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History and Background of Turduckens
It seems only fitting that TABASCO® would feature turduckens for the holidays. After all, this unique creation is Louisianan in origin, and likely Acadian, just like the famous pepper sauce. The turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck that is then stuffed inside a turkey, all of which have been de-boned. Between each bird is a layer of stuffing, which ranges from the mild and traditional cornbread stuffing to other Cajun fare such as andouille sausage stuffing, oyster stuffing and even shrimp étouffée. The entire trio is then either deep fried, Acadian-style, or slow-cooked by braising, roasting, grilling or barbecuing. A turducken is a great option for those who are looking for a new and exciting alternative to the run-of-the-mill turkey this holiday season, especially if you’re feeding a large group.
Other recent variations of the Turducken include the pigturducken, which, as the name suggests, is a turducken stuffed inside a boneless pig. And while the specific history is somewhat foggy, most agree that the turducken, and the concept of stuffing smaller birds inside of bigger birds, was conceived in south central Louisiana.
“Now and then the owner of Corinne Dunbar’s [a Creole institution in New Orleans] will work up a special dinner. It seems that someone had heard somewhere that you can stuff a bird into a bird into a bird just as long as you can find a bird big enough to contain the last one. He found nine birds around town, and tried it. The dish he served consisted of a snipe that was stuffed into a dove that was inserted into a quail that was placed in a squab that was put into a Cornish game hen that was tucked into a pheasant that was squeezed into a chicken that was pushed into a duck that was stuffed into a turkey. All the birds had been boned, and each had been boiled separately with seasoning to make a stock. A stuffing of wild cherries and almonds was placed around each bird to make it fit snugly into the next. The final nine-bird result was poached in all the combined stocks. When the chef carved it, the partakers felt as if they were eating a single legendary bird, a sort of poached phoenix.” – From American Cooking: Creole and Acadian (published in 1971)
Local New Orleans boy turned internationally renowned chef, Paul Prudhomme, if he didn’t invent the turducken, has championed it for some time. And Monday Night Football’s John Madden has made the turducken well-known the world over by mentioning it during Thanksgiving football broadcasts for many years. From San Francisco to New York City, turducken has graced holiday tables for a few years now, and its popularity is rising. Sales of the turducken have been steadily climbing and have exploded in recent years due to e-commerce and the advent of large-scale turducken production.
The interesting nature of the turducken has made it a favorite in this age of culinary curiosity and home cooking shows.
If you want to try your hand at a little something different, you can always whip up one of our turducken-inspired recipes.
Turducken FAQs
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