Turducken

Like many of you, barbecues were on my weekend agenda. I was particularly excited to go to my buddies on Sunday, because he had told me he was making Turducken.

It was a fun barbecue. The hosts also smoked 8 pounds of beef brisket, and the side dishes were delicious. I brought a pesto pasta salad with cherry tomatos, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, onions and black olives. Other side dishes included sweet potato salad with a chili-lime dressing, potato salad, and chocolate chip bars for dessert.

But back to the point…Turducken, for about 7 or 8 years now, has been on my “must-do-before you die” list, sandwiched right in-between “get married” and “see Europe.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Turducken, it is a de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. Usually there is some sort of stuffing between each layer. In the case of the Turducken we had, it was a cornbread stuffing with cajun sausage.

Instead of cooking it in the oven, they cooked it in their outdoor smoker with hickory woodchips for about 6 hours. Needless to say, the Turducken did not disappoint. The turkey was tender and soft, the skin flavorful, the duck and chicken were both as juicy as can be, and the stuffing did a great job absorbing a lot of the smoky flavor.

After recovering from the Turducken, we moved on to the brisket, which had been cooked in the smoker for 8 hours. It was at this moment I realized something: Have you ever heard anyone say, “yeah we cooked it for 7 hours…it ended up tasting terrible”? No. You never have. And I mean NEVER. Unless the food in question is burned, it is inherently understood that anything you cook between 5 and 10 hours is going to be F-ing delicious.

Anyone else have any good labor day weekend barbecue experiences?