IMO i'd go heritage before I went organic. I've found Organic doesn't really say anything about flavour, and farms that focus on Heritage breeds may not always be "organic" but they definitely treat their animals with a lot more respect. In contrast, a farm can be letter of the law organic and treat their animals like garbage and produce awful meat. Also, if you're going over say 12 lbs, you're probably better off getting two smaller birds. If you do choose a big bird, Spatchcocking is your friend when it comes to whole poultry. Heck, even just cutting it down the middle to get it to lay flat is a huge plus.a 15lb turkey, which was organic, which wasn't heritage, and had about as much flavor as a ream of copy paper and still cost sixty fucking dollars.
I'm a big fan of heritage breed turkeys. The issue is I got home Dec 1. My daughter's birthday was a week later. Two days after that we were in Alberta for a week. Two days after that my mother-in-law was in surgery. Two days after that was christmas. I don't know if you've tried hunting down heritage turkeys but it's a pain in the ass even at Thanksgiving; yeah, Whole Foods has them but they're Mary's Turkeys and when you ask them what breed, they say "heritage white." Uhhh... And then you realize that sure - you want to do two six pound turkeys. Have you ever tried to find a 6lb turkey domestically? They don't really exist. I almost did a goose this year but the family totally shot it down. As far as spatchcocking, I mean, stuffing is nature's perfect food. Granted, nobody in my family eats that either. Maybe next year I'll do burgers.
my family does homemade pizza for christmas dinner - get the kids involved putting on toppings.
I agree with coffeesp00ns spatchcock and cook at 500 degrees. A 10lb turkey will be done in right around an hour. Cook the stuffing separately. Why? Thermodynamics, a 10lb turkey with stuff is effectively 3+ in thick to the center spatchcocked its less than 1. It cooks more evenly because the heat doesn't need to penetrate that far in and there is less of thermal gradient. Also at 500 degress you get that crispy skin (assuming you separate it from the body dry brine it with salt and let it dry it first) As for Heritage birds, I agree with you cant get a true "Heritage" bird even at Central market or Whole foods. The birds that are Labeled Heritage are actually some sort of cross between a Heritage breed and a factory farm breed. The only way to get a real one is to either Mail order or order/pickup at the Ballard Farmers market and then they are quite pricy.