First step was to chop some veggies for a basic mirepoix to hopefully, lots of emphasis on hopefully to have some juice for basting and gravy later. Then ended up being a huge failure but I think there are a few steps to take next time to help avoid such a failure. First of all, it needs some liquid to help the veggies not turn to black sludge during the 16+ hours of smoking. Secondly chop the everything much larger so it takes longer to cook and in turn break down. Next time I think I will add a few cups of chicken stock to the base of the tray to help keep everything moist.
I thought I had more veggies but this ended up being our entire inventory, next time I would use at least a whole onion along with a few more carrots and celery sticks.
before
after
Next up is the birds, I deboned the turkey but left the legs and wings intact so it still looked like a turkey... the others however went through an entire deboning. To be honest I kind of fucked up the chicken and ended up with just breasts but it ended up working out for the better as space is a major premium when it comes to sewing this monstrosity up when its all done.
As always this would not have been possible if it were not for the help of my lovely assistant who remains unposted... but she did make some delicious stuffing to use between layers.
game on.... sorry for the twisted picture, too lazy to rotate....
first layer of butter and stuffing, you can never have too much butter! it should also be noted that all three birds spent the previous night in the slaughterhouse brine I used on the last few batches of chicken. Including one phantom smoke that has no evidence of ever occurring except for in the memories and minds of a few lucky taste testers.
First two layers done
last layer! time to stitch this thing up like a baseball
And what do you use to stitch a 15lb turkey stuffed with a 5 lb duck and 5 lb chicken? why a piece of string and BRAND NEW modified 1/0 fishing hook of course. In the future spending the time and money to locate a "leather needle" would seem to be worth every penny.
No real picture of this process as its a fucking pain in the ass and a 2 man job just to sew it up let alone take picture while you do it.
tur duhh
we hit it with a heavy dose of montreal chicken seasoning when ended up being a good idea, thanks to smokin al from smokedmeatforums.com for the brilliant idea and tutorial which was the inspiration for this whole poject.
Time for a quick nap in the smoker
Results in....
while it may not look very pretty (neither does the next photo for that matter) this things tasted amazing!!!! the turkey breast was a lot drier that I would have liked but the inside was freaking incredible. Moist and full of flavor in every bite. I twas like every holiday meal you love all combined in each bite.
I know I know that is a shitty pic after all that work but I have lots of hongree people ready to rip it apart with their hands let alone wait for me to take proper pictures. All you need to know is it was delicious!
So what did I learn? Turduckens are fucking awesome, they are a lot of work but definitely worth it. This ended up taking a little less time than anticipated but even at 16 hours this is by no means a short smoke. It is definitely an overnight cook out and because its so dense it would probably be wise to have you guests plan on spending the whole day over to make sure they can eat it fresh out of the cooker. I cooked this thing at 250* to an IT of 165* but I honestly have no idea where the probe was measuring from with as many layers as there is it would be hard to probe it and get an accurate reading of the chicken breast. So just push it into the middle and hope for the best I doubt you will be disappointed!
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