Spatchcocked Turkey
Spatchcocking your turkey is great. It cuts the cooking time by hours and makes it so much easier to fit other things in the oven at the same time as the turkey. There is no need to be scared, your butcher can easily spatchcock the bird for you. Just make sure you get the backbone to take home with you, you want to be able to use it to make stock later, just stick it in the freezer until you need some stock.
Ingredients
1 turkey
6 garlic cloves
1 whole onion, quartered
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 whole orange, quartered
3 thyme sprigs
2 Rosemary sprig
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup white wine
Instructions
A day or two before thanksgiving:
Rinse your turkey under cold water and clean it with salt.
Dry completely, place the turkey onto a baking sheet season on all sides well with salt and leave in the fridge until Thanksgiving day.
On thanksgiving day take the turkey out of the fridge an hour and a half before you are going to put it in the oven. You want it to come to room temperature before you roast it.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Place the turkey breast side up onto a clean baking sheet, arrange the garlic cloves, onion, celery, orange, thyme, and rosemary around the turkey. Pour the white wine around the baking sheet. Melt butter and oil in a small pan and brush over the turkey, season with pepper and salt if needed. Place in the oven for 20 minutes then turn the oven down to 350 and continue to cook for about an hour until the skin is golden brown and the thickest part of the breast reads 165 degrees with an instant thermometer.
When the turkey is cooked remove it from the oven and leave it to rest for 30 minutes before you carve it. if you carve the turkey too soon it will release its juices leaving it dry.