Turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey with alternating layers of stuffing between.  When carved you will get a slice with chicken, duck, turkey and stuffing.

Having had turducken previously, I checked my favorite company out of Louisiana to purchase a turducken for my mother last year.  She thought the price was steep at $69.95 plus $50 dollars to ship (14 lbs – over night).  There had to be a way to make this culinary phenomenon at home.

The list of ingredients:

• 3 cups prepared stuffing at room temperature (whatever stuffing is your families favorite)
• 2 cups cornbread stuffing at room temperature
• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
• 1 10 – 12 pound turkey (which you will need to debone)
• 1 4- 5 pound duck (which you will have to debone)
• 1 3-4 pound chicken (which you will have to debone)
• 6 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 8 fresh sage leaves, chopped fine
• 2 Tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped fine
• 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix about 1 cup of stuffing with about 1/2 cup of your cornbread stuffing with the 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce.  You should now have 3 separate bowls of stuffing.

Mix 6 tablespoons room temperature butter with the chopped thyme and sage.

Debone turkey, duck and chicken – this will take a LONG time.

Pull skin from turkey and make a pocket and put butter mixture evenly under the skin.
Run your hand under the skin to separate and make a pocket, but do not separate skin completely from the meat. Distribute the butter herb mixture evenly under the skin.

Rub the turkey skin with room temperature butter.  Be generous with the salt and pepper and this point.  Lay turkey skin side down and add salt and pepper.

Add plain bread stuffing evenly over turkey; place duck on top of stuffing skin side down; salt and pepper the cavity and add the stuffing with cranberry to the top of it.  Add chicken skin side down and salt and pepper again.  Add cornbread stuffing on top.  Skewer the chicken closed and bring the sides of the duck up to cover the chicken.  Skewer the back of the duck.  Repeat with the turkey.  Carefully turn over the turducken so it is breast side up.  Remove all skewers except the last one holding the turkey.  Place in roasting pan.  Roast 3 – 4 hours (basting every 45 minutes or so).  During last hour of cooking, I recommend adding aluminum foil to the top of the turducken to make sure it doesn’t overbrown.  Check temperature on turducken to make sure that the stuffing is at 165 degrees.

After removing turducken from oven, let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

Yes it was tasty.  The work was unbelievable!  The hardest part for me was worrying about cross-contamination.  I must have cleaned every knife, cutting board and the countertops so many times I was exhausted before I even began stuffing the 3 birds together.  Food safety is a big thing with me and this recipe is a nightmare in a home kitchen.  Between 3 different types of fowl and worrying about cross contamination with the stuffing, I had just about used every cutting board and knife I owned to complete this meal.  Not to mention the over 45 hand washings!  After I completed this meal I had to do a complete scrub of the entire kitchen.

In addition, I started this prep at 5 am and didn’t serve the turducken until almost 1 pm.  I admit I didn’t rush, but deboning and cleaning 3 fowl is not an easy task if you don’t do it often.  Not to mention making 2 complete stuffing recipes from scratch.  This did not include any of the time after the meal for my obsessive cleanup or the amount of dishes and pots, pans, knifes and cutting boards you will need to wash.  It was a crazy amount of cleaning.

Unless you can purchase your turkey, chicken and duck already deboned (assuming you live in NYC or another metropolitan city), this recipe is an incredible amount of work.  The stuffing is the easy part.

So this year when my 81 year old mother asked for turducken, I looked at the $69.95 plus $50 shipping as a gift.  $120 includes all the ingredients, all the sanitation and all I need is a roasting pan and some butter?  I’m in!  Good luck to them in Louisiana making this thing since I think the 3 sets of stuffing and birds would probably cost $70 at the grocery store to purchase.  I figure the $50 to ship is the cost to not have to spend a day deboning and cleaning, not to mention the cost of all the cleaning supplies and hand soap.

I ordered a turducken from LA Crawfish and slapped it in a roasting pan and set the table.  I was able to sit with everyone during the family get together rather than being a crazy woman.  When it was done – savory goodness with only normal dishes to clean.  What a joy!

While some might look at the prices for this unusual culinary treat as high, until you have actually spent an entire day schlepping with a turducken, I wouldn’t say the price is unreasonable.  It’s an expensive dinner – not unlike having lobster.

All in all, it’s a definite cooking experience.  One I’m glad to have had and one I’m not likely to repeat again.  I will just let LA Crawfish do the work!

That is the question.  This thanksgiving thousands of American families will make the choice to roast or fry a Turkey.

I have gone through the arduous task of frying a turkey at home.  You have to keep in mind several preparatory tasks.

1.  Call insurance company and up home owner’s policy by the actual amount you need to replace not only your home but the entire contents of your home as well.

2.  Buy flame retardant clothing AND a fire extinguisher (yes there is a strong chance that there will be a fire.)

3.  Call Exxon and see if they have enough oil for this job.

4.  Purchase turkey fryer (this is the part where you justify a totally one use pot by stating to your significant other “it’s not that much money, we can also use it to cook crabs and/or lobsters during the summer.)

5.  Take trip to your local hardware store where you purchase tons of materials (at great expense) to construct some sort of “safe” lifting apparatus which will NOT prevent burns.

6.  After filling pot with oil, you will realize that you should of measured the turkey in some water first because when you submerge your turkey the oil overflows causing the fire mentioned in #2 above.

7.  Pull totally overcooked or half raw turkey from oil (after fire department has left) to guests who are ravenous because your dinner is 2 hours later than originally planned.

8.  Take entire family out for local Chinese buffet because it is the only restaurant open locally.

I have too much invested in this one use pan to give up on it.  I will give frying turkey another try.  This time better planning is in order.

1.  Buy turkey cooker – hopefully you purchase one with a lifting device included

*26-quart: for frying a 12- to 14-pound turkey

*34-quart: for frying a 14- to 20-pound turkey

*40-quart: for turkeys larger than 20 pounds

2.  Get propane tank filled (try finding someplace open on Thanksgiving that sells Propane – good luck – enjoy your Chinese Buffet restaurant if you didn’t plan for this in advance.

3.  Purchase turkey.  I recommend a bird no larger than 3/4 the circumference of the pot or less than 16 pounds.  It needs to either be a fresh bird or already defrosted and washed and dried thoroughly.  I mean really dry.  It also should not have anything left inside or pop up timers left in. In addition, I recommend tying the legs, wings and neck flap to ensure even cooking and this allows for safe removal of the bird from the oil.  (Emergency room visits do not add to the holiday spirit).  

4.  Purchase good quality bulk peanut oil (yes I said peanut oil – if you have a nut allergy, my second recommendation would be good vegetable oil.)

5.  Purchase Long-stemmed, clip-on deep-fry thermometer: This should be at least 12 inches long. Sometimes these are included in a turkey fryer kit.

6.  Totally optional but if you want a flavor Injector: This is a syringe used for injecting flavored marinade into the turkey meat. You don’t have to inject a turkey to fry it, but it adds flavor.  You could also add an optional rub for the bird as well.

7.  Purchase Heavy-duty leather work gloves: A must, since equipment gets skin-blistering hot, and grease may splatter on your hands. Cotton gloves and kitchen hot mitts don’t work! 

8.  Purchase accurate Instant-read meat thermometer.

9.  Look around the house for a couple of old towels and several trash bags..  

10.  Make sure (if at all possible) you do this chore outside.  DO NOT do this on your deck or if there is a problem prepare to meet your local firemen again.  (Hospitality rules require that if the fire department has to visit your house more than once you owe them dinner which will definitely tack on to the tab at the Chinese restaurant.)

11.  Set turkey inside pot and fill with water until turkey is submerged.  Remove turkey.  Mark line with tape on the outside of the pot at the top of where water remains.  Dump water and dry pot.  Fill with oil to fill line. 

12.  I like to brine my turkey and then apply a dry rub.  Another option is to inject a flavor marinade (many are available at every mega-mart grocery store in the country.)  Whichever is your personal preference is great, but MAKE SURE TURKEY IS DRY BEFORE SUBMERGING IN OIL  – WATER CAUSES OIL TO SPLATTER!  Which subsequently can result in that aforementioned fire department/ambulance crew again!

13.  Heat oil (use oil thermometer in pot) to 350 – 360 degrees.  This usually takes approximately 30 minutes to come to temperature.  I recommend using the following lifter if your pot did not come with one: turkey lifter

      I also recommend lifting with a strong man if available (lure him with the promise of turkey) and SLOWLY  drop in the turkey (I recommend cutting the propane off temporarily in this step in case the oil splatters to avoid a fire).  The oil temperature will drop at this point, but it will return to 350 degrees after a few minutes. 

     Cooking times vary based on the length of time for the oil to return to temp again, but the average rule of thumb is minimally 3 – 4 minutes per pound, but the only real way to test is an accurate instant read thermometer.  Unfortunately, once the skin is brown it is impossible to know.  I know some of you will say the old poke the turkey with a fork routine and see if the juices run clear, but unless you are planning on poking this thing every 6 1/2 minutes – this will lead to missing the mark.  Basically if you are cooking a 10 pound bird, approximately 30 minutes at 350 degrees for doneness (this is only a guide)  .

14.  Since I allow for carryover cooking, I normally pull the bird (or actually I have strong man pull the bird) at 152 – 155 degrees on the instant read.  I shut off the burner and SLOWLY pull the bird out.  I let the bird rest a minimum of 20 minutes but up to an hour.  The turkey should read at least 160 degrees in the breast meat after 20 minutes.  

15.  Take turkey to platter, carve and enjoy.  Despite what you might think if you’ve never tried fried turkey, the meat will not be dry.  The turkey will be crispy, juicy and delicious!

16.  Don’t forget the oil in the pot stays hot for a LONG time.  Don’t forget about kids or pets outside after you have removed the bird.  After the oil cools, you can recycle it if you care to take the trouble to filter it for another turkey/chicken fry (since we are talking about gallons of oil here). 

All in all, It’s definitely worth the effort.  My family enjoyed the turkey immensely.  Our first attempt felt like a lot more work than the second and third.  As with anything, once you have the basic steps down, it is really quite easy.  The downside would definitely be the cleanup.  After the exhaustion sets in Thanksgiving afternoon, having to face recycling oil and cleaning an oily pan as big as this one isn’t exactly one of life’s greater moments.  And, truth be told, I’m a traditionalist at heart.  While I love fried turkey and will cook one again, I think I’ll leave this delicious meal for a day other than Thanksgiving.  Some people believe this to be the ultimate Thanksgiving meal and if it works for your family, then fry on!

Bottom line, if you’re tied of the same old, same old – and you are looking to mix it up this Thanksgiving, I recommend you try a fried turkey.