Cook broken-down turkey instead of whole?

[drallan81]

Morning all,

I posted a few questions a few days ago regarding turkey frying which go me thinking. Does anyone breakdown their turkey into quarters for cooking? Usually we fry 2 whole and I smoke/roast 2 spatchcock style. But I was thinking this about breaking them down into quarters or thirds this year (whole breast / thigh leg).

Does anyone else do this? Has anyone fried turkey quarters? Because we have so many turkeys we don't do a whole carving ceremony. I usually carve it up well before meal time, so other than everyone looking at the turkeys while/after they cook, everyone is oblivious to it.

Thoughts? I'm thinking this will help with cooking evenly and timing.
FWIW, I usually do a wet-brine variation of Smokin Oakies, this year I got some harvest brine and might do 2 wet and 2 dry.

 

[Mikhail]

I do, because they have such different cook times. Just don't carve at table. Bring it out on the platter already sliced, as you already do.

A whole turkey is about my least favorite thing to cook.

 

[Stlsportster]

Last turkey, I parted out the breasts, fileted them, and wet brined them. Smoked the wings, legs and thighs as parts and threw away the carcass raw.

Could have made good stock instead.

Worked out great.

 

[thirdeye]

I can't remember the last whole turkey I've cooked, other than a fried one. I separate my turkeys at the lateral line, and do most chickens the same way. The advantage is cooking each type of meat (white and dark) to the exact doneness I prefer. It's very easy to do, and takes less than a minute.

 

[toymaster]

I cut mine in half. I can brine a 15 pound turkey in a 2 1/2 gallon bag with 1/2 gallon of brine. I think I will try separating the white and dark meat like thirdeye to see if it will fit in the same bag.

 

[Harmony BBQ]

I've been watching a couple you tube videos about boning / stuffing / rolling a whole turkey and am REALLY tempted to try it for Thanksgiving this year. Doesn't look that hard as long as you take your time and have a good sharp knife. Anyone here ever done it with good results? Worst that could happen is I cook turkey parts and nobody would care anyway.

 

[drallan81]

I like the looks of that white/dark breakdown. I was thinking of doing quarters, but might just do that instead. Do you break the back of the breast for a mini spatchcock or just cook it as is?

Think those parts would fry up ok?

 

[El Ropo]

Looking at chicken and turkey meat, there are two entirely different meats. Lean Breast, and fatty/gristly dark. It makes perfect sense to part them out, or do like Thirdeye does and separate the light part from the dark part, and treat each type of meat accordingly. I like to cook breast meat to 155, while I like to cook the dark parts up to 195-200 most of the time. If a turkey breast goes higher than 165 after the rest the probability of a dry result increases. However, if you eat dark meat cooked to 165, it's more than likely undercooked, slimy and chewy since all the fat etc hasn't rendered out yet. So yeah, two entirely different types of meat in one package.

 

[Evan]

Yep, legs and thighs need longer. I break them down to leg quarters and breast. I put the wings in the stock pot with the carcasses. The dark goes on the pit a half hour before the breast.

 

[smoke ninja]

just for fun last year I broke down a turkey and experimented with each portion

I like turkey. I buy extra frozen birds at Thanksgiving when they are cheap. I bought the Ken onion sharpener and figured breaking a bird down would be a good test of how sharp my knife got.

about a 12 lbs bird I think



I ended up separating into breast fillets, tenderloins,drums, whole wings, and trimmed the thighs like competition chicken.



it snowed all day, first real accumulation of the year. the pit boss performed well in the weather.



I did the thighs comp style.....it didn't turn out well



I did habanero death dust on the wings, they were good but not better than chicken wings with hdd. the tenderloins were spogos and made a nice pitmaster snack



I dry brined the boneless breast fillets with harvest brine and used the pit boss' sear zone to direct grill them. I made a homemade gravy and served with stuffing and green beans....it was like a mini Thanksgiving dinner.



I did the drumsticks festival style and cured them for the next day. first time I've done this, very good and will do again. I rubbed them with oakridge game bird before cooking.