Roast Spatchcocked Turkey

Our recipe for roast spatchcock turkey delivers unbelievably crispy, golden skin and juicy meat. Plus, it cuts down the cooking time significantly, meaning you can have a 12-pound bird in and out of the oven in just about one hour. If you’ve never spatchcocked a chicken or turkey before, don’t let the process intimidate you: We’ve got a step-by-step guide (with photos!) that also breaks down the best way to carve it up. You can ask your butcher to remove the backbone for you if you’d prefer not to do it yourself. Either way, you’ll be in for a treat when you take your first bite of crispy skin and moist meat—and you might not go back to a traditional roast bird ever again.

What Is Spatchcocking?

Also known as butterflying, spatchcocking a turkey (or chicken) means to cut out and remove its backbone, which allows you to then fully flatten the bird, creating more surface area. Rather than use a roasting pan to cook it, spatchcocked poultry is typically cooked skin-side up on a rimmed baking sheet.

Benefits of Spatchcocking a Turkey

There are many advantages to cooking a spatchcocked bird, including:

Crispy skin: The first thing you’ll see when you pull a spatchcocked turkey out of the oven is its gloriously crispy, golden-brown skin. Unlike using a roasting pan, which has tall sides that block the oven’s heat and trap moisture, using a baking sheet to roast a spatchcocked turkey allows more hot air to circulate all around the bird, drying out—and therefore crisping up—the skin. 

Moist meat: Spatchcocking helps the breast and leg meat cook at a more even pace than traditional roasting, which solves the ever-present risk of the white meat drying out before the dark meat reaches its target temperature. 

Shorter cooking time: A spatchcocked turkey requires only about an hour to cook, so you can say goodbye to that pre-dawn wake-up to get a fully roasted turkey on the table by early afternoon. Devoting less oven time to the turkey also makes more room for the (many!) other parts of the meal, including stuffing, roasted vegetables, and dinner rolls.

Easier carving: Spatchcocking may not provide the opportunity for a Rockwell-style presentation at the table, but it does make carving the turkey a bit easier: Since it’s already nice and flat, you can simply transfer it straight from the baking sheet to a cutting board and use a chef’s knife to separate the legs from the breast before slicing the meat. It takes far less maneuvering than is required with a whole turkey, meaning the bird is ready for the table while the meat is still hot and the skin nice and crispy.

The Tools You Need For Spatchcocking a Turkey

Spatchcocking a turkey at home is easier than you may think. You will need a few basic tools:

Cutting board: Use a large, sturdy cutting board to set the turkey on so you can cut out the backbone. Size matters here: Once you've removed the bone and flipped the turkey, you'll press firmly down on the breast to flatten it, so it's important to use a board that can fit the bird. If you have a carving board, which is designed to catch excess juices, use it here.

Kitchen shears: The best tool for cutting out the backbone is a sharp pair of kitchen shears (regular scissors won't cut it). You can use a sturdy, serrated knife for certain portions if you find that easier, but kitchen shears are definitely a must for this task.

Dry kitchen towels: Have a few dry kitchen towels on hand to mop any liquid that pools out from the turkey while you're spatchcocking (particularly if it was previously frozen).