Turducken Day!

So my friend Maria and I have been discussing the idea of making a turducken for about 3 years now. Well, as Maria says, "Some people dream about life, others live it." And that's exactly what we did! We put together a small "dinner party" where everyone was responsible for a side, salad, or dessert and Maria and I took a "STAB" at this bird beast. I am sure you are all aware of what a turducken is, but if not, let me explain. A turducken is a large turkey that is stuffed with a duck and then with a chicken, all with layers of stuffing in between (and you KNOW we used gluten-free cornbread stuffing!). Hmm...I guess that makes this project even more impressive...not only did we make a turducken, but we made a gluten-free turducken! Nice!
We had a lot of trouble finding a butcher who was willing to prepare all of the meat for us, but in the end, we found someone for the job! We asked for a de-boned turkey with only the wings and leg bones in and then to make it a little easier, we got duck and chicken breasts.

The birds!

So we were feeling confident and got started at about 1:00 and made the stuffing. While that was cooking, we decided to open up the turkey to see what we were working with (by the way, we watched some Paula Deen videos before we got busy!). WELL, WELL, WELL.....we opened up that turkey and did it look like the turkey Paula had? NO! It was cut completely different AND they left the back bone in!!!!! What were we going to do? Well....it's a good thing I have mad knife skills...I went to work.

Knife skills at work...just call me, Surgeon Jamie

We eventually got the darn bone out and we were good to go! We began layering with seasoning, stuffing, duck, seasoning, stuffing, chicken, seasoning, and stuffing! We had to improvise a bit to close it because of the way it was cut open - but no problem for us - we were pros by now! We closed it up, tied the legs and wings together and closed up the bottom end...using wood skewers! That's all we had! But hey, it worked!

Maria putting the last layer in - pretty FOWL, huh? :c )

At this point, it was about 2:30 and we put some seasoning and butter under the skin. We put it in the oven at 500 degrees for 15 minutes and then 325 degrees for 4 more hours. It was a long wait...but SO worth it! There were 6 of us for dinner, one more came later to enjoy the wonderful-ness! We were starving by dinner time but once we tasted it...oh my gosh! Delish!

YUMMY!

Rob "carving" our masterpiece!

I can't even explain how awesome this bird was. The skin was crispy and the meat literally fell off the bones...you didn't even need a knife to cut the meat, it just fell apart. I have to say, if you are brave enough to attempt this...you WON'T be sorry! And we all agreed, the duck was probably the best part of the entire thing!
We had a fantastic evening. It was so much fun! I am SO proud of Maria and myself. We were nervous at first but it came together and I love feeding people good food (hey, I'm Italian, what can I say!). And the best part of all, we made some pretty awesome memories yesterday!