Spatchcocked Sambal Turkey

I’m a fan of Kenji López-Alt because he takes a scientific, logical yet full of fun way to cooking. In short, he’s a cooking geek. Last year he started to post about spatchcocking a turkey to get the perfect roast and of course I was very intrigued by his cooking methodology. 

Turkey eating isn’t really a Singaporean tradition but since the pandemic, we’ve taken to having a moment with our friends and family here to be thankful for each other.  Kenji’s recipe is a great road map and I did a hack on it with our Sambal.  It turned out so great that I plan to do it again this year.

Genius moves I did with the bird: 

(1) Spatchcocked the Turkey. 

I used the instructions from Kenji's write up in Serious Eat to cut out the back bone and prep the turkey.  

(2) Dry brine the Turkey. 

(3) Made a Sambal Mayo marinade and brushed it all over the bird. 

Proportions Here:

Mayo 1 Cup

OMG! Sambal 1 cup

(4) Cook the turkey & made some gravy. Kenji's cooking instructions are pretty good. Check it out here. 

> I didn’t add any more salt as the turkey was salty from a pre-brine. 

> yes, it is not that pretty when the turkey comes out from the oven but we end up slicing it and plating it so I don’t see why we need it perfectly whole for an instagram moment. TBH, I think it looks awesome crispy skinned spatchcocked as well