It started out as an idea ..... Hmmm, making a TurDucken for Thanksgiving this year would be a real challenge and fun to boot. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, a TurDucken is a a chicken stuffed inside a duck which is stuffed inside a turkey, with stuffing between each of the layers. I originally heard of this from the cajun chef Paul Prudhomme when I was in New Orleans. The biggest challenge in the process is the deboning of the birds. I figured that I should start with the smallest (the chicken) and work my way up. WARNING, THE FOLLOWING IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND YOUR OWN RISK!
Day one, Monday. Armed with a freshly sharpened knife and my readers I went to town:
The chicken was not too reluctant to give up its bones.
Here it is fully filletted out with the discarded stuff on the paper bag. It took about an hour.
One floppy chicken ready to go back in the fridge!Day two, Tuesday. Things are getting a little more serious. I'm lookin' at a duck.
It's a pretty good size (6lb) but I'm up for it.
I am remembering all of my dissection skills (That wasn't in the list of skills for Napolean Dynamite was it?) The process is straight forward. Start at the back and separate all the meat from the bones moving forward, leaving the skin intact. I realized that after the bones are removed, the skin is the only thing holding the meat together.
Not bad, not too bad. An hour and a half later I have one deboned duck. Juia Child would be proud.
Though some might think that deboning the duck was enough, however day two also entailed preparing the three stuffings. Lets see.... there is the Cajun rice and beef...
The cornbread, chestnuts and celery... And the third stuffing is andouille sausage and bread (sorry no photo).
Day 3, Wednesday. The day of reckoning. It's a 20 lb bird that's doing the two step on my cutting board.
Step one, separate the torso from the spine. A very sharp knife is essential. The trick with the Turkey is to avoid nicking or cutting the skin. You see, the skin of the turkey holds the whole thing together. Any cuts will open up further during the cooking process and allow the good stuff to come out and the meat to dry out.
It's precision work with a lot of blunt dissection thrown in.
The turkey was not going to give up its bones without a fight.
With the chicken and the duck I completely removed the distal or end portion of the legs and wings. The Turkey however needs to keep the last portion of bone in the wings and a piece of the last leg bone, for appearances. This added a significant amount of time to the process.
The recipes I had read said to break the turkey leg bone with a hammer. That is just too barbaric for me. I prefer a much more civilized method: The DREMEL TOOL!!! It was just like being in the O.R. I draped off the area and used a cut off wheel. Nice smooth cut!
This process was taking a while and after an hour and a half I had to put the bird back in the refrigerator an hour and a half to cool it down. I started back on the other side degloving from the inside out. Here, I'm holding the thigh bone from its point of articulation with the hip joint.
The discards.
Cleaning off the leg bone...
This Dremel is fantastic!
MIX!
Sweet!
There it is, ready for stuffing. Total time - about 2 and a half hours.
The deboned turkey waiting in the pan for the next step.
Day 3, Wednesday. The day of reckoning. It's a 20 lb bird that's doing the two step on my cutting board.
Step one, separate the torso from the spine. A very sharp knife is essential. The trick with the Turkey is to avoid nicking or cutting the skin. You see, the skin of the turkey holds the whole thing together. Any cuts will open up further during the cooking process and allow the good stuff to come out and the meat to dry out.
It's precision work with a lot of blunt dissection thrown in.
The turkey was not going to give up its bones without a fight.
With the chicken and the duck I completely removed the distal or end portion of the legs and wings. The Turkey however needs to keep the last portion of bone in the wings and a piece of the last leg bone, for appearances. This added a significant amount of time to the process.
The recipes I had read said to break the turkey leg bone with a hammer. That is just too barbaric for me. I prefer a much more civilized method: The DREMEL TOOL!!! It was just like being in the O.R. I draped off the area and used a cut off wheel. Nice smooth cut!
This process was taking a while and after an hour and a half I had to put the bird back in the refrigerator an hour and a half to cool it down. I started back on the other side degloving from the inside out. Here, I'm holding the thigh bone from its point of articulation with the hip joint.
The discards.
Cleaning off the leg bone...
This Dremel is fantastic!
MIX!
Sweet!
There it is, ready for stuffing. Total time - about 2 and a half hours.
The deboned turkey waiting in the pan for the next step.
It is Wednesday night. Time to stuff and assemble.
Stuffing the chicken with the cajun rice and beef.
Closing the chicken around the stuffing.
This is the duck with the andouille sausage and bread stuffing. The chicken is in the background.
Wrapping the stuffed duck around the stuffed chicken....
Here's the duck and the chicken. I think I overstuffed it.
The turkey with the cornbread-chestnut stuffing.
Working to get the turkey to wrap around the other birds and still be able to close the skin with skewers.
Got it! Now to turn it over into the roasting pan.
Whoa! That thing's floppy! And it completely fills the pan.
A close up before the final seasoning.
Ready to go!
Here is the finished product ready for the meal!
Sliced!
Stuffing the chicken with the cajun rice and beef.
Closing the chicken around the stuffing.
This is the duck with the andouille sausage and bread stuffing. The chicken is in the background.
Wrapping the stuffed duck around the stuffed chicken....
Here's the duck and the chicken. I think I overstuffed it.
The turkey with the cornbread-chestnut stuffing.
Working to get the turkey to wrap around the other birds and still be able to close the skin with skewers.
Got it! Now to turn it over into the roasting pan.
Whoa! That thing's floppy! And it completely fills the pan.
A close up before the final seasoning.
Ready to go!It will cook at low temp (225 deg F) for 8 hours.
Day 4, Thursday, Thanksgiving morning.
I got up at 4 AM to put it in the oven.
Day 4, Thursday, Thanksgiving morning.
I got up at 4 AM to put it in the oven.
After about 4 hours the pan filled up with the drippings and started to overflow. I had to reapeatedly drain off the juices. At one point the drippings started flaming up on the heating element of the oven and I thought I was about to witness and IED. Fortunately there was no catastrophe. I drained off 7 cups of drippings!
Here is the finished product ready for the meal!
Sliced!It was definitely the most moist turducken I have ever had.
