Spatchcocked Smoked Turkey with a Chilli Rub
oh we goin next level
A whole turkey in a smoker is a bad shape. The breast is done an hour before the thighs and you spend that hour choosing which half to ruin.
Cut the backbone out and press it flat and the problem disappears. Everything is the same thickness now, it all finishes together, and the whole bird takes about three hours instead of six. The skin goes crisp over the entire surface because the entire surface is facing up.
The rub in the picture is coarse and red — paprika and chilli flake, not a fine powder. You want to see it on the skin.
- Feeds
- 8 to 10
- Hands-on
- 30 minutes
- On the smoker
- 3–3 1/2 hours
- Start
- The night before
What you need
The brine — overnight
- 1 turkey, 12–14 lb
- 2 gallons cold water
- 2 cups kosher salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 heads garlic, halved
- 3 tbsp black peppercorns
- 4 bay leaves
The rub
- 3 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp coarse chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp granulated garlic
- 1 tbsp coarse black pepper
- 2 tsp kosher salt — light, the brine has done the salting
- 3 tbsp melted butter or oil
How it goes
1 — Cut the backbone out
Kitchen shears, up one side of the spine and down the other. Save the backbone for stock. Turn the bird over and press hard on the breastbone with the heel of your hand until it cracks and the whole thing lies flat.
2 — Brine it overnight
Dissolve the salt and sugar in a little hot water, top up with cold, add the garlic, pepper and bay. The bird goes in submerged, in the fridge or a cooler of ice, for 12 hours. Not longer — a brined turkey past about 16 hours starts going spongy.
3 — Dry it hard
Out of the brine, rinsed, patted dry, then back on a rack in the fridge uncovered for at least four hours. Wet skin steams. Dry skin crisps. There is no third option.
4 — Oil, then rub, skin side only
Melted butter over the skin, then the paprika and chilli flake scattered on by hand so it lands coarse and visible, the way it looks in the picture. Light on the salt — it has had a night in brine already.
5 — 275°F, a little hotter than usual
Low and slow is for collagen, and a turkey has none to speak of. 275°F renders the fat under the skin without drying the breast, and crisps it. Fruit wood if you have it — cherry or apple. Hickory will bully a bird this size.
6 — Flat on the grate, skin up, three hours
No turning. No basting. Every time the lid comes off the skin goes back a step.
7 — 165°F in the breast, 175°F in the thigh
They will arrive within about ten minutes of each other, which is the entire reason for cutting it flat. Pull the moment the breast reads 165°F.
8 — Rest 20 minutes, then carve
Breasts off whole and sliced across, legs and thighs separated at the joint. Flat means it carves on the board in about three minutes.
Backbone and carcass straight into the stockpot. That is next week's soup and it is already paid for. LFG.