After watching a Jacques Pepin video on deboning a chicken, I got ambitious. Turkeys were on sale for .29/lbs so I figured even if I messed it up too bad no big loss. My tieing needs work, and I wish I had gotten more color on the skin, but the flavor was A+. Best roasted turkey I've ever had. Significantly reduces cook time and the bird was super juicy. Added benefit of deboning, you get to season inside and outside. 14lbs bird took 105 minutes.

Greatness. Been doing it for years.

Never tried it. Looks good!

Would

Did you debone it from the backbone up or from the breastbone up position?

Looks like from the backbone to me. The top picture shows an intact sternum. That's the most difficult part.

I deboned mine with the breast bone up. That is supposed to leave more skin intact. I also moved the breast fillets and some breast meat slices to the other end of the turkey to even up the thickness. Best part is, it only needed four hours smoke at 275° to come up to temp. I’ll probably never cook another bone in turkey again.

I just googled both ways. Your way was the shortest video. Interesting.

Ditto on never cooking a bone in. The raw bones are too previous to me for making stock. The cleanup and storage are much easier. I do mine the day before and start with a clean kitchen.

I used this video mainly. When you debone the legs in a turkey there are more ligaments I pulled out with needle nose pliers

https://youtu.be/nfY0lrdXar8

I just trimmed those ligaments out like silver skin and tossed them in the stockpot. The tidbits of meat from the carcass went in the giblet gravy.

I threw them in the stockpot as well. My dog has a sensitive stomach if he eats anything other than his food or treats you can hear his stomach gurgling across the room, and we give him a cup of bone broth every day, he hasn't had any issues since we started doing that.

No argument from me. Different strokes for different folks. I bone out my drumstick and thighs, freeze them and use them later in sausage/turkey gumbo, or chili.

More pluses on using boneless turkey is that you don't over cook it and slice across the grain.

Love the pop up timers.

Bill, I picked up your tip on placing the frozen bird in an ice chest too. Ours defrosted in two days out on the back porch in one. The weather cooperated, I wouldn’t do that in the summer without icing it down. As a result, we had plenty of fridge space. Once it’s deboned, it’s about 25% of its former size, so it’s easy to brine it in a gallon ziplock. Once it’s brined, stuffed and tied, you can wrap it in clear kitchen wrap and store it in the fridge easily.

I liken cooking a boneless turkey to filleting a fish vs cooking it whole.