INGREDIENTS:

1 turkey 12 to 20 pounds with the backbone removed and butterflied - Butterball brand - only one for me!
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 stick salted butter cut into thin slices or melted and brushed on
1/4 cup Morton table salt
1/4 cup Cayenne Pepper
1/4 cup Wild Bill's Meat Rub

Thaw 20 pound frozen turkey out in refrigerator on a roasting pan for about a week.  Remove giblets and save for later usage.  Cut on either side of the back bone of the turkey with a heavy blade sharp knife or poultry shears and remove backbone from the turkey.  Save turkey back bone for later usage.  Score the base of the turkey breast bone with a knife and press down of both sides of the turkey to break the breast bone and flatten the turkey out.

Rub entire turkey with olive oil.  Rub a mixture of the salt, cayenne pepper and Wild Bill's Meat rub into all pores of the skin and inside of the turkey.  Rub the seasoning mixture between the skin at the breast and thigh area.  Place one half of butter between skin at each thigh. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Insert an oven proof digital thermometer into heavy part of turkey thigh area keeping probe off the bone.  Place turkey on a roasting pan with skin side up and tuck wing tips in to prevent them from burning.  Bake for 80 minutes and verify doneness with a digital thermometer at a minimum of 165 degrees F.  Loosely tent turkey with aluminum foil and allow turkey to rest at least 10 minutes before carving.  Save pan drippings for Giblet Gravy.  Serve immediately with your favorite sides.

YIELD:  8 TO 12 servings if big eaters

The UDS imparts a good dark bark to the skin of the turkey using my Wild Bill's Meat Rub.

The above spatchcock turkey was prepared on Christmas eve 12-24-16 and was outstanding!  My turkey platter would not hold the wings, thighs, legs and the meat was deboned and placed on a separate plate.   

This recipe was inspired by Robert Webster of Hamlet, NC.  He claims the spatchcock turkey smoked and cooked in an ugly drum smoker is better than a deep fried turkey, but I am a doubting Thomas.  I know I possess a certain amount of psychological bias, but I do attempt to be as objective as possible.

Simply stated, "Humans harbor biases.  These prejudices influence what we hear, see, taste, feel, smell and part of our sensory system.  In other words, if you EXPECT one food to taste better than another, - it will!  This phenomena or Psychological Bias has been tested and proven by many double blind tests of all types to fully document and support this phenomena."  The link relates to hearing but is valid for our entire sensory system.

I will give my opinion later, when I do this recipe on 12-24-16, however I am going to let those that consume the Spatchcock UDS Turkey be the judges, since all of them have already had my deep fried turkey many times in the past!

SPATCHCOCK UDS VERSUS DEEP FRIED TURKEY CONCLUSION

The spatchcock UDS turkey was moist, tender, delicious, had the traditional smoke ring next to the skin, especially on the legs and thighs with a very predominant charcoal smoked flavor to it.  I about over did it with the cayenne pepper and Wild Bill's Meat Rub since the skin was very, very spicy.

Only one person stated they believed they liked the UDS turkey better than the deep fried turkey.  Personally, I still prefer the the deep fried turkey over the UDS spatchcock turkey since basically, you are baking the spatchcock turkey with the addition of the charcoal smoked flavor.  It does cost more to deep fry a turkey due to the expense of 2 to 3 gallons of oil, however you can strain and use the cooking oil a few times which lowers the cost if you control the oil temperature not letting it go above 350 degrees F. if using regular oil versus peanut oil which can cruise at 375 degrees F.  The UDS will utilize about 10 pounds of charcoal which is more economical than the cooking oil.

COOKING USING UGLY DRUM SMOKER

Place about 10 lbs. charcoal in the ugly drum smoker fire basket.  Place a charcoal chimney 3/4 full of charcoal over a propane burner and when all of the charcoal is ignited (about 20 minutes), spread ignited charcoal evenly on top of the ugly drum fire basket charcoal.  Adjust the dampers on the ugly drum smoker until drum temperature is around 300 degrees F.  Insert an oven proof digital thermometer into heavy part of turkey thigh area keeping probe off the bone.  Place seasoned turkey breast side down on the upper grate and smoke/cook for 1 1/2 hours.  Flip turkey over and continue to smoke/cook until the internal temperature is at least 165 degrees F. which will take another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Remove turkey from the ugly drum smoker; loosely tent turkey with aluminum foil and allow turkey to rest for about 10 minutes before carving.  Serve immediately with your favorite sides.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 12-16-16.

SEQUENCE PIXS TAKEN ON 12-24-16

Click on the below sequences pixs taken for a larger screen view:

Web published update by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 12-25-16.

ROBERT WEBSTER'S SPATCHCOCK TURKEY

Below is pix of what the spatchcock turkey should look like when properly done.  Robert Webster of Hamlet, NC did this one.  Robert has been doing them in the Ugly Drum Smoker since around 2005 and has it down to a science.

Can you say "beautimous" out loud"

Web published update by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 12-25-16.