what does turducken taste like

This upgraded version of a turducken produces perfectly moist chicken, duck, and turkey meat with no flabby skin. The ultimate Thanksgiving roast! Trending Videos

Ever since I was a wee little cook ripping up my first chives, burning my first steaks, and toughening up my first squid, Id dreamt of poultry-stuffed-poultry-stuffed-poultry. The idea of a Turducken—a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey—is just so damn appealing. How could three such glorious birds not taste all the more glorious together?

Kirby-esque visions of ducks sucking up whole chickens, acquiring their powers, only to be sucked up by a turkey to create one mega-bird danced through my eyes. I could taste their fats co-mingling on my palate.

The history of the turducken is relatively modern. Some attribute it to Paul Prudhomme, the legendary Louisiana chef who also brought us blackened fish, while others say it was first made at Heberts Specialty Meats, also in Louisiana, but all place its time-stamp at somewhere in the 1980s. But as a concept, animal-stuffed-animal roasts have a pedigree that reaches back at least to Roman times, when roasts could use as many as two dozen different beasts of ever decreasing size. How romantic.

Part of the appeal is the surprise. A perfect turducken should arrive at the table looking just like a regular old turkey. Its only upon carving that guests are given the first clue: rather than trying to navigate the confounding curves of a breast bone, a carving knife slides cleanly, smoothly through the entire boneless wonder, exposing the layered meat and stuffing within.

Sure, that turkey-esque beast looked impressive on the table, its misshapen sides bulging out like uncooked bagel dough, cornbread and sausage stuffing commingling inside with no attention paid to the boundaries the various birds were supposed to be setting up in there. But there was no way that even the most optimistic of holiday feasters could have pretended it was as tasty as roasting each of the birds individually.

The turkey was dry as a bone, the duck skin completely unrendered, fatty, and chewy, the flavors a mish-mash of competing ingredients. I, along with my entire family, ate the thing, smothered in gravy, washed down with plenty of red wine and hubris.

I chalked it down to poor preparation, and spent the next couple of years trying to perfect my technique—cooking at a lower temperature, trussing and stuffing more carefully—but kept the same basic method intact. Things never got significantly better.

Then, in 2007, I came to an even more shocking realization after tasting every major brand of mail-order turducken available: They were all dry.

*The USDA recommends significantly higher temperatures for roast poultry, but given proper resting, 150°F is perfectly safe.

My goal for the last few years has been to try and solve every one of those problems. This year, I finally succeeded, producing what is perhaps the finest roast to ever emerge from my oven. Turkey meat that gave its juice away freely to anyone who asked. Perfectly rendered duck fat, tender to the teeth. And flavors that blended as harmoniously as robotic lions joining forces to save the universe.

The fat from the duck permeated the entire roast, and all three meats were incredibly moist, tender and pumping with flavor. It was akin to eating pernil (roasted pork shoulder) or some other slow-cooked barbecue in the way everything sort of shredded and fell apart.

Almost Done

The breast section should look like this.

Cut Around the Joint

When you reach the knee, youll need to cut a few bits of connective tissue. Work your way around the knee systematically until its all clear.

Turducken — A Duck Inside Of A Chicken Inside Of A Turkey — Roulade

FAQ

How do you eat turducken?

What culture eats turducken?

What is similar to a turducken?

Where did John Madden get his turducken?

What is a turducken chicken?

What is turducken? Pronounced tur-duhk- uhn, a turducken is a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck stuffed inside a mostly deboned turkey (its wings and legs are left intact). There’s usually stuffing inside the chicken and between each bird.

What is a turducken stuffed with?

The term “turducken” is a combination of the words “turkey,” “duck,” and “chicken,” as the dish consists of a chicken stuffed inside a duck that’s then stuffed inside a turkey. To make the stuffing and slicing easy, a turducken uses deboned poultry; to save time and effort, ask a butcher to do this for you.

Is turducken a Canadian dish?

Rate it Wanna try? Turducken is an American-Canadian dish consisting of deboned turkey, deboned duck, and deboned chicken rolled into one and stuffed with three kinds of stuffings which are layered between the three types of meat.

Is turducken hard to make?

When sliced, each piece of turducken contains portions of all three birds with stuffing in between the layers. Turducken combines the flavors of moist roast poultry and savory stuffing into one glorious dish. It is not difficult to make, but it is a little time-consuming, so plan on adequate preparation time.