Turducken on the menu

After traveling 35 hours and 1750 miles Betz & Mr. Studly arrived safe and sound late last Friday evening.  Bruiser and Bryn - their 2 Australian cattle dogs - traveled well but all were glad to finally turn the truck off, eat some warm food and slide into bed.  Mr. Studly lasso'd the snow and brought it with him for a delightful Saturday afternoon.

With everyone home now our Thanksgiving Dinner was planned for Sunday evening.  In the past my family and Jay's family has always had Roasht (amish turkey and filling) and it IS one of my most favorite foods.  But with family gatherings we would have it twice during Thanksgiving and then twice again during Christmas.  So our little family of 5 likes to try something different for our Thanksgiving menu.
This year we decided to have a go with Turducken.  A duck is stuffed inside a chicken which is stuffed inside a turkey and layers of stuffing between each bird.  It was a hit and we'll most likely try it again.

So we purchased a duck, a capon and turkey.

It was most useful to have our own live-in butcher to bone everything out.

First he boned out the chicken, cutting off the wings and boning out the legs leaving a single slab of boneless chicken.  He also pulled the breast tenders out so the layer would be more even.

Then he did the same with the duck.....

... leaving a single slab of boneless duck.

(wings and legs still attached on this pic)

Then he boned out the turkey.  He left the wings attached as well as the legs/thighs but pulled out the breast tenders.

Earlier that day I made a dish of bread filling.

I buy large loaves of bread and cube it myself with my electric knife - saves some pennies.  And it was always 'filling' in our families - never 'stuffing'.  Many recipes for turducken call for sausage stuffing, or something more highly seasoned but our family tends to prefer a simple bread filling (bread, eggs, butter, onion, celery, milk, salt and pepper).

Starting with the turkey laid out he seasoned it with salt and pepper and layered the first layer of bread filling.

Topped it with the boneless slab of duck....

and another layer of filling.

Last layer of chicken and filling.

Then he rolled and pulled it together and tied it with twine, rolled 'em over and popped 'em in a large baking dish. 

He cooked all the bones in a large stock pot and it produced a large quantity of great stock for gravy.  I froze most of it for a later use.

The tenders that were pulled out were cubed up and pan fried with sauted onions and mushrooms.  He added some barbeque sauce and we ate it over macaroni and cheese for a separate meal.  YUMMY!

Back to the turducken....He assembled it all Saturday evening and Sunday morning put 'em in the oven.  He was told to bake it for 10 hours at 250 degrees.  But he did need to turn up the oven a bit the last few hours to make sure it was done in time for supper.  Next time we'll give it more time and a little more heat.  But it was delicious - and fun!

Food is fun.  Food is delicious.  But family fellowship is pricesless.  Mr. Studly is mapping out the layout of the home he and Betz have moved to since leaving the ranch.  These 3 fellows all have iTouch gizmo's that they share finds with and talk about apps.  The table is cluttered with cups and snack but full of great fellowship.

So nice when they are all home together again.