Chef Andy Barnes of Santa Fe's Dinner for Two has been preparing turducken for the Thanksgiving holidays for the past five and a half years — since the restaurant first opened.

Turducken, according to Wikipedia.com, is a "de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau of those ingredients, turkey, duck, and chicken."

While most sources agree that turducken comes from the Cajun country around New Orleans — with a few votes for eastern Texas and northern Louisiana — there is no real documentation of the layered bird's origins. New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme, who helped bring Cajun cuisine to mainstream America in the early '80s, is considered by some to be the "father" of the turducken; others consider Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, La., the first to make the twice-stuffed fowl. (Hebert's sells thousands of turduckens, to locals and via mail-order, during the Thanksgiving-Christmas season.)

The practice of layering whole animals to produce a festive dish, however, can be traced to the Middle Ages (when it was known as a farce, from the French word for stuffing) — with some references stretching as far back as the Roman Empire.

Barnes, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America's New York campus, noted that he prepares many classic dishes — such as beef Wellington — for the holidays. But he isn't sure where the inspiration to offer turducken at Thanksgiving came from. "It just came to me one year ... and it worked," he said, so it became a tradition at Dinner for Two.

Barnes is quick to point out that his version of the dish is lighter than the more usual New Orleans version, in which some or all of the birds are stuffed with cornbread, rice, tasso (ham), sausage and/or shrimp. "I do mine with roast garlic and Italian herbs and olive oil," Barnes said. "It's really basic, but it brings out the flavor of the turkey and the duck and the chicken more. Besides, there's enough fat (in the turducken) from the duck; I don't really think it needs more from sausage ..."

The most time-consuming part of making a turducken, Barnes said, is the deboning process. Layering and seasoning the birds and tying up the roast comes together fairly quickly. It takes the experienced Barnes about 45 minutes to debone the three birds and about another half-hour to ready the turducken for the oven, he said.

Aside from its novelty value and interesting flavor, Barnes sees two other advantages to serving a turducken rather than a regulation turkey. "When you eat a regular turkey," he said, "it's often really dry because, by the time the legs are cooked, the breast is overcooked." With a turducken, he said, the fat from the duck keeps the turkey moist all the way through.

And carving a turducken takes no time at all, the chef said. "All you do is slice it ... there are no bones ... and you come out with perfectly round pieces for serving."

To make your own turducken

Deboning the birds, as chef Barnes says, is the hardest part of assembling a turducken. Given enough advance notice, some butchers will debone the birds for you for an extra charge. It never hurts to ask.

If you want to do it yourself, you'll need a flexible boning knife, a pair of sharp kitchen shears, a roll of cotton butcher's twine and a large cutting board. If you don't already know how to do it, you'll also need a good set of instructions for deboning a turkey, duck and chicken. You can find step-by-step instructions for deboning the turkey at http://homecooking.about.com/od/turkeyrecipes/ss/deboneturkeysbs.htm. (The duck and chicken are deboned in a similar way, with the exception of where you make the first cut — see recipe below.) Some cookbooks also contain illustrated instructions.

Because the deboning process can take hours, it would be a good idea to complete this step the day before you plan to roast and serve the turducken. If you can get a few family members or friends to help with the project, all the better. Just refrigerate each deboned, flattened fowl as it is completed and keep all three refrigerated until you are ready to assemble the dish.

You can make a poultry broth by roasting the bones you remove from all the birds in a 400-degree oven until they are well browned, then simmering them, uncovered, with some onion and celery for a few hours in about a gallon of water. Strain the broth and refrigerate until you are ready to use it to turn the turducken drippings into gravy.

DINNER FOR TWO'S TURDUCKEN
(Serves 15)

1 young hen turkey (12-14 pounds)
1 duck (4 to 6 pounds)
1 chicken (4-6 pounds)
Italian herb seasoning
Garlic cloves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Roasted garlic pepper
Olive oil (optional)

Debone all the poultry. Make the initial incision on the turkey along the backbone and leave the wings intact. Start deboning the chicken and the duck along the breastbone.

Lay deboned turkey flat, skin side down. Generously sprinkle the meat with garlic cloves, salt, pepper and Italian herbs.

Lay deboned duck horizontally, skin side down, on top of the opened turkey. Sprinkle the duck meat with garlic cloves, salt, pepper and Italian herb seasoning. Be generous.

Lay the deboned chicken, neck down, skin side down, on top of the duck and season it with the same ingredients.

Fold the turkey up so the back skin meets. It will look like a flat turkey. Make slip knots and loops with cotton butchers' twine and tie the turkey into a neat package.

If you like, rub the turkey skin all over with the olive oil, then season the bird liberally with roasted garlic pepper.

Place on roasting rack in large roasting pan. Cover and roast in a preheated 350-degree oven for 4 hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the interior of the bird reads 145 degrees. Uncover and continue to roast another 30 minutes, or until the skin is crisp and golden and the internal temperature of the bird reaches 155 degrees. (Carryover cooking from the heat already in the bird will bring the internal temperature up to 165 degrees — the safe temperature for poultry.)

Let the turducken rest for a half-hour before slicing; if you cut it too soon, the juices will run out and it will be dry.

Leftover slices of the round, boneless meat make great sandwiches.

Let others do the cooking

Don't have the time, inclination or knife skills to make your own turducken? You can order an already-deboned and stuffed bird from Dinner for Two so all you'll have to do is pop it in the oven on the big day. Or you can skip the cooking altogether and have Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant. The meal is served tableside (no buffets here) and includes a choice of turducken as well as more traditional roasted turkey, ham, salmon and vegetarian entrées, a variety of soups, salads and sides and four desserts. Anyone who wants one also gets a turducken sandwich to take home for next-day noshing.

The price of a ready-to-roast turducken, which serves about 15 people, is $80. It can be picked up fresh, ready to roast in your own oven, or precooked by the restaurant. Reserve a bird by calling 820-2075 by Monday. Thanksgiving dinner is served at Dinner for Two, 106 N. Guadalupe St., from noon to 8 p.m. on Nov. 22. The fixed-price dinner is $29 per person and reservations (820-2075) are required.


On Thursday, Dinner for Two will help raise funds for La Casita Preschool, a nonprofit parent cooperative child-development program for children ages 3 to 6. Twenty percent of all food sold on Thursday evening will be contributed to La Casita Preschool’s tuition scholarship fund to make more spaces available for lower-income Santa Fe children.
For reservations or more information about Dinner for Two, call 820-2075; for more information about La Casita Preschool, call 983-2803.