• Place clean turkey onto the pan, backbone up.
• Cut along the back bone on each side starting at the neck and all the way to the butt of the turkey.
• Remove the backbone. Save the backbone to make gravy or broth later.
• Locate the breast bone and flip over.
• Flatten at the breast bone by pressing firmly with the palms of your hand. Pull the thighs out to help with flattening. Tuck the wing tips of the wings behind the breasts.
• Your turkey is now ready for a brine or seasoning for your grill or oven. Check out my brine recipe and tip on seasoning,
• After your turkey is done brining or seasoning, pat dry just before placing on the grill. Baste turkey with a little mayo. This is another key secret to a juicy turkey.

Grilling the Spatchcock Turkey

• Prep your grill. I use charcoal. I will be using a direct method (cooking directly over the coals to begin) and then moving it to indirect heat method (coals on one side, meat on the other) for the remaining cooking time.

  Arrange coals on one side of the grill and light. When all the charcoal is has cooked off and turns to gray ash your grill is ready.

  **Expert Tip- If you don't let your coals cook off til a gray ash, your meat will taste like the lighter fluid from the coals.**
• Place your Spatchcock Turkey on the grill direct heat for about 6-8 min then flip on the other side for 6-8 min. This will ensure a nice brown coating on each side to start off, plus some nice grill marks. Do not burn your turkey, you have a lot more time to cook at this point. Watch your turkey, you can estimate those 6- 8 min according to how hot your grill is. Careful.
• Flip your turkey with the legs and thighs down facing the coals and move your Spatchcock Turkey over to the other side opposite of the coals (indirect heat) for the remaining cooking time. The legs and thighs are dark meat and take longer to cook than white meat (breast and wings).
• Cover grill. Cook turkey for the remaining time that you have figured you total cook time should be depending on the exact weight of your turkey. A 12-15 lb turkey should take about 1:15 min to fully cook. Keep checking your turkey at 20 minute intervals depending on how hot your grill is or how fast it cooks.

  **Expert Tip- Don't forget to baste your turkey during check times. This keeps the skin moist and adds more flavor. It also helps the skin brown. A good baste for a turkey is melted butter, lemon juice, Italian dressing, and a few sprigs of your fresh thyme, rosemary, and garlic cloves smashed. You can make this up ahead of time and place in a jar. Use a cooking basting brush to baste your turkey as it cooks.**
• Use your thermometer. Check two areas, the thigh and breast area. Cook until your thermometer registers at 165-170 degrees F in the thickest part of the thigh. For the breast, 145-150 degrees F.

  The key is getting your thigh area done and your breast are done but not over done.
• Be sure to use a good amount of coals, you may need to replenish after one hour of cooking time if you feel your grill has slowed down a bit and your coals have cooked up.
• Remove your turkey from the grill and place on cutting board for resting time at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
• Carve your your turkey and I would place it in a glass dish with a lid or in pan and cover with foil to keep moist.
• Enjoy your Spatchcock Turkey!