I SMOKED my TURDUCKEN (TURkey stuffed by a DUCK, stuffed by a chickEN)

If you have not read yesterday's post, take a second and click HERE to get to the post and read it first. Last night was my real Thanksgiving meal contribution, 13 people, 9 side dishes to prepare and one gigantic hunk of meat! The day was a challenge filled with stories - 1 dish that I flat out ran out of time to prepare, 8 success stories, one good but slightly disappointing dish and one HUGE disaster. Keep coming back over the next few days and I will fill you in on all of these...

Here's the final plating... A slice of TurDuckEn, an INCREDIBLE Anadama Roll, A Sweet Potato Boat stuffed with Cajun Corn Bread Casserole and a Buttermilk/Pom sausage savory Bread Pudding. Again, keep coming back, you may want to alter your Christmas Dinner plans with a few of these recipes. But today, I am gonna tell you all the story of my Turducken...


First, a little advertising... The very good folks at CAJUNGROCER.COM were generous enough to offer me a Turdukcen to try for the holidays. They have a wonderful history of being VERY nice to bloggers throughout the years, and this year, I was selected to receive the birds! They have a fabulous website, you can reach by clicking HERE. Once there, you will find an amazing assortment of New Orleans/Cajun/ Louisiana specialty sauces, rubs, spices, snacks, gifts, fresh food and prepared mixes.. AND MUCH MORE! A huge thanks to these good folks for making me the star of the neighborhood.

Couple of pages worth noting on their website,they advertise, "Our shipping rates are the lowest when it comes to shipping perishable foods.". And, they have a wonderful recipe page. click on one of these, and you will be taken to some wonderful Cajun/Creole recipes, each category has several recipes...

• Appetizers
• Breads
• Brunch
• Cajun And Creole
• Desserts
• Dips
• Drinks
• Meat And Poultry
• Party Food
• Salads
• Sauces And Gravies
• Seafood
• Sides
• Soups And Gumbos
• Vegetables

And now... On to the Turducken!

My birds arrived very well packaged. frozen solid, in it's own shipping cooler. I have heard in a refrigerator, it takes 3o minutes per pound to thaw a bird. BUT, the Turducken is solid meat (Only bones are aesthetic, they leave in the drumsticks and wings of the Turkey). The rest is almost all meat (with a layer of stuffing in between). The bird was advertised 15 pounds, but actually weighed in at 23 pounds. At the end of the first day, it was still frozen solid. So, back to the fridge, and a few phone calls, and the bird was thawed in three days. But that was a good thing, as it gave me time to research how to cook this monster. The Cajun Grocer cooking instructions are pretty specific. BUT, they only provide roasting instructions. They do not include any smoking instructions. I was able to find a couple people who had smoked their birds. So, after comparing a few result websites...

Here's what I decided to do...

First, I am going to inject a marinade. Turkey, especially breast meat is notorious for drying out during long cook sessions. Duck, is notoriously oily and chicken breast meat is equally likely to dry out (although being on the inside, unlikely unless I overcook the Turkey. I decided to only inject the turkey and chicken (as much as possible with out a fluoroscope) just under the surface for the turkey, injecting deep to reach the chicken and . I used a Cajun Injector, with a Cajun spiced butter and turkey stock marinade.

Just a man pumping his meat full of fluids!

And here she is all pumped full of juices, and on the smoker. I tented in foil to prevent the skin from getting too black.

OK, I did indeed smoke this, but only in the smoke sense. I was using my smoker as an oven, so that I had my kitchen free to cook. SO, instead of low and slow, because there was stuffing in the bird, I wanted to get my cooking temperatures up to speed higher. With a double loud of coal, and all the dampers open full steam. I know my smoker, I got the temps up to 325 easy, and with a little more air flow added, I could get to 375. So, I settled on the easy to maintain 325 and walked away. At this heat, I would need to monitor the temps often. I never dipped below 325, and only once climbed to 360 for no more than 15 minutes. The cooking instructions is for 350 for 5 hours, but also stress the internal temperature of 165. I estimated the bird would be done at the 6 hour mark. During the first 2 hours of smoking, I added some Hickory chunks to the coal to get a little bit more flavor in the birds.

During the first 5 hours, despite nearly peeing my pants in anticipation, I never opened the smoker to check the bird (in my smoker, I can add coal in a separate chamber). Opening the smoker only loses heat, and once you are confident in your smoker's thermometer, there is no need.

I started checking temps at 5 hours. Here she is at 5 hours. Internal was about 150. I was right where I figured to be at this point. I thought the color looked just a shimmy light, so I left the foil tent off during the last hour of cooking...

And here she is fresh off the smoker. It is always a good idea to let the meat sit for a bit. I was pretty close to on schedule, so I let everyone ohhhhhh and awwwww over the looks of the old gal while I served appetizers...

Son-in-Law Eggs, you will be hearing about these soon...

Grandma Sally's Marinated Mushrooms, And you will certainly be hearing about these soon...

A simple but very tasty cream cheese with raspberry chipotle sauce.

And finally, we all enjoyed a cup of mulled wine (that made the house smell very festive, like a Dicken's story come to life). I'll be adding this to my "plans to blog" list soon as well...

After a half hour, everyone was feeling Mary (I decided to name the birds Mary), and due to the mulled wine and several additional opened bottles of wine, they were feeling merry as well. Mary had only dropped a couple degrees. By waiting for 30 minutes, I allowed the internal temperatures to even out, and more importantly, the juices all settled into the fibers of the meat. If you cut into a turkey fresh from the oven, the juices will run out of the meat and not stay in the meat. Even after a nearly one hour wait from smoker to first slice, the meat still steamed when plated.

And here is what she looked like cut...

The verdict... Just as good as you can imagine, all the meat was perfectly cooked, the stuffing had a pork accent, and was very good as well. juicy and very filling.

And the final verdict, the question you all want to know... Was it worth the price. First of all, let me remind you, I got Mary free. If you order a turducken from The Cajun Grocer, the cost would be between $80 and $85 dollars. Or about $5 a pound. BUT, since the birds are almost ALL MEAT, no wasted weight with the carcass. You also get the stuffing included in the birds. So saves you on the cost of the side dish. Making my estimated comparison to be about double the usual cost of a (not on sale) turkey (or a store cooked turkey... who buys those???), and equal to the cost of a duck.

So, is it worth the extra cost... You bet, and here is the main reason...

We had a ball. the neighborhood came out, our Friends drove in, all because of the uniqueness of the evening. Had I advertised a pre-Thanksgiving meal with all the trimming, serving a turkey as the only meat... Well, I for one would almost view it as an unwanted distraction during the pre-holiday frenzy (clean the house for guests, plan the menu, shop, pack for travel, arrange for dog sitters, etc., etc. and even more etc.), as well as being... redundant. Most of us will be having turkey in just a few days. But everyone came wanting something unique, and came to have a good time... we did, all thanks to Mary, my Cajun Grocer TURDUCKEN!

If any of you want to try to za za zing up your next holiday, if you want something to look forward to, or for your in-laws to have something entertaining when they come... I recommend a turducken. But, if you are bound by the tyranny of traditionalism during the holiday, how about a ham on Christmas and a turducken on Christmas eve. They are incredibly easy to cook (toss in the oven as directed, wait, wait, wait, check the temp, wait, check the temp, wait and serve). And you will be the talk of the family for years...

Everyone should consider a turducken!

Remember that beautiful kitchen tour I gave on ... Kitchen Reveal Day??? Many of us that participated that day made a commitment to show what the place looks like at zero hour on a heavy cook day (like Thanksgiving). Well, 13 salad plates, 13 main plates, 13 dessert plates, 13 mugs for the mulled wine, 20 plus wine glasses (some had white and red), silverware, pots, pans, serving dishes... This picture was the cleanest part of my kitchen (just for fun, double click on the picture to enlarge and get a better look at the carnage I inflicted on this poor innocent room)!

But with the proper encouragement, you can get your favorite neighbors to lend a hand and get a start at getting the place back in shape.

Only 3 more days til the real Thanksgiving!