Turducken Introduction | How to Debone the Birds| How to Stuff & Assemble the Turducken | How to Cook and Carve a Turducken

Literally a stuffed turkey, stuffed with a stuffed duck, stuffed with a stuffed chicken, Turduckens, a Cajun specialty, came to national attention (and gets an annual publicity push) via football announcer John Madden's affinity for the dish. His efforts have inspired ambitious tailgaters all over the country to prepare turduckens at their truckside feasts.

We went to the experts at Herbert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana (the inventors of the modern-day Turducken) for instructions on just how they go about removing the bones from a turkey, duck, and chicken.

It takes well practiced meat specialists like Sammy and Trey Hebert only about 5 to 6 minutes debone the three birds, stuff them and then assemble and sew up the finished turducken. Home cooks will undoubtedly take far, far, far (far, far, far, far....you get the picture) longer.
Stuffing and Assembling a Turducken

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1. For this turducken, Sammy Hebert used a combination of pork stuffing and cornbread stuffing. Their most popular turducken has pork stuffing in the duck and cornbread in the turkey and chicken. Those who like other types of stuffings can custom order their perfect turducken from Hebert's. Of course if you're making your own turducken at home, use whatever stuffings you like.

In addition to stuffings, you will need some strong cotton thread and a heavy duty needle to assemble your turducken.

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2. Liberally season the inside of the deboned turkey with Cajun seasonings.

3. Begin the assembly by sewing a pocket of 1/3 of the way up the turkey, starting from the back end.

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4. Photo 4 shows the turkey with the back pocket sewed into place and ready for stuffing.

5. Place a layer of stuffing on the seasoned turkey.

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5. Place the duck on top of the turkey and stuffing.

6. Place a layer of stuffing on top of the duck.

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7. Place the chicken on top of the duck and stuffing.

8. Place a layer of stuffing on top of the chicken.

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9. Pull up the two sides of the chicken towards the center, tucking one side over the other to make a neat little package.

10. Repeat with the duck. Then start to gather the two side of the turkey together, stretching the skin to cover all the layers.

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11. Continue sewing the turkey seam that you started in Step 3.

12. Continue sewing the overhand stitch seam all the way down the length of the turkey, trapping the layers of stuffing, duck, and chicken inside.

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13. Completely sew up the seam to encase all the turducken ingredients. Tie a knot and cut the thread.

14. Liberally season the entire outer surface of the turducken with Cajun seasoning.