4 recipes Andouille Smoked Sausage Dressing°

5 recipes Sweet Potato Eggplant Gravy¹

2 recipes Cornbread Dressing²

4 recipes Oyster Dressing³

° http://www.culinarycafe.com/Holiday_Favorites/Andouille_Dressing.html

¹ http://www.culinarycafe.com/Sauces-Marinades/Sweet_Potato_Gravy.html

² http://www.culinarycafe.com/Holiday_Favorites/Cornbread_Stuffing.html

³ http://www.culinarycafe.com/Holiday_Favorites/Oyster_Dressing.html

TO BONE THE TURKEY

Place the turkey, breast down, on a flat surface. Make an incision the entire length of the spine through the skin and flesh. Starting from the neck end and using the tip of the knife, follow as close to the bone as you can cut, carefully teasing the skin and meat away from the frame. Toward the neck end, cut through the meat to expose the shoulder blade (feel for it first and cut through small amounts of meat at a time if you have trouble locating it); cut the meat away from around the bone and sever the bone at the joint so you can remove the blade.

Disjoint the wing between the second and third joint; free the heavy drumstick of the wing and remove it, being careful to leave the skin intact. Continue teasing the meat away from the backbone, heading toward the thighbone and being careful to keep the "oyster" (pocket of meat on the back) attached to the skin instead of leaving it with the bone.

Cut through the ball-and-socket joint to release the thighbone from the carcass; you should now be able to open up the bird more in order to better see what bones are still left to deal with. Continue teasing the meat away from the carcass until you reach the center front of the breastbone. Then very carefully separate the skin from the breastbone at the midline without piercing the skin (go slowly because the skin is very thin at this point).

Repeat the same boning procedure on the other side (left or right) of the turkey, with the turkey still breast down. When both sides are finished, carefully remove the carcass. Then remove the thighbone and leg bone on each side as follows. Being careful not to break through the skin, use a small hammer to break the leg bone completely across, about two inches from the tip end. Then manipulate both ends of the bone with your hands to be sure the break is complete. Leave the tip of the bone in, but remove the leg bone and thighbone as one unit. To do this, cut the meat away from around the thighbone first, using the knife tip; then, holding the thighbone up with one hand, use the other hand to carefully cut the meat away from around the leg-thigh joint. (Don’t cut through this joint, and don’t worry if it seems as if you’re leaving a lot of meat around the joint - - it can’t be helped and, besides, it will add flavor when you make the stock with the bones!) Then use the blade of the knife to scrape the meat away from the leg bone; remove the leg-thigh bone. With your hands or the knife, one by one remove as many pin bones from the leg meat as possible; then, if necessary, pull the tip of the leg bone to turn the meat to the inside (so the skin is on the outside and it looks like a turkey again). Refrigerate.

TO BONE THE DUCK

Place the duck, breast down, on a flat surface and follow the same procedure as you did to bone the turkey, except this time you will remove all the bones, instead of leaving in part of the wing and leg bones.

To bone each wing, cut off the first two joints of the wing (and save for stock), leaving the wing’s drumstick; cut the meat from around the drumstick and remove this bone.

When you reach the thigh, follow the thigh-leg bone with the knife blade to release the bone as one unit, again being careful not to cut through the skin.

Trim some of the excess skin and fat from the neck area; cut the skin in small pieces and reserve it for making the gravy; discard the fat. Refrigerate the duck and skin pieces.

TO BONE THE CHICKEN

Use precisely the same procedure to bone the chicken as you used to bone the duck.

TO ASSEMBLE THE TURDUCKEN

Spread the turkey, skin down, on a flat surface exposing as much meat as possible. Sprinkle the meat generously and evenly with a total of about 2 tablespoons of the Bayou Blast, patting it in with your hands. (Be sure to turn the leg, thigh and wing meat to the outside so you can season it, too.) then stuff some of the cold andouille dressing into the leg, thigh and wing cavities until full but not tightly packed (if too tightly packed, it may cause the leg and wing to burst open during cooking). Spread an even layer of the dressing over the remaining exposed meat, about ½ to ¾-inch thick. You should use a total of about 7 cups dressing.

Place the duck, skin down, on top of the andouille dressing, arranging the duck evenly over the dressing. Season the exposed duck meat generously and evenly with about 1 tablespoon more Bayou Blast, pressing it in with your hands. Then spread the cold cornbread dressing evenly over the expose duck meat, making the layer slightly less thick than the andouille dressing, about ½ inch thick. Use a total of about 4 cups dressing.

Arrange the chicken, skin down, evenly on top of the cornbread dressing. Season the exposed chicken meat generously and evenly with about 1 tablespoon more Bayou Blast, pressing it in with your hands. Spread the cold oyster dressing evenly over the exposed chicken meat, using about 3 cups dressing and making the layer about ½ inch thick.

Enlist another person’s help to carefully lift the open Turducken into an ungreased 15 x 11-inch baking pan that is at least 2½ inches deep. (NOTE: This pan size is ideal because the Turducken fits snugly in the pan and stays in the proper shape while cooking.) As you lift the Turducken into the pan, fold the sides of the turkey together to close the bird. Have your helper hold the turkey closed while you sew up all openings, making the stitches about 1 inch apart; when you finish sewing up the Turducken on the first side, turn it over in the pan to sew closed any openings on the other side. Then tie the legs together just above the tip bones. Leave the Turducken breast side up in the pan, tucking in the turkey wings.

Place the Turducken pan in a slightly larger pan with sides at least 2½ inches deep, so that the larger pan will catch the overflow of drippings during cooking. Season the exposed side of the Turducken generously and evenly with about 2 tablespoons more Meat Magic, patting it in with your hands. Refrigerate until ready to bake.

Bake at 190° until done, about 12 to 13 hours, or until a meat thermometer inserted through to the center reads 165°. (NOTE: There is no need to baste, but you will need to remove accumulated drippings from the Turducken pan every few hours so that the lower portion of the turkey doesn’t "deep fry" in the hot oil.) When done, remove the Turducken from oven and let cool in its pan at least 1 hour. Meanwhile, make the gravy with some of the pan drippings and the reserved duck skin. With strong spatulas inserted underneath (remember there are no bones to support the bird’s structure), carefully transfer the Turducken to a serving platter and present it to your guests before carving. Then place the Turducken on a flat surface to carve. Be sure to make your slices crosswise so that each slice contains all three dressings and all three meats. (It’s easy to do this and still have manageable size servings if you slice the Turducken in half lengthwise, then cut servings crosswise to the desired thickness from one side of the Turducken at a time.) Serve additional bowls of the dressings on the side.
http://www.culinarycafe.com/Holiday_Favorites/Turducken.html