What are cooking times for a spacthcocked turkey?
I have a 30 pound turkey (!) to cook for Thanksgiving and I'm planning on spatchcocking it to get it to cook a faster and more evenly. My problem is I can't find any guidelines for how long to cook a spatchcocked bird, only whole birds. And while I can find recipes for roasting flat birds, they all seem to be for birds half that size. I suspect that the cooking time is less than double what it would be for a 15 pounder, but I really don't know. Anyone?
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It was a beautiful, succulent bird and cooked quite evenly. Everyone raved about it and it was nice that such a big bird cooked so (relatively) quickly. I also roasted a pan of stuffing under the bird during its whole cooking time which made for a pretty intensely flavorful stuffing that everyone loved.
As for the cooking time, I'm more concerned about the bird being done too soon and then having to let it sit out for hours before people show up. But in any case I will be prepared with temperature probes all over the place!
This is how I updated the instructions in my recipe. The lower minute-per-pound figures apply where (i) the turkey is on a rack / baking sheet and not resting in a deep roasting pan, which affects the circulation of air around it, (ii) the turkey has sat at room temperature for an hour before roasting; and (iii) the oven's actual temperatures runs true to what is on the dial / control panel.
1. For a small or medium bird—up to 18 pounds—roast at 450° Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400°. For larger birds, start at 425° degrees and lower it to 375°. Knock all of these down 25° for a convection oven.
2. The turkey is ready to take out of the oven when a thermometer stuck into the thickest part of the breast, without touching the bone, reaches 150° and the thickest part of the thigh hits 165°. It’s okay if the thigh temperature exceeds 165°; dark meat isn’t as noticeably affected as breast meat by a bit of over-cooking.
3. Figure on roasting the turkey for about 6 minutes per pound, total (including the time at the higher temperature). You may need more than 6 minutes per pound, depending on how true to the dial your oven heats, how often the oven door is open, the temperature of the internal turkey meat when you put the bird in the oven, etc. I heard of one 30-pound turkey needing 3 1/2 hours, while another was ready right at 3. We start with 6 minutes per pound because you can always cook it a bit longer if necessary. You can’t do much to fix turkey meat that’s roasted too long.
4. Check the internal temperature after the bird has roasted for 4 minutes per pound, e.g., for a 12-pound bird, after 48 minutes. It probably won’t be anywhere near done by then, but a smaller bird could be, if the oven is running hot. If you don’t have one of those handy-dandy leave-in thermometers that let you know when you’ve reached the desired temperature, continue to check occasionally. How often you should check depends on the size of the bird, the readings you get, and how hot your oven actually is.
5. Cover the breast with foil after about 45 - 50 minutes, or whenever it starts to look very dark. I usually pour a glass of white wine over the bird at this point. Then I pour myself one. This is optional but recommended. Based on the comments of others, I suggest putting foil on the legs of larger birds, if the drumsticks seem to be getting too crisp.
And finally: A long rest makes all the difference in the world in ensuring a juicy, delicious turkey. If after the rest the inner portion of the breast seems underdone, cooking can easily be completed by heating it in hot gravy for a minute or so. ;o)