I spatchcocked my turkey only to discover that it's too big for my cookie sheet. It fits in my roasting pan on the roasting rack but it's scrunched.

I don't have a cooling rack that fits in the roasting rack. Will it be ok scrunched up? Or should I just break it all down at this point?

carolyn tesini
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3 Comments

Micki B. November 25, 2015
When a spatchcock a chicken it generally ends up a little scrunched in a roasting pan and it always turns out fine. Granted, a turkey's a little bigger so it might take longer because of that, but should work fine.
 
Leslie S. November 25, 2015
If you can cut it into 2 halves that would be great, and if needed, you can roast each half in its own pan, on separate shelves in the oven.

Just remove the backbone yourself by snipping along both sides of it with your sharpest, strongest kitchen shears (small snips, starting at whichever end is most comfortable). Then flatten it and proceed like so: https://food52.com/blog/4736-how-to-spatchcock-a-chicken-or-turkey

Do you think your oven rack is large enough for that? Would be best to avoid scrunching for uneven cooking.
 
carolyn T. November 25, 2015
hi leslie! i did take out the backbone already. it was overhanging on the baking sheet and i figured that would just result in an epic mess. cutting in half would be a good move. the only thing i'm putting in the oven tomorrow is the turkey so i can do one half on each rack.
 
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