Turducken in Time for Thanksgiving
Here’s a very interesting dish for Thanksgiving, one I made last year and which turned out excellently. It’s a John Madden favorite (among others)–definitely not my idea, but I’ve adapted the recipe to be my own. It truly follows Edison’s idiom of 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Really, aside from the truly formidable preparatory labor, this delicious all-in-wonder is no more difficult than baking and basting. It’s not cheap, and it’s not easy, but it is a crowd-pleasing treat.
Here’s the overview. You’re making a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. But–no, it doesn’t stop there! You’ll add layers of dressings and meats between each layer of bird, creating rings of succulent flavors and textures, and making an artery-clogging mess of your body all the while. Such is the excess and indulgence of the Holiday season?
Here are the requisite milestones:
Ingredients
Please advance-read the full recipe to catch any ingredient/item gotchas!
Turducken
- 20-25lb Turkey
- 4-6lb Duck
- 2-3lb Chicken
- 2 packages Canadian Bacon
- 1 package Bacon
- Kitchen Twine
Cornbread Dressing
- 1lb Cornbread (1 bag stuffing mix or coarse-dried crumbles)
- 1 stick Butter
- 2 cups Chicken Broth
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 3/4 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1 cup onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp sage, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp parsley (fresh, chopped Italian)
- Kosher salt
- Ground Pepper
Rice Dressing
- 1 cup brown and wild rice
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup carrot, grated
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 2-3 Bay leaves, dried, whole
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
Sausage Stuffing
- 1lb sausage (ground)
- 1 cup onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp parsley (fresh, chopped Italian)
- 2-3 tbsp sage (fresh, minced)
- 1 cup seasoned croutons
- Kosher salt
- Ground pepper
Gravy
- Tuducken Drippings
- 1 cup finely sifted flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- ground black pepper
- 1 stick butter, melted
De-boning the Birds
This is the (pun-intended) bone-jarring work of the whole Turducken. Starting with your Turkey, you’ll remove the the ribcage, leaving the wings and legs attached. The other birds will have all their bones removed. This is a topic unto itself, and to that end I recommend this step-by-step guide on de-boning.
Follow the instructions for each bird, with the notable exception that the chicken and duck have the wings and legs removed as well. Do with these “extra” legs and wings as you will. Add them to your dressings, saute them Buffalo-wing style, or whatever you please.
You can bag or wrap each bird and return it to the refrigerator while you work, this may in total be an hour or two process (or far less…depending on skill and experience with butchery of birds).
Assembly
We’ll start with the dressings.
Cornbread dressing
Lightly saute onion, celery and garlic. Combine the remaining ingredients with the sautee in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. This goes into the bird uncooked.
Rice dressing
In a pan or rice cooker, combine water, rice and broth. Cook until about “half-done”. Drain. Combine the rice and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well. The rest of the cooking happens inside the bird.
Sausage dressing
Lightly brown the sausage, onion, and garlic. Combine these with the remaining ingredients and stir. This will continue to cook in the bird.
Turducken
On a large work surface, lay your de-boned Turkey out skin-side down. Season the Turkey with salt, pepper. Fold your Turkey upon itself to the middle so the breast skin is exposed. Carefully separate the skin from the breast meat, then slide slices of Canadian bacon underneath to create a protective/flavor barrier immediately below the skin but on top of the Turkey breast. you This step could be ommitted, but I learned this trick from my Mother (and have used it ever since).
Lay your Turkey back out completely flat and skin-side down. Sprinkle a light amount of garlic and rosemary to the entire surface. Now apply a generous 1″ layer of Cornbread Dressing to the entire layer. It should still be laying flat (as possible) on your work surface!
Lay your Duck out skin side down onto the layer of cornbread, then lightly salt and generously pepper its’ meat. Sprinkle garlic and thyme across the layer. Next apply a generous layer of Rice Dressing 3/4″ to the duck meat over the entire surface.
Lay the Chicken skin side down across the layer of rice. Salt and pepper the chicken. Create a cylinder/mound of Sausage dressing in the center of the chicken layer.
Get your twine and some kitchen shears together. Fold both halves of your raw Turducken together till they meet (not overlapping). Using a skewer (something long, thin, and pointy) start at the tail end, and poke through the meat on both sides. Lace through the hole you made, then continue to lace (think shoe or football fashion) until the entire length of the Turducken has been sewn together. This boneless heap is rather floppy, so it may help to have an extra pair of hands. It can also help to create a few loops around the bird to give it a little more structure and stability.
Across the width of your turkey, add raw bacon strips down the entire length. This bacon serves three purposes: 1) to take the brunt of any spikes in temperature (or rushed cooking by you), 2) cover gaps in your “lacing” 3) add flavor and moisture to the Turkey.
Cooking
Use yourself and an extra set of hands to transfer the Turducken to a wire rack and lower into your roaster. Or you can also use a roasting pan, but make sure to not just try to cook this in the oven as it will drip furiously and make a terrible mess (and a lot of burning smoke)! 
Cook the bird at 190-250 degrees. The heat varies on how done it is, when you want to serve, and how much, if at all, you are starting to scorch the dish. Baste liberally at 30 minute intervals. Begin with a baste of pure butter. After about 1/3-1/2 way through cooking you can use a Turkey baster to do your basting without adding fresh butter (although the final basting should be pure butter).
You want to check with meat thermometer until your Turducken is 165 degrees internally. Your cooking time will vary, but you can plan on about 9 hours. On the low side, you will cook the bird longer, but it won’t burn before the center is fully cooked. The high side of cooking temperature increasingly becomes difficult to keep from blackening as you enter the latter half of the cooking endeavor.
I’d love to be more precise, but when you are talking about something well over 20 pounds it simply comes down to working within those guidelines and adjusting as necessary. Honestly, don’t be too proud to use foil to protect this treasure from burning. Do what you must! I used an electric roaster.
The internal temperature is your enigma. Color is not, and overcooking is extremely undesirable. Overcooked is dry, and a dry bird is something we’ve all probably had, but none of us enjoy. When your Turducken’s thermometer says it is done, remove it from heat!
While your masterpiece cools, it’s time to bring together your gravy. Add drippings, chicken stock, butter, and spices to a slow boil. Gradually whisk in sifted flour until desired thickness is reached. The adding part is gentle, the whisking part should be energetic…
Serving
Allow the Turducken time to cool and rest after it’s removed from heat (5-10 minutes). Remove the legs and wings with a sharp knife and a twist at the joint. Doing so makes cutting slices really simple, because with the appendages gone there are no bones remaining.
Slice with a very sharp (and long) carving knife. You will need a broad spatula and perhaps a 2nd set of hands for best results transporting each layered slice (with any aesthetic success) to a plate. A 1/2 to 1″ slice is generally enough to soon put even hearty appetites to a sated stop.
Sharing
You will want to invite several friends and family, at least 8 diners total. Even after stuffing everyone to the gills you may be burdened by a cart full of leftovers. Or, as an alternative, you could pig out with fewer numbers (or yourself!), but definitely take all the leftovers to a work or a social function. If you were to make this for just you, or even you and a guest, you will feel like this Turducken was hardly worth the effort. So earn yourself a bank of enthusiastic compliments by planning in advance to share this one-of-a-kind treat with others. It’s almost worth doing annually after you succeed in pulling off this feast (which, historically, was literally fit for Kings).
Sides?
Turducken on its’ own is short one major ingredient, and that’s mashed potatoes. If you made only one more dish, I’d make taters and gravy to round out what really otherwise is a complete meal. Well, and I love spicy cranberry sauce. The desserts, the appetizers and whatever else you fancy are certain to be enjoyed, but strictly optional.
Switch it Up?
Yes, please, by all means switch it up! Please leave comments with any suggestions you have, or just share your success stories with your rendition of the fabled Turducken! One thing I’d really like to try is swapping out one of the dressings and getting the mashed potatoes and some cranberries in there somewhere… But clearly the possibilities are endless! For example, when I made this in 2007, I actually had a Pheasant in middle — a Turduckenant!
Bon Appetit! And Happy Turkey day.
