Spatchcock Turkey With Pan Stuffing

Dry-brined spatchcock turkey, smoked over charcoal and served with delicious sausage and herb pan stuffing.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 2

Resting Time 15

Total Time 2 55

Servings

Calories 785kcal

Author Dean "Schuey" Schumann

Ingredients

Turkey

10 lbs turkey
5 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Pan Stuffing

2 lbs bread
1 lbs country pork sausage casings removed
1 cup leeks diced
1 cup carrots diced
2 tbsp garlic finely diced
1 tbsp rosemary finely chopped
1 tbsp sage finely chopped
1 tbsp thyme finely chopped
4 tbsp white wine
1 quart turkey stock
1 egg
salt to taste

Instructions

For the turkey

To spatchcock a turkey, you will need to lay the bird breast side down and find the backbone.
Using some strong kitchen shears and both hands, cut along both sides of the spine.
Once you have the spine removed, keep it for a later use of making stock. Put it into a zip lock bag, write the date and what it is on the bag and freeze it.
Flip the bird over, exposing the breast. You should be able to see the wishbone. Using a boning knife carefully cut along both sides of this bone until it comes free.
Place your hand on the middle of the breast, press down with some force to flatten the bird.
Place the bird on a wire rack in a pan, then evenly sprinkling the inner of the bird with half of the salt. Then turn it over and apply the rest of the salt to the outer skin, moving the wings and legs around to ensure you get some salt everywhere.
Put the turkey into a fridge uncovered, remembering the how long rule, one hour per pound. For this recipe I pushed my 10 pound turkey to a 48 hour dry brine and the results were incredible.
Light up a full chimney starter of lump charcoal. Once this is fully lit, you can tell as it will have this white ash all over it, place this on top of unlit charcoal in the bottom of the Weber Smokey Mountain.
Assemble the smoker and place an ambient temp probe on the cooking grill to monitor the temp and open all of the vents. Start adjusting the vents when the smoker heats up and is nearing the target temperature of 450°F.
Once the target temp has been reached, get the turkey out of the fridge and give a light coating of oil. Then put the turkey on the cooking rack leaving it in the wire rack and pan it has been in the fridge for the past two days.
Place two internal meat probes into the bird, one on the breast and one in the thigh, making sure not to touch any bones with the probes, as this will give an inaccurate reading.
Check the bird at the one hour mark and give the skin a baste with some melted unsalted butter.
We are aiming for the breast to be done at 165°F and the thigh meat at 180°F.
Once the turkey is cooked, remove it from the smoker and place it on a chopping board to rest for 15 minutes.

For the pan stuffing

Slice up a whole loaf of bread into cubes. Each slice should be cut into sixteen pieces, roughly three-quarters of an inch thick. Lay the diced up bread on a baking tray and smoke for around an hour until the bread is crispy, just like toast or croutons.
Fry the country pork sausage in a frypan over a medium heat, breaking it all up. When it is all browned and a little crispy, set it aside in a bowl. Leave in the fond, or the little crispy bits of sausage and pour some grease back into the pan.
Add some root vegetables into the pan. Use any that are in season but I use carrots and leeks for this one. Fry up the vegetables until they soften up.
Add some diced garlic, allow that to cook for a minute or two before adding any aromatic herbs you want to put in. I tend to stick to the old faithfuls like rosemary, sage and thyme but you can mix that up if you desire.
Give the herbs a couple of minutes to work their magic and then you can add a splash of white wine into the mix. Cook off the alcohol for a minute or two.
Combine the diced bread, sausage, vegetables and herbs into a large bowl.
Slowly pour in some stock. I used turkey stock but you could use chicken or vegetable if you don’t have any. I generally find I’ll use about a quart of stock but it does vary from each cook. Hence why you should introduce the stock slowly and keep mixing. You want all of the bread to have plenty of moisture but to still hold its shape.
Once the consistency is right, have a taste, if it is needed give it a pinch of salt.
Beat two eggs and add them and stir thoroughly, they will help hold the mix together.
Transfer the stuffing to a greased up pan and put on the smoker with the turkey once the turkey breast internal temperature is at 135°F for around an hour.

To serve

Carve the turkey and serve with stuffing, some roasted and steamed vegetables, as well as homemade gravy to top it all off.

Video

Nutrition