The Mysterious Origin Story Of Thanksgiving Turducken

Born out of the Cajun culinary spirit, a turducken is such an audacious concept it can seem like a joke. But the decadent combination — a deboned chicken stuffed inside of a deboned duck, stuffed inside of a mostly deboned turkey, all swimming in strong Cajun spices — is actually rooted in a classic cooking technique. If executed correctly, a turducken will make a Thanksgiving main dish that guests will never forget.

While its Cajun roots are known, the specific inventor of the turducken is less certain. Sometimes credit is given to Corrine Dunbar's (a New Orleans restaurant that closed in the 1980s) or Hebert's Specialty Meats (a Louisiana-born chain of butcher shops that sells turduckens online). Another potential inventor, the late chef Paul Prudhomme, even trademarked the name "turducken" for his restaurant and cookbook.

Well-established as a local Louisiana delicacy, the turducken hit the big leagues on December 1, 1996. The New Orleans Saints were hosting an NFL game, and the late commentator John Madden was in the press box sampling a turducken. Madden enjoyed it so much that he had turduckens delivered to him all over the country and frequently mentioned them on TV for years, whether or not it was Thanksgiving. A national obsession was born.

Three different proteins plus stuffing all stacked inside of each other can seem like a uniquely American excess, but turduckens are actually an example of a somewhat forgotten culinary art. Engastration, the practice of cooking one animal inside another, dates to at least the Middle Ages in Europe, though there are some more fantastical depictions of it even earlier than that. Today, turduckens are by far the most visible example of engastration, to the point of inspiring other food-within-food concepts like piecaken.

Beyond the obvious novelty, part of a turducken's culinary appeal lies in the challenge inherent in making one. A typical Thanksgiving turkey is hard enough to cook right, and adding two more birds inside of that plus more stuffing piles on the difficulty — and the time commitment.

A cornerstone of Cajun food is that patience yields great flavor. Between deboning three animals, successfully stuffing one inside the other (and then the other), and roasting the triple-bird long enough to cook everything without burning it; a turducken can take 18 hours or more to prepare, significantly more than any turkey. But that extra effort is borne out in a unique and unforgettable flavor.