Anybody ever cooked half a turkey?

Cafe Society
1

I mean one that was sliced from head to hiney, as in, each half has one complete breast, wing, thigh, and drumstick. A right half turkey and a left half turkey. (I think that’s clear enough, move along now.)

Ahem.

So what happened is that I was confined to the house due to an unfortunate choice of lunch locations yesterday, and hubby nobly volunteered to fill in for me on the shopping end. I gave him a list, and he really did a fanstastic job, and I’m grateful and all. (Smooches to hubby.)

The only thing was, I’d written down “frozen turky, about 12 pounds.” (Seemed clear enough to me. In retrospect I now realize I was too clear.) You see, the frozen turkey supply at the store had suffered major damage. All of the smaller birds were gone. In fact, nothing under 18 pounds remained. There were, however plenty of BIG turkeys left…

You see where this is going, right?
Yes, I now have two halves of a 24 pound turkey to deal with. I wrapped one up really well and shoved it into the freezer. (A problem delayed is a problem halved. Heh. That’s almost funny.)

Anyway.

Clearly I will not stuffing this bird.

Also clearly I will have to roast this mutant lying down on its cut side. Unless I get some scaffolding type thing to prop it upright. Hmmm. Hubby would build one for me, if I asked. … No, better not. (What’s the ignition temperature of wood, anyway?)

My main problem is, how long should I expect it to take to cook?

On the one hand, the thickness of the breast and thigh are those of a 24 pound bird, so I should use that for timing?

On the other hand, since the turkey mass as a whole, er, as a half, is much ‘flatter’ than usual, shouldn’t it take less time for the heat to penetrate all the way through the bird? And there won’t be the central cavity which I assume tended to remain cold and thus slowed down the heating of the flesh around it.
Yes, I know the basic answer is ‘cook it until the thermometer says it’s done’ but I’m having guests who will expect to eat at a particular time, so I really need a good guess on when to bung it into the oven.

Anyone know?

I wonder if the Butterball people have been asked about this before.

2

I have cooked breasts only lots of times.
really no different than cooking a whole bird.
If it were up to me I would brine the bird and then cook to 161F in the breast.
ETA maybe 9-11 minutes per lb.

3

How in the hell did he get it cut in half? Did he bust out the Sawz-All and angle grinder? Sheesh, that is a man boldly sticking to instructions.

I’d say that using a standard recipe for a spatchcocked turkey will be just about ideal for what you need.

4

Meat cooking recipes are are based on time, so many minutes per pound at such and such temperature. I always use a microwave so I use seven minutes per pound on an old 650 Watt MW. I add time for more water. I recently purchased a whole turkey and immediately cut it in sections. All the sections cook the same when I use my rule of thumb. Nothing beats eyeballing the process though.

5

The latest Cook’s Illustrated magazine has instructions on how to roast a butterflied turkey; you can probably Google for similar instructions as well. You essentially have half of a butterflied turkey, so it should be close enough.

6

Thanks, guys! Yes, it sounds like I should pretend it’s a spatchcocked/butterflied turkey for the timing – and I’m apparently right about it taking way less time that way. :slight_smile:
Oh, and Omniscient, he just had the turkey cut by the butcher at the store. Apparently they have a ‘saw’ that looks like just a wire held vertically above a counter. He said the butcher didn’t even bother to take off the mesh bag or plastic wrapper. He just slid the turkey across the shelf into the wire and it sliced through smooth and easy. Took about five seconds!

I think hubby wants Santa to bring him one. :smiley:

7

Ah, I suppose a proper butcher would have a band saw. Still, a frozen solid bird would probably be a challenge for even that! I suspect that if you asked the folks at the megamart they’d laugh in your face or slice off their hand trying to cleave it in two.

8

I’m wondering what would happen if you sent your husband to the store for a 2 lb hammer and they only had 5 lb hammers.

9

Be thankful the bird (the butcher has the means to saw that sucker in half) wasn’t deboned.

A couple of Christmases ago, a friend of my son-in-law (friend is a butcher) de-boned the turkey for us. Trying to stuff what amounted to a sack of jello was an experience I’ll not go through any time soon.

Go by the weight of your half bird when you cook it. You can stuff it; just lay it down in the pan stuffing side down, so to speak.

My mother used to get bargains in bird-stock after the holidays - she’d get the butcher to run 'em through the saw and freeze the other half for later use. Turkeys were usually on sale (and big) after the holidays.