Spatchcocked Turkey with Herb Butter - Thanksgiving 2015 photo post!

This Thanksgiving was my first time making turkey! I hadn't actually cooked anything bigger than chicken leg quarters, so it was very new to me. I'm going to keep this a picture post, as I relied on the wisdom of Serious Eats' multiple turkey guides to direct me - I learned how to spatchcock the bird with this guide, based most of my recipe on this one, and added an herb butter as discussed in this post. I would highly recommend any of their guides! Next time I think I would skip the herb butter - I used a lot, and it prevented the crisping of the skin. (Butter also apparently causes skin to brown much faster, which made me scared that I was going to burn the outside! Foil tenting helped there.) I may, however, make it again and just keep it on the side as an optional topping - it was ridiculously aromatic!

Parsley, green onions, thyme, sage, garlic, shallots, and lemon zest

I tried a half-butter half-oil mix.

Done!

My beautiful bed of mirepoix. Onions, carrots, and celery, with the addition of thyme and rosemary sprigs.

Turkey, dry brined, spatchcocked, wiped clean, and with some herb butter stuffed under the skin! This was 16lbs.

Green turkey! Spooooky.

While the turkey works - backbone and giblets searing for gravy

Mirepoix veg in. Not pictured - the addition of chicken stock.

Working in the oven - sweet potatoes to be discussed in the next post!

The final gravy result! This was after the roux was cooked and combined with the enriched stock and drippings.

All tanned and ready to go!

A big messy plate - yum.

The next post will cover side dishes. We mostly kept it simple, so it's largely an excuse to post additional photos of those sweet potatoes and the asparagus... Stay tuned!