accommodate even the largest turkey, and should cost you less than $15, and should fit in your oven without difficulty, unless it is very small. Otherwise, no other special equipment is needed.
@@suran396 Also, birds larger than 18ish pounds may need to have the leg quarters removed from the breast after the breast hits 150, and returns to the oven for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. The dark meat can sometimes come out a little undercooked on these bigger birds, if you pull when the breast hits 150. But you absolutely must pull the breast at 1:50 or it will be overcooked.
@@ultimatefoodgeek thank you so much for replying! I have a typical large oven under a 5 burner. I have cooked a very large turkey in there a couple of times. I'm guessing a 2/3 sheet is bigger than your typical cookie sheet?
This only creates a single-acting baking powder that activates when wet. For this trick to fully function, you need double acting baking powder that has a second reaction when it heats up. You can order aluminum free baking powder online/Amazon.
It won't dry the meat, but the salt won't have much time to penetrate. Also, the outside of the bird may be a little EXTRA salty, but it should balance out in your mouth with the less-seasoned interior meat.
You certainly can. Adding that level of butchering complexity to the otherwise-simple task of spatchcocking, however, has turned off students of mine, so I leave this method simple!
1:40 excessive fridge space needed? Already I have to pass. I have a large fridge but in the days leading up to Thanksgiving I have so much prep going on .... I make EVERYTHING by scratch. I can't imagine making room for a 20 pound turkey for 3 days. Heck, splayed out the way you showed it, I don't know if the big birds my neighbor raises would fit even IF I didn't need the space for something else.
If I spatchcock a turkey that weighs 20 lbs. How many minutes per lb. Do I need to cook this, and if I use cooking thermometer to determine when it is done what temp will determine that.
No, you don't. But the longer the bird sits salted, the deeper the salt penetrates into the flesh, and the drier the skin becomes (which results in extra-crispy skin.) I dry-brine my chickens 3-4 days if I can. I dry brined my turkey for 7 days this year, and it was exceptional!
Beware the turkeys sold in the stores are pre-brined for you🎉 Ask my sister how we know this🤬🤬🤬🤬she had to throw the whole turkey in the trash it was so salty..unedible😮😮😮😢😢😢
