I’m in a panic on what to make for Thanksgiving this year.  All I can think of is what happened last year.  Here’s a recap.

My brother brought the challenge of making a turducken this year and I accepted.  This slightly changed my game plan, but I think things worked out in the end.  I had to start a little earlier making this Frankenstein bird.  Along with the turkey, I bought a duck and a chicken.  Wednesday night I deboned the birds.  This was the first time to debone a turkey (I deboned a chicken and a Cornish hen once before).  I must say that birds are birds, and their bone structures are relatively the same.  After deboning, I threw all the meat into the brine.

I had to research how to make this thing.  There are a lot of pictures and instructions on the net about what this thing is but are no real instructions on how to do it.  I finally found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w09F1Kt0U4Q.  These guys looked like they know what they were doing, plus I liked the fact that they didn’t stuff a raw bird in a raw bird in a raw bird.  However, they don’t tell you how long to cook the birds.

Here’s what I did to prep the birds:

1. Debone the birds

2. Brine the birds over night

3. Remove skin from duck

4. Remove skin from chicken

5. Lay the duck skin and place the chicken parts in it

6. I threw in pork sausage meat (to give it a kick)

7. Roll the duck skin containing the chicken and sausage

8. Tie it using cooking twine

9. Pan sear the roll until brown on all sides (duck skin tastes good when crunchy)

10. Set aside

11. Lay the turkey and spread bread stuffing

12. Lay duck parts on the stuffing

13. Put the chicken roll in the middle

14. Roll the turkey

15. Sew the turkey with cooking twine

Here’s how I cooked it:

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F

2. Add carrots, onions, celery, and apples to the roasting pan

3. Put the turducken on top of the veggies

4. Cooked the turducken for 30 minutes at 500°F

5. Reduced the temperature to 325°F

6. Basted every 30 minutes

7. Total cook time was 3.5 hours for a turducken that weighed about 15 pounds

Whenever I roast anything I plug in my thermometer in it.

According to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, turkeys should have a minimum internal temperature of 165°F.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Duck skin, chicken, and sausage meat

Chicken inside Duck skin and tied

Stuffing on turkey

Chicken roll on duck on stuffing on turkey

Roasting pan: onion, carrots, and celery

Turducken in pan

Cross section of turducken

As part of the change in my game plan, I didn’t make my red bell pepper soup this year.  With the bones I got from the birds I made a soup stock, and made a turkey soup with onions, carrots, celery, sage, rosemary, turkey meat, and squash (pretty much, I chopped everything up, sautéed them and poured the stock).  I didn’t make the pork shoulder since I made the turducken.

Everything else worked out just as planned.  I put other people in charge of dessert and drinks this year too.

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