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Turkey Butterfly

Turkey Butterfly

Regular price £60.00
Regular price Sale price £60.00
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From 2.0kg Serves 10 (estimate based on 200g per portion)

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about this product

Our delicious turkey butterfly is the perfect choice for traditional roast dinners and any special occasion This skin-on turkey butterfly cooks beautifully, as the flavours and moistness of the bird are sealed into the meat while roasting.

Choosing our turkey butterfly means you’ll get to enjoy the same outstanding flavour and texture as you would with a whole turkey, but without the hassle of carving and deboning. What’s more, turkey butterflies are also much easier and quicker to cook!


Weight: From 2Kg
Serves: Approx. 10

Looking to serve a larger group? Opt for our large turkey butterfly instead to serve up to 25 guests.

What is the difference between a turkey butterfly and a turkey crown?

A turkey butterfly is completely boneless, while a turkey crown still contains the bone. A turkey crown and turkey butterfly are otherwise the same cut of meat - the two breast sections of the turkey with legs and wings removed.

Smoked Turkey by Artust BBQ

Turkey is a meat that divides people round the table at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but we are here with some ideas to make everyone fall in love with the turkey you cook for them. Using the most simple and convenient cut of turkey, the Tom Hixon boneless turkey butterfly, keeps things as easy as possible to cook and serve. Add to this, a recipe that gives you the most succulent and flavourful turkey you will have ever tried, you'll be having this for roast dinners all year round.


For those who don’t know, a wet brine is simply a way of using a solution of salt, sugar, and water, then giving your turkey a little 24hr spa bath treatment before cooking. This simple, scientific process helps to ensure your turkey meat stays as moist as possible during the cook, whilst giving you the opportunity to introduce many new levels of flavour with aromatics too. And we are giving you a double secret method, and injecting our turkey with butter too, as we all know everything tastes better with butter. So, when you carve this beautiful turkey butterfly up, you and your guests will definitely be asking for another slice. And cooking the turkey out on the barbecue frees up all the space in the oven for the rest of the sides, or simply cook them in the barbecue too.


 


Ingredients


1x Tom Hixson boneless turkey butterfly


200g Salt


200g Soft brown sugar


3ltrs water


½ltr fresh orange juice


3 cinnamon sticks


4 bay leaves


1tbsp whole black peppercorns


4 sprigs of rosemary


5 cloves garlic


2 oranges


100g basic BBQ rub


2 sticks unsalted butter


1 bag of ice


Container to keep the turkey in and cold for 24hrs



Equipment


Barbecue. Can be charcoal, gas or pellet. This recipe will work on any barbecue large enough to fit the turkey on


Smoking wood chips or chunks


Large 5L pan


Meat injection needle


Container/cool box to store the turkey in its brine for 24hrs


Trivet pan



Method


 


You want to start the brining process 24hrs before you intend to cook the turkey, so get all the bits together the day before. This first part of the turkey recipe, with making the brine, is probably easier to do inside using the hob, plus it will make your house smell delicious too. You want to find a large pan, ideally 5L plus, then add in the following ingredients: water, orange juice, salt, sugar, cinnamon sticks, bulbs of garlic, rosemary, bay leaves and black peppercorns. Then, halve the oranges, squeeze the juice into the pan then throw in each orange half after too. Then you want to gently heat this brine mixture to nothing more than a low simmer, keep stirring gently until all the salt and sugar has dissolved into the liquid. Do not let this boil at any point. Once dissolved, swich the pan off and remove from the heat, and set it aside to cool completely, this may take a couple of hours. This is hugely important as you do not want the meat to get warm when added to the brine solution. To speed this up, you could transfer the contents into a large bowl out of the heat of the pan. Add in a handful of the ice to speed up the cooling process if you need to.




Once fully cooled you can add the liquid and all the contents to the container you will use to store the turkey in for 24hrs. This can be a container in the fridge if you have space, if not you can use a cool box like we did. You need to fully submerge the whole turkey butterfly, then top up the container or cooler with the remaining ice to keep the turkey chilled. You may need to top up the ice in the morning to keep the turkey at a safe temperature until you are ready to cook.



This recipe is designed for the BBQ but can easily be adapted to cook inside. But we promise you the smokey flavour adds yet another layer to the turkey which takes it to another level.



When your barbecue is lit and ready to cook, (details below) you need to get ready to double down on the moisture with the butter injections. Once injected the turkey must go onto the barbecue immediately, as the warm butter being injected will start to heat up the meat. Simply warm through the 2x sticks of unsalted butter in a pan, slowly, so the butter doesn't split. When ready, and whilst the butter is still warm, slowly fill your injector with the melted butter and inject deep down into the top of the turkey in a grid pattern, in rows with gaps around 1 inch apart. Each breast will take around a whole stick of butter doing this. Inject the butter in slowly and when each section is full, carefully remove the needle and move to the next spot. Doing this grid pattern will ensure an even filling of the butter throughout the turkey. Some will spill onto the skin and will likely solidify from the cold of the meat, but don't worry. You can add the turkey to the BBQ for 5 minutes so that butter on the skin starts to melt, remove quickly, then rub the butter in all over the skin, as this will help to be used as a binder to help your seasoning stick. Now it's time to season with the BBQ rub/seasoning of your choice. You can go pretty heavy handed and remember to start by seasoning the under-side, then followed by the skin side, which will be your presentation side. You can carefully lift the skin with your hand, and then spread a handful of seasoning under the skin too. But do this before you season on top of the skin to avoid it falling off.


 



  • Set your BBQ up for a medium/high heat around 180-200c with an indirect cook. We used a trivet pan to lift the turkey up from any juices that go into the pan, and it also acts as a heat shield. Should you wish, you can fill the bottom of the trivet pan with liquid and anymore aromatics you wish to add. At this point you can add some wood chips or chunks to lightly smoke the turkey too, only a small handful is fine, and aim to use a nice light fruit wood like apple or cherry for a lighter smoke, or maybe oak if you are looking for a more powerful smokey taste too.
  • Then simply let the turkey cook at 180-200c for around 3-4 hours, or until the centre of each breast has reached a temperature of 70c. At any point if you feel the turkey has taken on enough colour and will get too dark, cover the butterfly with tin foil. Then if towards the end you still want to crisp up the skin a little more, increase the temperature for the last 30 minutes to around 220c.
  • At any point during the cook and if you have space, you can add in any other side dishes that are cooking at a similar temperature. As our cook was thanksgiving themed, we also cooked some seasoned baked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, stuffing and some honey glazed carrots.
  • You should then remove the turkey from the heat, remove from the trivet and onto a board or serving platter and let it rest for around 30 minutes loosely covered with some tin foil, with enough gaps to let any steam come out.
  • Then you are ready to slice and serve, but trust me, carve up more than you think you need as everyone will be asking for more.

 




how it works

Free Delivery Nationwide
Free Delivery Nationwide

Free delivery for orders over £150. Orders under £150 are subject to a £7.99 delivery fee.

Further info on delivery times can be found here.

Protective Chilled Packaging
Protective Chilled Packaging

All orders are shipped in our reinforced chilled packaging to keep the produce safe during transit.

Regular Contact
Regular Contact

We'll be in touch at each stage of delivery, keeping you up to date on your order's whereabouts.

If you have any questions, please see our FAQs page for further help and advice. Or alternatively email us at homedining@tomhixson.co.uk.

For further information on our Halal Produce, please click here.

We supply quality produce to some of London's finest restaurants. For wholesale queries, please contact our team on 020 7248 3569 or email wholesale@tomhixson.co.uk.