What is a Turducken?

Do you want to make something a bit different for this Thanksgiving meal, but don't want to stray too much from the traditional turkey? Well, you can try turducken.

I just learned about turducken recently, and it piqued my interest, so I decided to research it. Here are some interesting tidbits about this interesting dish.

According to a National Geographic article by Calvin Trillin, the turducken originated in Maurice, Louisiana at "Herbert's Specialty Meats" in 1985. Herbert's makes approximately 5,000 turduckens each week during Thanksgiving time.

Turducken is popular in Louisiana and throughout the Deep South, but is limited to the US and Eastern Canada. It was popularized by John Madden, a NFL analyst, on air during his announcements for CBS and Fox. Madden would award a turducken to players on the winning team of the Thanksgiving Bowl.

Turducken consists of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. Usually the cavity of the chicken is stuffed with a seasoned breadcrumb mixture made with sausage. The turducken can be roasted, braised, grilled or barbecued, but not deep fried, since the cavity is stuffed and it won't cook evenly.

There are several websites where you can order your turducken. One of these sites is the original Herbert's Specialty Meats. Herbert's has five stores, one in Maurice, Louisiana, three in Houston, Texas and one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can also order online and the prices range from $78.95 for the large turducken to $62.95 for the small turducken. They offer the mixed birds with cornbread and pork sausage stuffing as well as with chicken sausage and jalapeno chicken sausage. If you want to skip the duck, they offer turken, which is the turkey and chicken minus the duck.

You can also try Cajun Grocer, who has been featured on the Food Network channel. They offer reduced overnight and two day shipping through Thanksgiving. Their 15 pound turducken costs $66.95 and you can choose from different stuffings, such as cornbread, jambalaya and vegetable.

If you want to try to make your own turducken, make sure you have a 10 to 12-pound turkey, deboned except for wings and legs, a 5 to 6-pound duck, completely deboned, and a 3 to 4-pound chicken, completely deboned. You can prepare your favorite stuffing and have on hand metal skewers and a large roasting pan. Click here to find step by step instructions with photos on how to prepare and cook your turducken.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken