Turducken

The people from Echelon Foods in Alberta offered to send me a turducken to try.  Since I had never had turducken before, I jumped at the chance.  We weren't around much in December, so we decided to save it for January.  For those who don't know, a turducken is chicken, stuffed inside of duck, stuffed inside of turkey!  It's craziness!  To take it over the top, the Echelon Foods turducken comes with stuffing inside of all of that, either chicken-apple sausage stuffing, or Italian sausage stuffing.  We opted to try the one with chicken-apple sausage stuffing.

The turducken is incredibly easy to cook.  You just thaw it (we did one day in cold water, and then one day in the fridge), and roast it uncovered slowly, according to the package directions.  It is pre-seasoned, but we sprinkled a bit of garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sage on top.  We put onion, celery, fresh thyme and white wine in the bottom of the roaster, and basted the meat twice. 

The aromas in the house on Sunday were incredible. 

Unlike roasting a whole turkey, duck, or chicken on their own, the turducken doesn't really render fat or drippings.  This made clean up a lot easier than it would had we roasted a regular bird on it's own, as carving it made no mess at all.  The lack of drippings does make gravy a difficult option for this roast - next time, we'd use cranberries, chutney, applesauce, or perhaps a cream sauce.

Other than in the legs and wings, there are no bones in the turducken.  It can be cut directly down the middle, and it's so easy to cut through.

We both loved the stuffing, and there was quite a bit of it. 

I think a turducken could be a fun change from the traditional dinner at Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas.  It seemed like a whole different dish to us, not overly similar to a straight-up turkey.  Because it does not render much for fat, I'd suggest having turducken with nontraditional sides, instead of the usual mashed potatoes and gravy.

It was just the two of us eating this last night, and we have one container of leftovers that should last the week!  I love meals that stretch.

Have you tried turducken?  What did you think?

 

* The turducken was provided to me free of charge from Echelon foods; all opinions are my own.
* If you can't find a turducken in the store, you can order it online through Costco in Canada or the United States.