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Thanks again for pointing this place out, the flavors here are more subtle and refined than other places in the neighborhood. I loved that fern thing. You gotta try those sausages, really really good!

I've done this for years (although I like to cut through the backbone, using a cleaver and meat mallet). A rich mushroom/ricotta/parmesan mixture goes between the skin and the flesh, and I smoke the turkey at an average grill temperature of 350º.

Dear Grace: I made this yesterday. I spatch-cocked my turkey saturday morning, after a 12 hour brine, for a friends' thanksgiving saturday afternoon. It turned out SO awesome. I've pretty much hated every other turkey that I've ever had/made except for this one. and it was so fast! I was really worried because after 20 minutes at 400F, there was a 40 deg F temperature difference between my thigh and my breast. (or 22.2 deg C difference). I ended up cooking the breast to a higher temperature than you recommended, yet none of my turkey meat was dry.

The high temperature of 450 I first used when I made this Thomas Keller recipe for simple roast chicken, where he also roasts at 450 deg F. (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348)

Interestingly enough, even without brining, Thomas Keller's recipe for cooking chicken at high temperature also avoids dry chicken meat.

his roast chicken recipe is good practice for this recipe in my opinion because of the following reason:

When I made that recipe, I followed the commenters' and my sister's advice, and layered potatoes underneath the roast chicken because otherwise there is quite a bit of smoking.
Why is this important?
The spatchocked turkey also smokes quite a bit when cooking at 450F.
So be prepared for that. I thought it might be butter, but Keller's recipe doesn't call for butter, so it's simply from the poultry.

the smoke is nothing that opening all the windows in my 650 sq. ft apartment didn't fix! But I wonder if you could avoid the smoke by, as many who prepare Keller's chicken do, layering potatoes underneath the bird and throwing those into your gravy or something.

I just want to say that these are what I found to be most key in making your recipe:
Brine overnight
dry with LOTS of paper towels
compound herb butter is a MUST on the breast
prepare for the smoking
and definitely turkey resting is key prior to carving

If anyone else experienced the smoking, or same temperature differential between thigh and breast I would love to hear about it.

everyone loved it!! thank you so much G - you RULE!

We had a Thanksgiving pre-game last weekend and used the spatchcock method. I used Alton Brown's brine recipe, brined for about 8 hours. A 15 lb bird took about an hour and a half to cook. Our guests said again and again that it was the juiciest turkey they have ever had. A few weeks ago I spatchcocked a chicken as a test run and it was the best roast chicken I've ever made. The brine-spatchcock method is definitely the way to go.

Just use a large roasting pan with a flat rack instead of a v-shaped rack.

Better yet you can just place the turkey on large chunks of aromatics/mirepoix (onions, celery & carrots) & herbs (or potatoes maybe) and use them as a rack to keep the bird from sitting in drippings. Add a little stock to keep them from burning at roasting temps. They'll be useless after they've roasted for long, but strain them out & deglaze the pan and you have some delicious strong stock for gravy.

Also, just so I can start my Christmas planning, has anyone tried to spatchcock a Goose?
In that case I imagine that the fat dripping would be a REAL issue.

I spatchcock turkeys all the time for a couple of reasons: One, because I get an extra piece of meat to add flavor to my roasted turkey stock; and two, the most important reason, the turkey lays flat, so I can use the second rack in the oven for the side dishes that are just as important as the turkey. A salute of my Pilgrim hat to whoever thought up this technique.

I spatchcock chickens all year 'round. But I'd never thought to do the turkey - something about liking the visual of the giant bird in the middle of the table. But the time savings seem curiously worth it now.

My favorite is definitely cold szechuan style noodles with a peanut/tahini/chili sauce (Bittman's recipe is my basic starting point). A relatively simple dish with a lot of elan and layers.

And, btw, I thought peanuts were of African origin, and I thank you for a new piece of knowledge today!

I, too, have eaten Gog Bao Ji Ding in Beijing many times, and it's very similar to our Kung Pao Chicken. Except there it costs about fifty cents. And, as Barry Foy said, there seems to be an overabundance of peanuts and a relative dearth of chicken in the dish pictured. However, Barry, I've had it with cucumbers on numerous occasions. They work surprisingly well. I can't remember if it always had cucumbers (left Beijing >2 years ago) but it was often at least.

I was always under the impression that Kung Pao chicken was authentic, mostly because I had a friend in college who studied abroad for a year in China and came back saying he'd had it there (but taught us all the "correct" pronunciation for it gong bao ji ding. Although I do enjoy the Americanized version in restaurants, I've always made it at home more in the style of Fuchsia Dunlop's version - cause that's how Mom taught me!

There's a couple of Szechwan places around here that do a dynamite version of Kung Pao Chicken, more chilies, more flavor.

Gongbao jiding (not "jidan") is totally authentic, but what's shown in that photo ain't it. What are those green bits supposed to be? Cucumber? Zucchini? Based on my experience in China and Taiwan, they don't belong. Also, there seems to be more peanuts than chicken, and even the most devoted peanut partisan shouldn't get away with that. As for cashews, not a chance.

As stated, Jennifer 8 Lee's book clarifies the record re: Gen'l Tso's, but gongbao jiding, as far as I know, is quite a different story.