Turducken

A turducken is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. Some recipes call for the turkey to be stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling. It is also called a chuckey.The result is a relatively solid, albeit layered, piece of poultry, suitable for slow cooking by braising, roasting, grilling, or barbecuing. The turducken is not suitable for deep frying Cajun style (to deep fry poultry, the body cavity must be hollow to cook evenly). Turducken fans say that it is complex and usually quite agreeable in texture and flavor, as the juices of the turkey and chicken baste the duck, and the more robust duck bastes the turkey and chicken.Turducken is a uniquely American development and is believed to be Cajun in origin, although it may also have originated in eastern Texas or northern Louisiana. Lake Charles, Louisiana, claims that turduckens were invented there. While such elaborate layering of whole animals can be documented well back into the Middle Ages of Europe, some people credit Cajun-creole fusion chef Paul Prudhomme with creating the chimerical dish. However, no one has ever verified his claim. In recent years, the turducken was brought to popular attention due to its frequent mention by American football announcer John Madden. (Some people mistakenly credit Madden with inventing the dish, although this is clearly not the case). The November 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine traced the American origins of the dish to Maurice, Louisiana, and "Hebert's Specialty Meats," which has been making turduckens since 1985 when a local farmer whose name is lost to history brought in his own birds and asked Hebert's to prepare them in the now-familiar style. The company now sells around 3,300 turduckens a year. They share a friendly rivalry with Paul Prudhomme.Turducken is generally associated with the "do-it-yourself" outdoor food culture also associated with true barbecueing and crawfish boils, although some people now serve them in place of the traditional roasted turkey at the Thanksgiving meal. Turduckens can be prepared at home in the span of 12-16 hours by anybody willing to learn how to remove the bones from poultry, instructions for which can be found on the Internet or in various cookbooks. As their popularity has spread from Louisiana to the rest of the Deep South and beyond, they are also available through some specialty stores in urban areas, or even by mail order.Turducken was also mentioned on The Colbert Report, a political satire show hosted by Stephen Colbert, a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The context was regarding possible ingredients for Colbert's five-meat chili. Though one could argue that Turducken represents a single meat, which would make for a total of five meats, Colbert reassured that the Turducken would bring the total to seven meats. Popular Variations In addition to the aforementioned chuckey, some enthusiasts have taken it a step further, and come up with the turduckencorpheail. This is a standard turducken, which is then stuffed with a cornish game hen, which is then stuffed with a pheasant, and finally stuffed with a quail. The turduckencorpheail is not for the faint of heart; it is an extremely time consuming endeavor, as birds of the proper size must first be obtained, and then prepared.Chef Paul Prudhomme brought renewed popularity to the Osturduckencorpheil with his own Osturduckencorpheil recipe. There is a similar dish in South Africa called the Osturducken, an ostrich stuffed with turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken.This profile was edited with The TURDUCKEN