Turducken Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com
My Citizens, I have long awaited the opportunity to present you with this, perhaps the most complex recipes in my repertoire! Behold the almighty, legendary Turducken – a recipe that will test only the boldest and most talented Citizens of TFD Nation (and all their friends!). This is, in my humble opinion, the canonical version of the recipe, as prepared by the dish’s first evangelist, the unmatched Chef Paul Prudhomme!
Turducken is a dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey. Outside of the United States and Canada, it is known as a three bird roast. Gooducken is a traditional English variant, replacing turkey with goose.
The word turducken is a portmanteau of turkey, duck, and chicken. The dish is a form of engastration, which is a recipe method in which one animal is stuffed inside the gastric passage of another.
The thoracic cavity of the chicken/game hen and the rest of the gaps are stuffed, sometimes with a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. The result is a fairly solid layered poultry dish, suitable for cooking by braising, roasting, grilling, or barbecuing.
Credit for the creation of the turducken is uncertain, though it is generally agreed to have been popularized by Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme. The most common claimant is Hebert’s Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana, whose owners Junior and Sammy Hebert say they created it in 1985 “when a local man brought his own birds to their shop and asked the brothers to create the medley”.
A New Orleans surgeon, Dr. Gerald R. LaNasa, was locally known for his use of a scalpel in deboning his three birds of choice, sometimes adding pork or veal roasts in the final hen’s cavity, thus preserving the turducken tradition as a regional holiday favorite of the southern United States. Andouille sausage and Foie Gras were always key ingredients of the LaNasa creations. The results of Dr. LaNasa’s work can be found in the modern day mass-produced turducken or turduckhen (another variation adding or substituting a cornish game hen). His turkey, duck, and chicken ballotine is now widely commercially available under multiple trademark names. Dr. LaNasa’s innovation and success with ballotine, Three Bird Roast and turducken began mid century, expanding in the 1960s and seventies long before many of the popular commercial Cajun/Creole chefs of today took the stage.
In the United Kingdom, a turducken is a type of ballotine called a “three-bird roast” or a “royal roast”. The Pure Meat Company offered a five-bird roast (a goose, a turkey, a chicken, a pheasant, and a pigeon, stuffed with sausage), described as a modern revival of the traditional Yorkshire Christmas pie, in 1989; and a three-bird roast (a duck stuffed with chicken stuffed with a pigeon, with sage and apple stuffing) in 1990.
In his 1807 Almanach des Gourmands, gastronomist Grimod de La Reynière presents his rôti sans pareil (“roast without equal”)—a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler—although he states that, since similar roasts were produced by ancient Romans, the rôti sans pareil was not entirely novel. The final bird is very small but large enough to just hold an olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds.
Gooducken is a goose stuffed with a duck, which is in turn stuffed with a chicken. An early form of the recipe was Pandora’s cushion, a goose stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a quail.
Another version of the dish is credited to French diplomat and gourmand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. The 1891 newspaper article French Legends Of The Table offers Quail a la Talleyrand:
The following for instance, is Talleyrand’s fanciful and somewhat roundabout way of roasting a quail. On a day of “inspiration gourmande” at his hotel in the Rue Saint-Florentin, he composed the following recipe: Take a plump quail, seasoned with truffles, and made tender by having been put into champagne. You put it carefully inside a young Bresse chicken; then sew up the opening, and put dabs of butter all over the chicken. Again, you put the chicken inside a fine Berri turkey, and roast the turkey very carefully before a bright fire. What will be the result? All the juice of the turkey is absorbed by the fowl, and all the juice of the fowl in its turn by the quail. After two hours roasting the fowl, which in reality it composed of three fowls, is ready, and you place the steaming trinity upon a dish of fine porcelain or chiseled silver. Then you pull the chicken out of the turkey, and the quail out of the chicken. The quail? Is it correct to talk of the quail, when this delicious, perfumed dish is indeed too good for any name? You take the quail as you would some sacred relic, and serve it hot, steaming, with its aroma of truffles, after having roasted it to a golden yellow by basting it diligently with the best Gournay butter.
The book Passion India: The Story of the Spanish Princess of Kapurthula (p. 295) features a section that recounts a similar dish in India in the late 1800s: “Invited by Maharajah Ganga Singh to the most extraordinary of dinners, in the palace at Bikaner, when Anita asks her host for the recipe of such a succulent dish, he answers her seriously, “Prepare a whole camel, skinned and cleaned, put a goat inside it, and inside the goat a turkey and inside the turkey a chicken. Stuff the chicken with a grouse and inside that put a quail and finally inside that a sparrow. Then season it all well, place the camel in a hole in the ground and roast it.”
Citizens, this is a challenging recipe indeed – only attempt it with your posse backing you up! 🙂
Battle on – The Generalissimo
Ingredients
- Cornbread:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornmeal
- ¾ cup corn flour (NOTE: Also available at many health and international food stores)
- 1 cup sugar
- 7½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Chef Paul Prudhomme's Vegetable Magic®
- 2 cups milk
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 whole egg, beaten
- ***
- Poultry Stock:
- Reserved carcasses of turkey, chicken, or duck (or all three)
- 2 gallons water
- ***
- Roasted Vegetables for Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy:
- 2 pounds whole eggplants (about 2)
- 4½ pounds medium onions, whole (about 6)
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes, while (about 4)
- 6 ounces garlic, whole (about 2)
- vegetable oil
- ***
- Andouille Sausage Dressing:
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all
- 2½ pounds (ground - 8 cups) Chef Paul Prudhomme's Andouille Smoked Sausage (See Note)
- 5 cups chopped onions
- 3 cups chopped celery
- 2½ cups chopped green bell peppers
- ¼ cup minced garlic
- 7 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Pepper Sauce®
- 5 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic®
- 3 cups very fine dry breadcrumbs, unseasoned (preferably French bread)
- ***
- Cornbread Dressing:
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 eggs
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 cups finely chopped onions
- 2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
- 1¾ cup finely chopped celery
- 1½ tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic®
- 4 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Pepper Sauce®
- 2 pounds duck or chicken giblets, ground
- 8 cups roughly crumbled Cornbread
- ***
- Shrimp Dressing:
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, in all
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 cups chopped onions
- 4 cups chopped celery
- 3 cups chopped green bell peppers
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 7 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic®
- 1½ pounds shrimp, peeled and chopped
- 3 cups very fine dry bread crumbs, unseasoned (preferably French bread)
- 1 cup Poultry Stock
- ***
- For the Turducken:
- 1 chicken (3-4 pounds)
- 1 duckling (5-6 pounds)
- 1 turkey (15-20 pounds)
- 2 pounds duck or chicken giblets
- 2½ pounds Chef Paul Prudhomme's Andouille Smoked Sausage
- 1½ pounds shrimp, peeled
- 9 cups celery, chopped (total)
- 7 tablespoons garlic, minced (total)
- 8 cups green bell peppers, chopped
- 12 cups onions, chopped (total)
- 2 garlic heads, whole
- 4½ pounds medium onions, whole (about 6)
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes, whole (about 4)
- 2 pounds whole eggplants (about 2)
- 3 whole eggs
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups milk
- 5 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 7½ teaspoons baking powder
- 7 bay leaves
- ¾ cup corn flour
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 cups very fine dry breadcrumbs, unseasoned (preferably French bread)
- 21 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic®
- 4 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic®
- 7 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic®
- 1 teaspoon Chef Paul Prudhomme's Vegetable Magic®
- 11 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Pepper Sauce®
- 1 (15x11inch) baking pan, at least 2 1/4 inches deep
- 1 pan larger than the 15x11 inch pan
- 3 metal or bamboo skewers
- 6 sheet pans
- vegetable oil
- aluminum foil
- 1 small hammer
Instructions
- Cornbread:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, corn flour, sugar, baking powder and Vegetable Magic®; mix well, breaking up any lumps. In a separate bowl combine the milk, butter and egg and add to the dry ingredients; blend just until mixed and large lumps are dissolved. Do not overbeat.
- Pour the mixture into a lightly oiled baking pan and bake at 350°F until golden brown, about 40-55 minutes. Remove from pan, cool and break into crumbs (not too fine, and leave some coarser chunks for texture).
- Poultry Stock:
- In a stock pot, or other large pot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Place the reserved bones and necks in a roasting pan. Place in the oven and roast until the bones are a rich golden brown, about 30 minutes. As soon as the carcasses are browned, place them in the pot.
- Simmer until the stock has reduced by half and has a rich poultry flavor, about 2 to 3 hours. Strain and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Roasted vegetables for sweet potato gravy:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Rub all the vegetables lightly with vegetable oil. Place the oiled vegetables in a roasting pan. Place in the oven and roast until the vegetables are brown on the outside and the eggplants are deeply wrinkled, about 2½ hours. Remove the eggplants, onions and garlic and set aside to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 425°F and return the sweet potatoes to the oven. Continue to roast until brown juices are beginning to come out of the potatoes, about 30 minutes.
- When cool enough to handle, peel and coarsely chop the eggplants, onions and sweet potatoes. Peel the garlic and mash with a fork. Refrigerate the ingredients separately until ready to use in Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy.
- For the Andouille Sausage Dressing:
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a 5-quart pot over high heat. When the butter is melted, add the ground andouille. Cook, stirring and scraping the bottom frequently to prevent sticking, until the andouille is beginning to brown and the oil is beginning to render from the andouille, about 6 minutes.
- Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent, but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, bell peppers and garlic. Continue to cook, stirring and scraping frequently, until the celery and bell peppers are faded in color, about 4 minutes.
- Add the Magic Pepper Sauce® and Meat Magic®. Stir and scrape until mixed in well and the brown crust on the bottom of the pot is dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat and add the remaining butter. Stir until the butter is melted.
- Fold in the half of the breadcrumbs, using a bottom to top folding motion. When mixed in well, fold in the remaining breadcrumbs. Continue to fold until the breadcrumbs are evenly moistened but still somewhat dry and cakey.
- Remove from heat and spread on a sheet pan as thinly as possible. Refrigerate sheet pan in the coldest part of the refrigerator until dressing is very cold. (Note: The goal is to chill the dressing as quickly as possible. Spreading the dressing in a thin layer on a sheet pan allows it to cool very quickly. In our refrigerator, this took a little over 1 hour.)
- NOTE: If you are not using Andouille, add 1 to 2 more tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic® for a fuller flavor.
- For Cornbread Dressing:
- Process the eggs and milk together in a blender at medium speed until fully combined, about 20 seconds. Set aside.
- Spread the crumbled Cornbread on a sheet pan and bake in a 300°F oven until the crumbs are dry and a touch of brown is showing on the larger pieces, about 30 minutes.
- In a 5-quart pot, melt 6 tablespoons of butter together with the bay leaves. Add the onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are beginning to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the bell peppers, celery, garlic, Poultry Magic® and Magic Pepper Sauce.
- Cook, stirring and scraping frequently, until the onions are beginning to brown and the celery and bell peppers are faded in color, about 4 minutes. Add the giblets. Stir until the giblets are fully cooked, but not browned, and the seasoning has a rich flavor, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and remove from the heat. Stir well until butter is melted. Remove bay leaves.
- Put the baked crumbled cornbread in a large mixing bowl. Fold in the milk/egg mixture, then fold in the vegetable mixture until evenly mixed.
- Spread the dressing on a sheet pan as thinly as possible. Refrigerate sheet pan in the coldest part of the refrigerator until dressing is very cold. (Note: The goal is to chill the dressing as quickly as possible. Spreading the dressing in a thin layer on a sheet pan allows it to cool very quickly. In our refrigerator, this took a little over 1 hour). Bake at 350° until browned on top.
- For the shrimp dressing:
- Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter in a 5-quart pot together with the bay leaves over high heat. When butter is melted, add the onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are beginning to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes.
- Add the celery, bell peppers, garlic, and Seafood Magic®. Cook, stirring frequently, until the celery and bell peppers are faded in color, about 4 minutes. Add the shrimp and stir in well. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and stir until butter is melted. Add half of the breadcrumbs.
- Cook, stirring constantly, until the breadcrumbs are fully moistened and blended in, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining breadcrumbs and continue to stir until all the breadcrumbs are mixed in, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, pull out bay leaves and stir in the Poultry Stock. The dressing should be bound and thick but not wet.
- Spread the dressing on a sheet pan as thinly as possible. Refrigerate sheet pan in the coldest part of the refrigerator until dressing is very cold. (Note: The goal is to chill the dressing as quickly as possible. Spreading the dressing in a thin layer on a sheet pan allows it to cool very quickly. In our refrigerator, this took a little over 1 hour.)
- For the Turducken:
- The complete Turducken recipe can be found in Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking! Cookbook. You can purchase the cookbook and a sampling of four of our seasoning blends (2-oz. Poultry Magic®, 2-oz. Meat Magic®, 2-oz Seafood Magic®, and 2-oz. Vegetable Magic®) for only $19.95! *Please note: Our 4-PK Sampler is not sufficient to make the entire Turducken Recipe, and additional seasoning and ingredients are needed. If you have questions about items needed for preparation, please give us a call toll-free at 1-800-457-2857.
- Since the Turducken takes about 8 hours to cook (and then it needs to cool at least 1 hour before it's carved), you will need to plan your time wisely. First, be sure your oven temperature control is accurate by using (or purchasing) an inexpensive oven thermometer to monitor the oven's temperature instead of relying on the oven temperature control. Otherwise, your Turducken may take considerably less or more time than you have planned.
- The quickest way to prepare your Turducken is to get friends or family members to help make the dressings and de-bone the fowl. (If you're on your own, you will need to allow more time for preparation of the Turducken.)
- We get letters every year from "Turducken Teams" - friends and relatives who gather together to make (and eat!) their Turduckens as a group activity! It might be fun to take pictures along the way so that you can look back and have "Turducken" memories year-round!
- It's also nice to serve additional dressing in bowls at the table, so our dressing recipes will make about 8 cups extra of each dressing. If you do not want to serve extra dressing with your Turducken, you can cut each dressing recipe in half.
- If you're inexperienced at de-boning fowl, start with the turkey; because of its size, you can more easily see the bone structure. After de-boning the turkey, the duck and chicken will go much faster. And remember, each time you do a Turducken it gets easier; it doesn't take magical cooking abilities, it just takes care. What is magical is the way people eating your Turducken will feel about your food!
- For those of you who may be intimidated by de-boning, you can ask your local butcher to do it. Just tell the butcher to de-bone everything except the turkey drumsticks and wings.
- STEPS FOR MAKING THE TURDUCKEN:
- An Important Note About Refrigeration: As you complete the steps for making the Turducken, you will be refrigerating the fowl and dressings. It is very important to keep the meats as cold as possible before preparing them, and to chill all the finished items as quickly as possible after preparing.
- The best way to accomplish this is to spread the prepared items (or lay them flat in the case of the de-boned fowl) on a sheet pan and place them in the coldest part of your refrigerator. While the items are chilling, keep the refrigerator door closed as much as possible.
- STEPS TO BE DONE ONE DAY AHEAD:
- Prepare the Cornbread for the Cornbread Dressing
- De-bone the turkey, chicken and duck
- Bring the water to a simmer and prepare the Poultry Stock
- Prepare the Roasted Vegetables for the Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy
- Prepare the Andouille Sausage Dressing
- Prepare the Cornbread Dressing
- Prepare the Shrimp Dressing
- Assemble the Turducken - See Detail Below
- "TURDUCKEN" DAY!
- Bake the Turducken - See Details Below
- Let the Turducken rest for 1 hour before serving
- While the Turducken is resting, bake the extra dressings
- Prepare the Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy
- Assemble the Turducken:
- TURKEY: Spread the turkey, skin down, on a sheet pan exposing as much meat as possible. Sprinkle the meat generously and evenly with a total of about 4 tablespoons of the Meat Magic, patting it in with your hands. (Be sure to turn the leg, thigh and wing meat to the outside so you can season it also.)
- Stuff each leg cavity with about 1½ cups of the Cornbread Dressing, pressing it into the cavities with your fingers or the round handle of a wooden spoon. Pack each cavity well, but not too tightly. (If too tightly packed, it may cause the skin to burst open during cooking.)
- Stuff each wing cavity with about 1 cup of the cornbread dressing, pressing it in as before.
- Fill the center of the breast cleavage with about 1 cup of the cornbread dressing. Shape the dressing with your hands to fit the space and smooth it so that it is level with the rest of the breast meat. Shape 2-3 cups of the dressing into an even layer over the remaining exposed meat, about ¾-inch thick. (Do not put any dressing over the exposed skin flap at the neck.) You should use about 8 - 9 cups dressing. Return the stuffed bird to the refrigerator.
- Place the remaining dressing in a baking pan. Cover with plastic or foil and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- DUCK: Place the duck, skin down, on a sheet pan. Season the exposed duck meat generously and evenly with about 3 tablespoons Meat Magic, pressing it in with your hands. Then, place the Andouille Dressing on the duck meat, using the same technique as before, filling and leveling the cleavage area first, then making an even layer over the meat, about ½-inch thick. You should use about 4 cups dressing. Return the stuffed bird to the refrigerator.
- Place the remaining dressing in a baking pan. Cover with plastic or foil and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- CHICKEN: Arrange the chicken, skin down, evenly on a sheet pan. Season the exposed chicken meat generously and evenly with about 1 tablespoon Meat Magic, pressing it in with your hands. Repeat the filling process with the Shrimp Dressing, using about 3 cups of dressing and making the layer about ½-inch thick. Return the stuffed bird to the refrigerator.
- Place the remaining dressing in a baking pan. Cover with plastic or foil and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- ASSEMBLY: Have the 3 skewers, 15 x 11-inch baking pan and the larger pan nearby for the next steps. Starting with the chicken: Roll one side of the chicken around the dressing towards the middle. Repeat with the other side, returning the bird to a chicken shape. If necessary, use a skewer to hold the flaps together.
- Place the rolled up chicken on top of the stuffed duck, placing it in the center and rolling up the duck meat around the chicken. Use a skewer to close the flaps of the duck. When the duck is securely skewered, pull out the skewer from the chicken.
- Place the rolled up duck/chicken on top of the turkey, placing it in the center and rolling up the turkey meat around the duck/chicken in the same way as before. Fold the sides (and neck flap) of the turkey together and secure them by piercing them onto the tip of the skewer to close the bird. Invert the 15 x 11-inch baking pan and place it over the top of the Turducken.
- Pull out the skewer and press down so that the pan is firmly wedged on top of the bird. Enlist another person's help to carefully turn the Turducken over so that it is sitting breast side up in the 15 x 11-inch pan. Roll up two pieces of aluminum foil and place them under the front and back openings of the Turducken (this will help to keep the stuffing from falling out of the openings.) Cover the tips of the wings with aluminum foil.
- Place the Turducken pan in the larger pan with sides at least 2½-inches deep, so that the larger pan will catch the overflow of drippings during cooking. Season the exposed side of the Turducken generously and evenly with about 3 tablespoons more Meat Magic, patting it in gently. Refrigerate the Turducken until ready to bake.
- Bake the Turducken:
- Place the Turducken in the oven. Bake at 225°F until done, about 8 hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted through to the center reads 165°F.
- At 4 hours: Cover the Turducken with aluminum foil.
- At 7 hours: Prepare the Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy
- At 8 hours: Check temperature in the center of the Turducken. When the interior temperature reads 165°F, remove the Turducken from the oven.
- Let the Turducken rest for 1 hour before serving
- While the Turducken is resting, bake the extra dressings.
- Bake the extra dressings
- Increase the oven temperature to 375°F. Remove covers from the three dressings and place them in the oven.
- Drain all the drippings from the Turducken and add them to the gravy.
- At 8:40 hours: Check the dressings. If they are not browned on the top, increase the oven temperature to 425°F.
- At 9 hours: Remove the Dressings from the oven.
- Carve the Turducken:
- With strong spatulas inserted underneath (remember there are no bones to support the bird's structure), carefully transfer the Turducken to a serving platter and present it to your guests before carving. Then place the Turducken on a flat surface to carve.
- Be sure to make your slices crosswise so that each slice contains all three dressings and all three meats. Cut each slice in half for serving. Serve with a scoop of each dressing and ½ cup of the gravy, or serve additional bowls of the dressings on the side.
