New Year's Turducken

Let me tell you about an adventure in a land far away called Canada. In this land, the people are far nicer than our Boston brethren, the air is crisp, and the cities are sparse. Myself and a small band of friends spent New Year’s in a cabin three hours west of Toronto this year. On our way there, we braved the typical dangers found in far off mystical lands: tundra wolves attacking our car, hallucination-inducing snow storms, and sleep deprivation. But it was all worthwhile for the feast awaiting us.

The chef

One of the highlights of the weekend was the preparation and cooking of one Turducken, spearheaded by our friend Marc. For those of you that don’t know, a Turducken is a chicken in a duck in a turkey with three kinds of stuffing. This Turducken was a bit different than most in that it was Cajun style, and also has a Cornish hen at its core.

The birds

There were a number of steps required in creating the Turducken. The recipe that was used was a modified version of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s recipe.

First up was the deboning, followed by making a stock out of the remains. This process took quite a bit of time, as deboning is no simple task.

Deboning

Next up was the preparation of three kinds of stuffing that would form the layers between the birds. Shrimp, cornbread, and sausage stuffing were the order of the day. All three stuffing’s had the same base ingredients of: green bell peppers, onions, garlic, celery, butter, and breadcrumbs. The cornbread stuffing was slightly different since it also had giblets mixed in, which gave a nice counterpoint to the sweet cornbread. Each stuffing was seasoned with Cajun spice blends appropriate to the main ingredient. They were all great on their own, but I think my favorite was the sausage for the spicy, smoky flavor it had.

Three kinds of stuffing

At this point, the prep was done for the evening and parts needed to be kept fresh. Lacking in sufficient indoor refrigeration, we turned to the frozen outdoors. The birds and stuffing were left buried in a snowdrift in hopes of attracting a bear that we could stuff the monstrosity into for an extra layer of decadence. Sadly, there were no bears waiting for us in our patented Canadian bear trap the next morning.

The stuffing and skewering took a bit of finesse. The meat of each bird was laid flat and slathered with stuffing. Starting with the Cornish hen, followed by the chicken, duck, and turkey, the birds were wrapped around each other and skewered shut.

Skewered

The entire affair was then put in the oven, and 8 hours later a golden Turducken was born. The chef carved it into slices starting from the center and we were ready to eat.

The first slice

Core sample

We topped it with savory gravy comprised of eggplant, sweet potatoes, onions, and stock. A touch of brown sugar, cream, and some spices completed the thick, tangy concoction.

The gravy

We all dug in and as soon as I had taken my first bite, I was in love. Each bite was moist and bursting with flavor. Even though one slice was enough to fill me up, I still wanted more. The stuffing mingled perfectly with the meats, adding an array of spicy and sweet flavors. Of all the home cooked meals I’ve had, the Turducken (hen) was up there. The process of everyone working together, along with the amazing taste, made for a fun experience.

The slice

The recipe was supposed to feed 24-30 people, but by the time the 12 of us were done eating, we had demolished about three quarters of it. For some reason we also had fettuccine alfredo, the perfect side to add to this meal of excess.

All together the preparation took two days, countless hours and involved five or so people between all the steps. I would highly recommend that everyone attempt making a Turducken sometime in their life, as long as they have a group of friends willing to help.