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Thanksgiving: Faster Roast Turkey

Source of Recipe

From "Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well" by Sam Sifton


Recipe Introduction

"Maybe your kitchen is not big enough to handle cooking a turkey and a bunch of side dishes all at once. Perhaps the notion of roasting a turkey for five hours is crazy to you. Perhaps you simply do not have the time. There are ways to handle this situation properly—they may even result in better, juicier meat, with more evenly browned skin. One method is to butterfly the bird before coking it, which the British call spatchcocking. My friend Mark Bittman, the food and opinion writer for The New York Times, helped popularize the technique in America. Simply place the bird on a cutting board with its breast side down, and use a sharp knife or cleaver to cut out its backbone. (Chop this into a few pieces and use for turkey stock.) Then flatten the butterflied bird, breast side up, into a roasting pan with a few pats of sweet butter and some fresh herbs tucked into the crevices under the wings. Shower the thing with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, and slide it into a 450 degree oven. A half hour later, turn the oven down to 325 degrees, baste the bird, and go sit on the couch for a little bit. The whole thing should be done in a bit over an hour. That method takes a big roasting pan. If you only have a medium-sized one, you can go a step further, and butcher the bird entirely in advance of cooking it. The additional task of removing the legs and thighs is work your butcher can certainly do for you. But as with the removal of the backbone, it is fast work for the amateur as well."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 1 12- to 18-pound turkey, thawed, with giblets and neck removed
â—¦ 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
â—¦ 2 stalks celery, cleaned and roughly chopped
â—¦ Fresh herbs to taste—thyme, sage, and rosemary all work well (optional)
â—¦ 3 tablespoons kosher salt
â—¦ 1 ½ tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
â—¦ 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pats


Recipe

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the turkey on a cutting board with its breast side down, and using a very sharp knife or cleaver, cut out the bird's backbone.

Turn the turkey over and use your knife or cleaver to remove the legs and thighs. Using cleaver, cut thighs into large chunks. Press down on the turkey breasts to flatten the carcass and then, using cotton butcher's twine, truss the wings tight to the bird. Place the turkey parts in one large roasting pan. Tuck between them onion, celery pieces, and, if using, herbs, and shower with salt and pepper. Dot turkey pieces with pats of butter.

Place pan in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and baste with accumulated juices.

Start to check the temperature of the breast and the thigh meat roughly 15 minutes later, and remove them from the oven when they have reached 165 degrees. As with a whole bird, you should tent the meat with foil and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes.