Quote:
Originally Posted by schteve_d
My friends and I, all bachelors, have decided that we are going to get together at my place on Thanksgiving and make a turducken.
I've been reading all sorts of recipes and such online. Has anyone made one before?
Looking for some tips and tricks. Online a lot of people said they would take the skin off the chicken if they were to do it again. Stuff like that.
There are also three different types of stuffing in it. Every single recipe I've read is different!
Thanks.
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Thats what cooking is, just piece the different recipies together and create your own. Some will say to debone everything, skin on/ skinoff etc.... If you have some knife skills it is not that hard at all to debone each bird while keeping it whole. There are youtube videos to tech you how.
I cut the wings off the chicken and then bone out the breast, leaving the thighs and drums attached via the skin,yet seperate the joints. On the duck, I cut of the wings and bone evrything out. I also peel the skin all off, this will cause the leg meat to become detached but you can layer that inside the breast meat. Duck meat is an "acquired" taste and the skin, I find is awful, its very strong and fatty.
I do the turkey the same as the chicken, bone it all out except for the legs. Inside the opend up turkey caracas, put in a ton of stuffing, then lay the duck breast with the leg meat on the stuffing. Then lay the chicken on the stuffing and stuff the chicken.
The hardest part is sewing it all up, it could take five or six hands. What you want to do is shape the turkey back to it's original bone in form, if that makes sense. And start sewing it back together. I sew the turkey wings around the outside and I just cram the chicken and duck wings in there somewhere.
Presentation is what a turducken is all about and by doing it this way, the finished product looks like a turkey, but it slices up like a meat loaf (start slicing from the neck end). The exposed end is quite impressive with the layers of meat seperated by the stuffing, and these are the slices you serve.
It will probably take you several attempts to get this just right, should you choose to do it this way. I worked as meat cutter for 10 years and it took me a few times to get it right, then I made six one Thanksgiving for a friends butcher shop and now I can get them pretty good.
The first one I did I read it would take 8 hrs or so to cook. I got up at 5am, put the thing in the oven and went back to bed. When I woke again at 9 ish the thing was pretty much ready, and we were not going to eat untill 2 or so.
Don't get discouraged if it doesn't turn out "looking" right, the taste will be the same and the fun in the attempt is probably more what it is all about for you. I worked as a meat cutter for over 10 yrs and this does take some practise