How to Make a Turducken

Written by Dawn Hammon
on Nov 06, 2018

To ensure our content is always up-to-date with current information, best practices, and professional advice, articles are routinely reviewed by industry experts with years of hands-on experience.

Reviewed by
H.R. Helm
on Apr 26, 2023

Turducken is a specialty dish, generally reserved for holiday meals. The name comes from the ingredients — chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. By following these steps your bird will come out perfectly.

Step 1 - Choose Birds

In order for one bird to fit inside the other, each bird will be smaller than the first. Start with a turkey that is around 17 pounds. Next, you’ll want to choose a duck in the 7-pound range. Finally, select a chicken that’s around 3 to 4 pounds. You can adjust these sizes as necessary to suit smaller or larger crowds.

Step 2 - Wash Birds

Wash all of your birds inside and out. Remove any small organs stuffed inside. You can use them in your stuffing or stock if you like. Also trim any excess skin.

Step 3 - Debone Birds

The key to a properly layered turducken begins with the boning process. You will basically fillet open the turkey, cut around the entire breast section, and remove all the bones in the middle as one large section. Make sure that you do not cut all the way through the turkey during this step. When you are done, it should lay flat with the legs out to the side at the bottom and wings out to the side on the top. Next, remove the bones from each thigh.

Repeat the process with the chicken by cutting out the breast section and removing each drumstick bone. Because the wings are small and don’t provide much meat, cut them off at the joint closest to the body of the bird and remove the remaining drumette bone. Finally, debone the duck as necessary. Remove the fatty skin.

Step 4 - Layer

The end goal of the turducken is to create layers of meat and stuffing that make a beautiful presentation when cut. You can flavor the meats with your favorite seasonings and make one or more stuffings of your choice. Beginning with your flat turkey, place stuffing inside the breast flaps and pull the flaps over the stuffing. Also put stuffing inside the vacated thighs. Press a layer of stuffing into the turkey and lay the duck on top of it. Create another layer of stuffing on top of the duck and place the chicken on top of that.

Step 5 - Sew it Shut

Now that the layering is complete, it’s time to sew it up, making it look like a whole turkey again. To do this, pull the side of the back together at the middle. Use a meat sewing needle to feed trussing twine or string through both sides, pulling them together before tying it off. Create a row of stitches down the back of the turkey to hold the center firmly together. Next, tie the legs together and tuck in the wings. Wrap additional strings around the entire bird in a few spots for extra support and also run a tie from the legs around the top on both sides.

Step 6 - Cook

With your turducken stuffed and sewn up, it’s time to bake it. Plan for 25 to 30 minutes per pound in an oven set at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Test it to make sure the internal temperature of the Turducken reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it does, remove the birds from the oven and let the Turducken rest for around 30 minutes before cutting it open. When carving, slice the layers into rounds for your guests.

Dawn Hammon

Dawn Hammon has thrived in freelance writing and editor roles for nearly a decade. She has lived, worked, and attended school in Oregon for many years. Dawn currently spends her days convincing her children she is still smarter than them while creating new experiences with her husband of 24 years.&nbsp; Her multiple interests have led her to frequently undergo home improvement projects. She enjoys sharing the hard-earned knowledge that comes with it with the audience of DoItYourself.com. Dawn and her sister make up a power-tool loving duo that teaches classes to local women with the goal of empowering them to tackle their fears and become comfortable with power tools. Tapping into her enthusiasm for saving money and devotion to sustainable practices, Dawn has recently launched a passion project aimed at connecting eco-friendly products and socially-responsible companies with consumers interested in making conscientious purchases, better informing themselves about products on the market, and taking a stand in favor of helping to save the planet. When she is not providing stellar online content for local, national, and international businesses or trolling the internet for organic cotton clothing, you might find her backpacking nearby hills and valleys, traveling to remote parts of the globe, or expanding her vocabulary in a competitive game of Scrabble. Dawn holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, which these days she mostly uses to provide therapy for her kids and spouse. Most recently, I worked for a small local professional organizing and estate sale company for four years where I learned a ton about organizing and/or disposing of just about anything. She was raised in a tool-oriented, hands-on, DIY family. Her dad worked in the floor covering business and owned local floor covering businesses, so of course selling floor covering was one of her first jobs. Her brother was a contractor for about 30 years and site supervisor for Habitat for Humanity. I worked with him often, building decks, painting houses, framing in buildings, etc. With her sister, she holds power tool classes to empower women who are scared or have never used them. Not quite homesteaders, she did grow up with a farm, tractors, motorcycles, expansive gardens, hay fields, barns, and lots of repairs to do. Plus she and her family preserved foods, raised cattle and pigs, chopped and hauled firewood, and performed regular maintenance on two households, outbuildings, fencing, etc. As an adult, she has owned two houses. The first one she personally ripped out a galley kitchen and opened it up to the living area, plus updated every door, floor covering, and piece of trim in the place. In her current home, she's tackled everything from installing real hardwood flooring to revamping the landscape.

H.R. Helm

H.R. Helm is an accomplished DIY craftsman. He has been DIY since childhood and is now a septuagenarian. He is experienced in wood and metal construction, having designed and built several houses and metal buildings. He built every permanent building on his current homestead and did all the plumbing and electrical work. He has several years experience as a professional cabinet builder, and he is an accomplished auto repairman, having operated an auto repair business for many years. He currently has a home shop where he sharpens and rebuilds saws, repairs lawn mowers, mobility scooters, hydraulic jacks, and anything else that comes along. He also builds custom tools for metal working. Invention prototypes are another of his many accomplishments. He owned and operated a manufacturing business building Compact Utility Vehicles for homeowner use. H.R. enjoys making jams and jellies during fruit season along with cooking meals. He is committed to outdoor cooking in a Bar-B-Q pit he welded together several years ago. He maintains fruit and nut trees along with helping his wife with a vegetable garden. He farmed commercial garden produce for several years. It helps to have over 50 years of farming and ranching experience. Employment/Education Highlights ASE Certified Master Auto Technician Certified Welder Cross country truck driver -- over dimensional freight Design Engineer/Project Manager for injection molded plastic company Bus Driver/Substitute Teacher Inventor with two patents (weight training &ndash; anti-rollback for manual wheelchair) BS in Industrial Technology