Turducken Moist And Flavorful Good Eats! - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Brine
1 cup coarse salt or 1 cup pickling salt
1 cup sugar
2 quarts apple juice
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
10 fresh sage leaves
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
10 garlic cloves
Turducken
18 -20 lbs whole turkey
4 -5 lbs whole ducklings
3 -4 lbs whole chickens (or use a larger chicken and place the duckling inside it)
2 -4 cups prepared stuffing (your favorite Sam and I used sweet and spicy Sausage)
12 ounces beer
8 tablespoons butter, melted
fresh herb (We used sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary)
paprika, to taste
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
12 ounces crushed pineapple (optional)

Preparation

Day before serving. Mix the brine ingredients in a very large stainless steel pot add 2 dozen ice cubes. Set aside.
De-boning the birds:.
Rinse the birds and remove the necks and any giblets, saving for stock.
Place the turkey, breast side down, on a clean flat surface.
Using a pair of kitchen shears or a sharp boning knife, cut the backbone from the turkey. I left about 2 inches of backbone near the bottom of the spine which help with support of the birds.
Using the tip of a knife and starting from the neck end, gently separate meat from rib cage on one side. Be careful not to cut through the breast skin.
Cut through the meat to expose the shoulder blade; cut meat away from and around the bone, severing bone at the joint to remove shoulder blade.
Disjoint wing between second and third joints. Leave the wing bones and keep the wing attached to the meat.
Continue separating meat from frame, working toward the thighbone and being careful to keep the \"oyster\" (pocket of meat on back) attached to skin, rather than leaving it with the bone.
Cut through ball-and-socket joint to release the thighbone from the carcass (bird will be open on one side). Keep the leg attached to the meat.
Repeat boning procedure on the other side of the bird.
Carefully remove the carcass and use it to make stock for your gravy.
You should end up with a flat boneless (except for wings and legs as in photo) turkey with the skin intact in one large piece. Rinse and put the boned turkey in the brine.
Repeat the deboning process on the duck and the chicken, but debone both stumps of wings and leg drumsticks. Cut through flesh at the thinnest point and trim around these bones with a knife until they can be removed. (Since they have little meat, you can cut off the entire wings and add them to the stock pot.) Both the chicken and duck will be stuffed inside the turkey and need not be kept \"perfectly\" intact.
Trim skin and fat from the birds. Ducks, in particular, have a lot of excess fatty skin that should be saved to render fat to be used for other recipes. I suggest removing all the skin from chicken and duck. They don`t crisp up and give it a mushy texture and mouth feel. Add the chicken and duck to brine adding ice cold water to completely cover, place top on and chill till the morning.
At least 11 hours before dinner, assemble the Turducken. Rinse and dry birds.
Spread the turkey, skin down, on flat surface, exposing as much meat as possible.
Spread some of stuffing over the turkey in an even layer approximately 3/4 inch thick.
Place duck, on top of stuffing.
Spread more stuffing in an even layer over the duck.
Arrange the chicken over the stuffing.
You`ll need someone to hold the birds closed while you sew up the seam.
Carefully lift the sides of the layered birds, folding the sides of the turkey together. Using cotton thread and a needle going through some of the chicken and turkey skin.
Since the turducken has no skeleton, it must be trussed up or it may fall apart in cooking.
Tie 4-5 pieces of cotton string around the bird, width-wise to act as skeletal support.
Turn the bird over and place in a roasting rack inside a large roasting pan so it is breast side up and looks like a \"normal\" turkey.
Tie the legs together just above the tip bones. Secure the wings close to the body.
Mix fresh herbs of your choice in melted butter.
Pour butter over turkey.
Generously season with pepper, salt and paprika.
Pour beer in pan.
Cooking:.
In a 225 degrees F preheated oven .
Place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan in the center of the oven and bake for 3 hours because I know you want to peek so go ahead and baste it while you are there. After 6 hours pour the pineapple (if using) over the turkey and continue baking until a meat thermometer inserted through to center reads 165 degrees, approximately 9 1/2 hours, though cooking times will vary depending on the size of the birds and amount of stuffing used.
Save pan drippings for an amazing gravy.
Remove the trucking from the oven and let rest in the pan for an 1/2 before serving.
Meanwhile make gravy as you like.
To serve cut bird in half.
Carve crosswise so each slice reveals all 3 meats and stuffing's.