I will give that a whirl for a chicken this winter. My 33 lb. turkey is getttng cooked the conventional way, primarily for presentation purposes. The hardest part is flipping it over near the end ( I cook it breast side down) for the last 30 min or so.
I’ve purchased a 15lb turkey, which is MASSIVE overkill for the 4 of us (Me and Jen, two Marines from Camp Pendleton) but the lady likes turkey leftovers, so we have too much bird. I’d love to try spatchcocking but not sure I have a roasting pan big enough, nor sufficient knives to split the sucker. Plus, I’m doing a bacon lattice again, and so if I figure out how to spatchcock the sucker, I have to be sure to do the bacon lattice
I cook the spatchcock bird directly on the over rack, with aluminum foil and a sheet pan under it. Clean up isn’t great, but the bird is. I think it’s Alton Brown’s recipe.
You don’t need a roasting pan for spatchcocked turkey. Just use a cookie sheet pan with raised edges lined with aluminum foil and then a flat rectangular rack to raise the turkey off the bottom of the cookie sheet pan. Easy peasy.
I spatchcocked the turkey today - man, I’m definitely not cut out to be a butcher. Cutting out a backbone is not on my list of ‘fun things to do’. Threw some seasoned salt over the skin, stuck it in the fridge to prepare tomorrow.
Todd, I’ve cooked spatchcocked the past few years. When I pick up my turkey, I ask the butcher to do it for me. 2 cuts on his band saw, 10 seconds later it’s done. Then I use the back with a couple necks and wings I buy separately to roast for stock/gravy.