Here are Alton Brown's directions and a link to his recipe (including dry brine). I plan to try this myself this evening too. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!:

Set the turkey, breast-side down, on a large cutting board with the tail closest to you. Use an electric knife or heavy-duty kitchen shears to cut up one side of the backbone. Turn the bird around and cut back down the other side of the spine. Reserve the backbone for Giblet Stock. Discard any fat pockets or excess skin found inside the turkey. Turn the turkey breast-side up and use the heel of your hands to press down on both breasts, until you hear a cracking sound and the bird has flattened slightly.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/butterflied-dry-brined-roasted-turkey-with-roasted-root-vegetable-panzanella-recipe.html

http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/129563/why-you-should-spatchcock-your-turkey/

Thanks, Lily Spider! The photo at the chowhound link is how I expected it to look. Not sure why mine doesn't look like that. He really does look like he's getting down (getting funky, getting back up again - that's a bit from a very old Robin Williams show).

It's dry brined and in the fridge. At least that bit is done.

He really is a funny looking guy! I bet in the morning when he isn't frozen if you put some pressure on him he'll flatten out. Post a pic of you get him flat. I'd like to see it!

It could have some backbone left in. If you take a photo with the breast down that might be helpful to check. If that's not the issue, let it thaw and really press down on the breastbone and that should break it and flatten the turkey down like you want. It should look book matched.

Hope it turns out well, Lisa. I was just thinking about the spatchcocking threads from a year ago

I've only done chickens but you have to break the breastbone. Maybe hubby can do it for you.

Thanks, everyone! You've confirmed my suspicions. I need to put my weight into it and press the sucka down!

Clara, I think you're right. When I turned it over to spread the salt mixture in the cavity, I noticed that one side had some rib bones sticking up while the other side didn't. The backbone is gone but I don't think it was cut out evenly, hence my bird's nonchalant pose.I broke off the bones' tips and that seemed to help but it's still not bookmatched.

I will take a photo, Lily! I've been dying to do a KAW post.

...you have to break the breastbone.

Silly me, I thought the butcher would do this. Guess I'll have to spec that next year: spatchcock and break the breastbone.

I feel dumb for asking but what does KAW stand for? I have seen people use it on this site here and there and sometimes I can figure them out, but this one...IDK

It's going to take some real pressure to break the breast bone. Your pic looks to me like it just hasn't been broken. Sometimes it can be kind of tough with a chicken so imagine with a turkey.

Lily - it means Kitchen at Work

We did our turkey this way last year and it was the best turkey I have ever had. My husband did all of the prep and we used a fresh bird. Not sure how your butcher removed the backbone on a frozen bird but once it is thawed you may need to get a bit medieval with it to flatten it out.

Score the breastbone from the cavity side and that will help with it breaking when you apply pressure. Then tuck those wing tips back under him and legs ends under a skin flap. He's not supposed to have that splayed come hither look. He's supposed to have a tidy wrapped present look.

Rory, they keep the birds in a very cold fridge (somewhere between fridge and freezer temps) so it was only icy on the very outside. If I'd known that in advance, I would have picked the bird up Monday or Tuesday but when I checked it a couple hours after I put it in the fridge, it was completely thawed.

Thanks, Sophie! I have good access to the breastbone from the cavity side so scoring it won't be a problem.

He's not supposed to have that splayed come hither look. He's supposed to have a tidy wrapped present look.

The "splayed come hither look" gave me a chuckle. Yep, nothing tidy about my turkey at present. I need to transform him from an Oscar to a Felix. =)

Lily, sometimes KAW posts are also titled KIA, which means Kitchen In Action.

Thanks, everyone!

Lisa, did you check the Cooking Forum as well?

Well....

Now this is education. Fun teachers too.

D'oh, I should have checked Cooking Forum, too! Oh, well, I'll remember next time.

Thanks to Sophie's tip, I was able to crack the breast bone and get the bird to lay flat and symmetrical. It looked great going in and coming out.

But ...

eh, don't think I'll try that again. Contrary to everything I've read about the benefits of spatchcocking, it did not cook evenly. We checked temps in a few places and got readings that were at least 10 deg - and often more - apart. No idea what I did wrong. Instead of eating at 2:30, we sat down at nearly 4pm. It looked gorgeous and tasted good but it really messed with my T-day timeline.

Thankfully, our good friends (more like family) were really good-natured about the delay (we'll just drink more wine!).

Never did get any KAW pics, I was in crazy prep mode the whole time and forgot until we sat down to eat (finally!) and I didn't feel like getting up to take pics.

Anyhoo, I'm going back to the way I used to make turkey using Emeril's Brined Turkey recipe. It's a bit of a pain to haul a big bird out of the brine and rinse it but it came out juicy and delicious every time. And on time!

Oh, but the kitchen worked great! Love having an island with nothing but counter for prep and staging between oven and DR, etc.

Everything I read about cooking a spatchcocked turkey said to cook it at a high temperature- 400-425. I have a huge one on the smoker right now, and I'm curious about the timing myself. Despite being 200 lbs. and strong, I was unable to crack the breast, so I whacked it with a cleaver to get it started.

Ditto, mushcreek. I followed seriouseats recipe: 80 minutes at 450. I cooked it at 450 convection so it should have been done in about an hour. I lost track of how long it actually took but it was more than 80 minutes and even then, we had to put some of the bird back in to cook a little longer.

It's a new oven and I haven't calibrated the temp to make sure it's spot on but we have used it enough for other things and not had any problems.

Still not sure what I did wrong.

On the plus side, everyone said the turkey tasted delicious, as were all the other dishes. So I'm going to stop beating myself up about the turkey dinner timing. =)

No one expects to eat on time on Thanksgiving anyway :) plus, everything tastes better when you are hungry.

My turkey was done an hour earlier than I expected, so I had tons of time to get the rolls, etc done. I made the gravy the day before which was awesome as I tend to get "gravy anxiety". I think it was one of my most enjoyable Thanksgivings that I have hosted. Even the clean up didn't seem that bad. Whew!

Lisa, Sorry I missed your post. You are correct- it was A2 something. A2gemini.

I posted a long thread last year on the topic including the bone crunch. You figured out the basics. Last year, we "surgically removed" the wish bone and did not score the sternum. Since then, I have been scoring the sternum. I did not cook this year and my SIL chose a standard prep.

I cooked it for the first 15-30 minutes at the 425 and then lowered the temp to 325 and it still cooked in 90 minutes for a 13 lb turkey.

Sorry I missed this before the big event. We spatchcocked once... I was able to cut out the backbone with kitchen shears, but the breast bone involved a sledgehammer (wrapped in plastic) and a lot of wine. It was great fun and delicious, but a so far, a once in a lifetime event. I have been wet brining, but this year I went with a dry brine, and it was fabulous (and so much easier). I used the recipe for the rub here (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/dry-brined-turkey-with-classic-herb-butter-recipe.html), except just used plain ol' butter, combined with the cooking instructions here (I did rinse because I used regular salt), stuffed it with apple, onion, and rosemary, and roasted to temp - delicious and juicy: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012869-dry-brined-turkey

Well, I cooked a 20 pounder, which I'm told isn't the best idea, but it came out pretty good. I had a problem getting the breast cooked, but I think that's because I had a large drip pan under it, so the heat was blocked. I cooked it on a smoker, but at about 350 degrees, and it took about 4 hours. I collected the wonderful, smoky drippings to make gravy- Yumm!

Good to know my memory didn't fail me, A2! I remember the gorgeous shots of your beautiful turkey. I followed serious eats recipe, which is 80 minutes at 450. DH wondered if maybe lowering the temp after the sear would have netted better results. I'll tell him he was right (he'll be so happy).

Whoa, a sledgehammer, treehuggergirl! I wish you had video of that! I think spatchcocking will also be a once in a lifetime event for me. Thanks for the dry brining and the turkey recipes. The dry brine recipe is very similar to the one I used except that it requires more salt (nearly 2x as much) and rinsing after brining. The dry brine (without rinsing) sure was easy, so much easier than hauling a water logged turkey out of the bag and man-handling it for rinsing. But the effort paid off because the turkey was always delicious.

muchcreek, holy smokes, a 20 lb bird? That's huge! Smokers and I don't get along. Smoke is a very potent trigger for my asthma. Doesn't take much smoke to be too much smoke, resulting in a trip to the ER. Kinda puts a damper on the holiday. =)