I’ve never spatchcocked a turkey on my Traeger before so after watching a Matt Pittman video, he suggested removing the breast bone as part of the prep. So I asked the butcher to spatchcock the turkey and if he would, please, remove the breast bone. Very young guy, didn’t look very experienced.
He proceeds to take the turkey to a back table to do the process and was so far away I couldn’t really see what he was doing. He apparently first cut out the backbone which is what I wanted and then proceeded to what I thought was a simple process to remove the breast bone. When done, he brings it over to me and asks if I was happy with the spatchcock. He cut out the breastbone but he also removed all the rib bones!
So my question to you smoking mavens out there is if I need to be concerned. Do I modify the cooking time (Matt suggest 3 hrs for a 13 pounder) for a spatchcock turkey with no rib bones… hoping the breast meat won’t get too dried out! 😬
by CR8VJUC
23 Comments
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You watched a video, then asked someone else to do what you were not willing to do?
Everything I read was people yelling about “it’s the temperature not the time”. Which yes that’s true but give me an estimate so I know when to start the smoke, come on! You just need to test it with a probe and make sure it gets up to temp. Use the 3 hours as a guide, but check with a probe after 2 and a half hours and go from there. I think Matt bastes with butter, would be easy to check temp before or after basting if you don’t have a wired/wireless one.
I should call her…
Most of the time you remove the backbone not the breast bone. If you told him to remove the breast bone it’s no wonder it came out looking like this…
Have you ever seen Alien?
For what it’s worth, it would be really hard to take out the breast bone but not the ribs when doing this. I regularly debone turkey breast and it all sort of comes out together.
That said, I’m not sure I would personally debone the breast but leave the wings and legs on. It sort of defeats the purpose of that deboning step. The breast itself will also cook the slowest, generally. Took me almost four hours to get th breast to 160, but the legs and wings were done around an hour and a half sooner.
Honestly, it’ll still cook fine without the rib bones, just be a little more delicate moving it around. I’ve done it both ways and haven’t noticed a huge difference in cook time or end result. Monitor your temps as always and you’ll be good!
Yep. Sure did.
The butcher did exactly what you asked for. This is your fault.
I know it’s late, but I think next time if you happen to get your turkey that way, you may as well remove the thighs/legs as well. You’re on you way to a quartered bird, so may as well make it easier on yourself. Poultry shears should make easy work of it, I think even with arthritis.
What in the mozzy messy murder scene
Butcher did you a favor. Will be even easier to carve once cooked
I usually take out the breast bone but I am very careful to leave the ribs intact. It’s very possible, it just takes some patience
He did you a favor.
Your butcher is not at fault, YOU ARE for not doing it yourself.
Most people haven’t watched the video you linked. I watched the same video last night and did the same thing Pittman did. My turkey did not look massacred like that. Though the way Pittman did it made it look was easier than it was.
I woulda tried it. My knives arent good at boning though put apples where breast bone was. Get creative
If you want it done right do it yourself
The first pic is the underside…that’s gonna be ugly looking with or without the breastbone. The second pic looks good so I wouldn’t consider this a bad situation.
Also, I don’t get why some of the comments are so blunt here. This guy’s new to this and he’s still learning so I don’t agree with using this as an opportunity to throw any of his mistakes back in his face.
For future reference you don’t gauge your cook by the amount of time it takes. You base it off internal temp of meat.
I spatchcocked two turkeys today after watching Matt’s video. The breastbone was very difficult to remove from both birds, far more difficult than what I believed it would be after watching the video.
My turkies looked very similar to the OPs. Didn’t matter though since both turned out amazing and my guests loved them.