There is no doubt that America's Test Kitchen takes Thanksgiving seriously. Not only is it the biggest food holiday of the year, so they have a sort of professional obligation to at least mention it, but they decided to tackle the biggest of all Thanksgiving challenges: Turducken.
Ok, so they didn't make the Turducken - a Turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken - themselves, but they did test out several different suppliers, which is where most of us would turn if we wanted to put one of these creations on our holiday table. They ordered birds from Cajun Specialty Meats, Cajun Creations, and Cajun Grocer, then defrosted and roasted them. Unfortunately, none of the birds turned out well, as all required longer cooking time than indicated on the packaging and, consequently, ended up dry and flavorless. The ATK team also reported that the stuffings and overall presentation were disappointing in general. If you're willing to devote the 12-or-so hours needed to make the real thing, that is the only way to go if you want to serve one to friends and family. You can find a good how-to at Paul Prudhomme's site, as well as here .
The only thing more impressive than a turducken is stuffing even more birds into one giant one. But perhaps ATK will tackle that next year.
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