Turducken

Canugghead

Merry Christmas to my egghead friends.

Always wanted to try a turducken, finally got to do it since it's the only dish I'm cooking this year. swmbo made sides. Gosh, to say it's a lot of work is an understatement.
Found Kenji's method interesting so I went for it with slight mods. 
https://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/the-food-lab-the-ulimate-turducken.html
It advocates prepping and cooking inside out, naming several benefits.

Kenji's process:
stuff chicken, poach, stuff duck, poach, sear, stuff turkey, bake.

My modified process:
stuff chicken, sv, sear, stuff duck, sv, sear, stuff turkey, smoke, last 10 min in oven to crisp up.

The birds


I've followed Chef Pepin's video few times for deboning chicken in the past, but trust me turkey and duck are not as easy, had to use the boning knife often, not just at the four joints. Glad I didn't cut off the excess turkey butt skin and duck neck skin, needed them to cover the logs which really grew! 


Chicken roulade stuffed with sage pork sausage (ground pork too lean)


Chicken roulade sv'd and seared in duck fat


Repeated above with layer of sausage between chicken and duck.  Had a hard time rendering the fat and browning the post sv ducken, should have removed the excess pool of liquid/fat mixture in the CI griddle.


Turkey ready to gobble ducken, no sausage layer. Darn, no pics of whole works before smoking. Had to use tooth picks and butcher strings. Glad swmbo told me to count the number of toothpicks used for stitching, lol.


Brushed duck fat and applied some rub. Smoked in Traeger at 350-375.  Last 10 min in 425 oven to crisp up


Cut into four quarters, one for the two of us and one each for three adult kids' to pickup. Yes, we're too chicken to let them eat with us. The duck fat did magic to the skin, all kids reported crispy skin even after over an hour in foil wrap.


Summary:
It was essentially nested roulades. Looks interesting but much easier to make three separate roulades instead, to be honest. If, and that's a big if, I make one again I'd omit the sv steps; probably easier and better result if all three steps are done in Egg or Traeger only.

Legume

Bad ass.

GrateEggspectations

Thanks for documenting and posting. Looks like it turned out really well. Kenji’s recipes are generally solid, though it sounds like you diverged in many respects. Nice cook!!

SciAggie

That’s bad azz. 

johnmitchell

Awesome result 😋

lousubcap

That is successfully taking on and documenting quite a culinary project.  Impressive across the board.  Way to adapt and deliver the goods.  Congrats.  

bubbajack

Wow! 

Foghorn

Great post.  Thanks for the write-up and sharing your thoughts.

1voyager

That looks great. Thanks for the detailed report. 

Botch

Stunning project/cook!  

paqman

Nice!  Hopefully SWMBO doesn’t see this, she tasked me with doing a chicken Ballotine.  I bet she would ask me to do this if she knew it was a thing 🤣😂

JohnInCarolina

I am really glad that you attempted this, Gary, so that I don’t have to!  

Florida Grillin Girl

Awesome effort and great cook, Gary!

caliking

Impressive! I doubt I have the patience and tenacity for that cook. 

The offspring better appreciate the effort

Canugghead

Thanks all for the kind words, I'm honoured knowing what amazing cooks many of you are. I'm sure many of you can pull this off too, probably better, but no one is as crazy as me yet 

As an old fart, most of my cooks are mundane, just thought it's time I share something interesting, so I won't get 'trimmed off' the forum 

Canugghead

@GrateEggspectations ya Kenji and Chefsteps are my favourites although I like to modify or cut corners sometimes.

Canugghead

@paqmanOur dil sent this today, remembering our Christmas dinner six years ago. It got me thinking, damn it was easier to make three proteins, tandoori chicken, prime rib and Chefsteps turkey, than this turducken 
Ask your dw if she wants to sacrifice most of the above and settle for a food with 'turd' in it, I think you'll be safe 

Canugghead

@JohnInCarolina @caliking Haha, actually now that I've got one under my belt, I may contemplate making it again to remember Christmas 2020 and celebrate first post Covid Christmas, assuming vaccines will make that possible. Learning from many mistakes made this time, and with better planning, it should be more manageable.

Canugghead

@Florida Grillin Girl Thanks and good to see you Faith.  Drop in more often 

paqman

I deboned a turkey once; never again. 😂🤣

loco_engr

Nice cook Gary . . . way beyond my energy level LOL

alaskanassasin

I learned a lot with this post thanks for sharing! I have raised turkeys ducks and chickens all at the same time but that is taking it to the next level. 

Canugghead

@caliking Speaking of offspring, they appreciate us more after they become parents themselves, circle of life I suppose. 

They're interested in cooking too, the one with Traeger makes decent brisket and also got me started in SD bread.

Canugghead

paqman said:

I deboned a turkey once; never again. 😂🤣

I hear you, this is my first time deboning whole turkey (deboned legs only in the past). Had to use this to dislodge the wish bones or whatever bones it was 

Canugghead

alaskanassasin said:

I learned a lot with this post thanks for sharing! I have raised turkeys ducks and chickens all at the same time but that is taking it to the next level. 

Glad if I helped in any way. Being disorganised, and with fading memory, documenting it here provides future reference for myself too.

Must be fun to raise your own animals, I used to toy with the idea of buying a hobby farm after retirement. We're now retired but that probably won't happen, since our roots are too deep in the city.

caliking

Canugghead said:

@caliking Speaking of offspring, they appreciate us more after they become parents themselves, circle of life I suppose. 

They're interested in cooking too, the one with Traeger makes decent brisket and also got me started in SD bread.

And now you have a grandkiddo to start spoiling, and setting the bar high for, already!

RajunCajun

I am beyond impressed.  Nice work!

Canugghead

Eating leftover, better view of each layer.

paqman

Nice!  Would you do it again?

Canugghead

paqman said:

Nice!  Would you do it again?

Thanks. Perhaps next Christmas, should be less challenging hopefully 🤔

lousubcap

@Canugghead - if you can count on memory and skills retention for a year then count me as impressed.  Seriously though, that one he!! of an undertaking and production.  Again, Congrats across the board!