TLDR: I made a turkey more or less following the Kenji [turkey parts recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-in-parts-white-dark-recipe), and people were blown away. Trying to figure out what made it so good.
I’ve always cooked turkey the traditional way (whole). Last year, i did Kenji’s spatchcock turkey for a change. The turkey turned out good, maybe slightly better than normal, but nothing special I would say? This year, I planned to do the same, but at the last moment, i realized that my beast (24lb!) of a turkey wouldn’t fit on a half sheet pan if spatchcocked. I panicked, but after digging around, found the turkey parts recipe. After chopping things up, i was able to (barely) fit the ginormous turkey breast in a roasting pan, with the legs kinda on their sides next to it.
I set the oven to 275. An hour later, i started realizing that there was no way the turkey would be even close to ready on time, so i bumped it to 325. Then later 350. Well, after a while, surprisingly, the legs were done (reached 170), but the breast wasn’t… which seemed backwards. I pulled the legs out, and cooked the breast for a while longer until it finally hit 150.
After resting, i started carving and this was the juiciest turkey i had ever seen. At dinner, i had multiple people tell me this was the best turkey they’d ever tasted. Some even said that they always \*hate\* thanksgiving turkey, and this is the first time \*ever\* that they actually liked it.
So, I’m trying to fully understand why. Is it that i did turkey parts instead of spatchcock? Or is it that the turkey parts recipe is at 275 (though i did have to increase my temp a few times) while the spatchcock recipe is at 450? If my turkey was good due to temp, is there a reason/need to do the spatchcock at 450? Could i just spatchcock at 275? Could the massive size of the turkey have had anything to do with it? Does it make sense that the legs hit 170 before the breast hit 150?
Thanks for any answers! Hoping to make an epic turkey again next year.
by MentalReference
6 Comments
What brand turkey? Where did u get it? Same as usual?
Nice job!
I always cook fresh turkey, never frozen. Parting the turkey is the way to go and makes sense if you want every bit to be perfect. Not so much for the traditional Griswold’s carve at the dinning room table kind of turkey.
The rule around here is fresh all the way. I’ll never cook a frozen whole turkey again even if it’s free as I can’t stand the forced Butterball brine.
Write down exactly what you did with small details so you can pull it off next year.
Haven’t seen the parts recipe but I imagine you seasoned all sides of all pieces of the turkey really well with salt. And then cooked it perfectly to 150 with the carryover resting so it remains juicy and wasnt overcooked at all. Those two things are the foundation of some mind-blowing turkey
The bulk of the breast takes longer to cook through than the legs. (doing a whole turkey you often have to foil the legs to slow the cooking)
There could be a bunch of reasons. Perhaps you got a turkey that was pre-salted and therefore the turkey was salted all the way through before cooking, which helps it retain moisture. I’m sure the fact that the breasts were at a lower temperature than the legs helped quite a bit, as well. Turkey breast at 170°F is dry and chalky, while turkey legs at 150°F is undercooked and slimy. Being able to pull the individual pieces as they finish cooking means you don’t have to compromise between those two temperatures.
As to why they finished cooking at different times, it’s hard to speculate. Every oven is different and every bird is different. How you arrange the pieces on the tray matters, too. The legs are usually smaller than the breasts, which means they cook faster. You may have also had them in a hotter part of the oven. Without isolating those factors, it’s impossible to give an exact answer. You’ll just have to practice with your equipment until you perfect the process.
By doing it in parts you could control what was ready to take out and what needed more time. Also turkey is recommended to rest up to 30 mins to maintain the juices so as you were waiting for the other pieces to cook, you got some adequate rest time!