Turducken with Corn Bread Stuffing

The year of 2012 was a great Thanksgiving.  My niece was getting married on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the whole family came in for the holiday and the wedding.  So I had about 13 for dinner.  My brothers, sister-in-law, nieces, Mom, husband, son, 2 daughters, son-in-law, grandson and me.  So I had to make something special and decided to make a Turducken!

You might be asking what is a Turducken?  A Turducken is a dish consisting of a boned chicken stuffed into a boned duck, which in then stuffed into a boned turkey.  The rib cage of the turkey is removed but the legs usually have the bones left intact.

I only got 4 hours sleep the night before Thanksgiving because I was up all night making the Turducken..   I didn’t realize that it takes 2 people to sew that bird together.  I was trying to do it after everyone else was in bed and that was a challenge!  Thankful that my daughter came in to help the next morning.

So my recommendation is to make your stuffing ahead of time.  Bone the chicken, bone the duck and remove the rib cage of the turkey and store in refrigerator until you are ready to put the birds together.  Don’t do what I did and try to assemble it by yourself.  Make sure you have someone available to help hold the birds together while you sew up the seams.  Here is a great video from Award-winning butcher Armande Ferrante giving a step-by-step breakdown on how to debone the bird.  Make your turducken dreams a reality..

Many recipes call for making a different stuffing for each stuffed bird but I used one stuffing throughout.

TURDUCKEN WITH CORN BREAD STUFFING

Corn Bread Stuffing Recipe:

1 stick butter
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
6 cups chopped stale bread
2 corn bread mixes baked, cooled and crumbled.
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons sage
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 cups or more chicken broth or water

Melt butter in large skillet.  Add onions and celery.  Saute until soft.  Add chopped stale bread and crumbled cornbread, poultry seasoning, sage, salt and pepper.  Stir until well mixed.  Add enough chicken broth or water to make the stuffing moist.  Set aside to cool.

Turducken ingredients:

1 18-21 lb Turkey
1 6 lb. duck
1 4 lb. chicken
salt, pepper, garlic powder
toothpicks
kitchen string
needle and thread

Instructions:

Bone the Duck.  Bone the Chicken.  Bone the rib cage from Turkey.  Place the Turkey flat and opened on parchment paper.  Salt and pepper turkey cavity.  Spread a thin layer of dressing over the inside cavity.  Lay the duck, skin side down, on top of the dressing layer.  Add a thin layer of dressing on top of duck to make a layer.  Place the chicken flat and skin side down on top of the dressing layer.  Add an additional layer of dressing.
Have an assistant to help bring the edges of the turkey skin up hold the turducken together as you fasten them together with toothpicks.  Use the kitchen string to lace around the toothpicks to help hold the stuffed turkey together.  Another method is to sew the cavity with needle and thread.  Place the turducken, breast up in a large roasting pan.
Cover the turducken with foil or lid of roasting pan and bake at 375 degrees F. for about 3 hours.  Uncover and continue baking to brown for about 1 hour.  Meat thermomenter should read 160-165  degrees F when turducken is done.