With Thanksgiving coming up, I can’t help but remember the most delicious Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever had. About 4-5 years ago, my roommate and I decided it would be a great idea to have a 15 lb. turducken overnighted from New Orleans. We came up with this idea after a long night of drinking, and probably should have thought more about it before we paid what we did. The only thing I’ll say is that the delivery cost more than the turducken. The box showed up at 6:30 AM packed in dry ice and Brandon, my roommate, immediately got down to business. This man can cook a bird(s).
Oh, and for the record, the time stamp on these pictures is wrong. I can’t figure out why I even had that stupid thing turned on in the first place. I believe this was the day before Thanksgiving in ’05. And also, this wasn’t the cleanest apartment in the world. We moved in days before these were taken.
We had a strict "no closing cupboard doors" policy, and just for the record that's a hookah on the counter. Not some marijuana smoking device.
If you’re not aware of what a turducken is, it’s a turkey that’s stuffed with a duck that’s stuffed with a chicken. This turducken, being from New Orleans, also contained crawfish stuffing. We decided the only way to cook this bird was to baste it in a combination of it’s own juices, Hennesy, and brown sugar. We figured this would give us a nice crisp on the outside from the carmelization of the sugar, and a ridiculous flavor.
The following picture makes the turkey look a little burnt, but this was actually exactly the way we wanted it. The brown sugar had crisped up and created a delicious flavor on the outside. If you can get a turducken to be this crispy on the outside and cooked perfectly on the inside, then you’re doing something right.
Incredible.
If you ever get the chance to pick one of these up, do it. It’s an incredible flavor and experience. You don’t need to get these things shipped from New Orleans, but if you do I can’t blame you.