The easiest and fastest: roasted butterflied turkey with gravy from The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (page 612) by J. Kenji López-Alt

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Notes about this recipe

  • anya_sf on December 01, 2025

    I've spatchcocked chickens before so I thought this method would be relatively easy (it is called "easiest"), but man, my kitchen shears and chef's knife (ruined now) were not up to the task and I had to use a lot of brute force to remove the backbone and only sort of managed to flatten the breast. My 13-lb turkey did not quite fit on the sheet pan so I placed two large overlapping sheets of foil on the rack below to catch any drips (amazingly, there were none). My turkey took 15 min longer for the upper thighs to reach temp, by which time the breast was way over (maybe the foil underneath was to blame?). I'd expected to serve the vegetables underneath, but they remained surprisingly hard. Despite simmering gently, my stock reduced too much and I had to add more liquid. As others have said, the gravy was too thin, although we went with it, but I'd use more flour next time; flavor was very good. At least I had dry-brined the bird, so the meat was still fairly juicy.

  • abrownb1 on November 28, 2025

    I only made the gravy. Well really I just used the method as I already had turkey stock. I used 5 cups of stock and it was way too thin even after 35 mins. I ended up having to thicken it with a cornstarch slurry. After some research, the roux for this amount of liquid is typically double what was in this recipe and it's usually only simmered a few mins after adding the stock. Additionally, the thickening power of roux decreases the more it's cooked and given this is cooked until golden, it's already starting with lower thickening power. If using this recipe, I'd recommend at least doubling the roux and starting with 4 cups of liquid. Honestly though, you may be better off finding another recipe.

  • Dannausc on December 20, 2020

    I made it for Thanksgiving. It turned out really good. Fairly quick and easy. I used a mixture of root vegetables I had on hand for roasting under the bird.

  • Skamper on November 27, 2020

    The turkey cooked quickly and evenly; about 65 minutes for a 12 lb turkey. I used Kenji's herbed butter recipe, which was delicious. I made my own stock. The gravy lacked flavor and was a bit thin.

  • lorloff on November 30, 2019

    This butterflied spatchcocked turkey was a real winner. The method of setting a grate on top of the vegetables produced delicious vegetables and great turkey drippings for sauce. I used carrots, celery, celeriac, parsnips, turnips, rosemary and tarragon both fresh. It cooked very quickly and evenly. I used a thermapen instant read thermometer and removed the turkey when the breast in several spots reached 160. I let the turkey sit for 25 minutes before carving. Instead of dry brining the turkey I used the 48 hour brine in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Norsat which worked wonderfully. I removed the turkey from the dry brine and allowed the skin to air dry for 8 hours. I also added fresh herbs under the skin of breasts, legs and thighs before I put the turkey in the oven to roast. I used fresh sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme. I served with a chanterelle mushroom, rosemary and roasted garlic gravy. Will make again!

  • lorloff on November 28, 2019

    This butterfly spatchcocked method of cooking the turkey with the vegetables underneath worked perfectly. I wet brined the turkey per Samin Nosrat and separated the skin from the meat before roasting. I tucked fresh herbs under the skin. Rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley. The turkey cooked perfectly in a relatively short time. It came out exceptionally well.

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