Turducken

We made the turducken.  It was really delicious, moist, tender, seasoned perfectly.

Here are the basic instructions:

1. Raise a turkey, duck, and chicken.  Pictured below are three of our birds that we got from the hatchery this spring, a standard bronze tom turkey, Rhode Island Red rooster, and White Peking drake.  All of these animals were allowed to free range, given an all natural, all vegetarian grain, and were exposed to all of the fresh air and sunshine they could want.

2.  When the animals get to the appropriate size, butcher them.  My good friend from Hurricane Farm came to help me do this.  Her family runs a CSA where they offer turkey, chicken, pork, and beef.  You can learn more about that at their farm blog.

3.  Once the birds have been plucked and gutted, allow them to rest in the fridge over night.  This allows excess moisture to evaporate and gives the meat time to become more tender as the muscles relax.  The turkey dressed out at 20 lbs, the duck 4 lbs, and the chicken 3.5 lbs.

4.  Debone the birds.  This was BY FAR the worst part of the whole process.  I bone a lot of meat; our family’s preferred way of processing chicken is to remove the breasts as cutlets, cut the meat from the legs and thighs and grind that, and then use the rest to make chicken stock and chicken salad.  However, boning something to get as much meat as possible while also preserving the look of the bird is much trickier.  The chicken and duck were completely boned, the turkey had the keel and thigh bones removed.

5.  Place the birds in a brine overnight.  I was following this recipe by Paula Dean.

6.  Rinse the birds and pat dry.  Lay them each out skin side down and get together the rest of your ingredients and stuffing.

7.  Starting with the turkey, spread a layer of stuffing over the entire surface.  Place the duck skin-side down and repeat, covering with a layer of stuffing.  Repeat with the chicken.

8.  With assistance truss the bird by stitching the two open sides of the turkey together.  Place it breast side up in a roasting pan and sprinkle with your preferred spice mix.

9.  Roast at 500F for 15 minutes, then turn down to 225F for as long as it takes until the inside of the bird is 160F.  I cooked ours overnight and our oven has an internal probe that you insert into meat and shuts off automatically when the preset temp is reached (I LOVE LOVE LOVE our oven).  I think it took at least five or six hours.

10.  Allow to rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.

This was without question the most delicious turkey, duck, and chicken I have ever had.  So moist, so tender, and the stuffing was to die for.  But, it was A LOT of work, and may be a once every year or two kind of project.

Th next day we had the world’s best sandwich.  We took some pumpkin oatmeal bread, slapped on some turkey, duck, chicken, stuffing, and canned cranberry sauce, and yum, yum, yum.  It was so good.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to do something outside your comfort zone with food and cooking and eating, you might never know what you like until you try!