Turducken (anyone done one?)

[Sorce]

We are doing a Turducken this year for thanksgiving. If you don't know what that is it's a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey.

We are following a Paula Dean recipe which has us putting stuffing in between each layer. It has us leaving the skin on all the birds. I'm not sure about this part, I'm thinking I should remove the skin from the chicken and duck since it won't crisp up and I think it might be rubbery. Oh and once this thing is put together I plan to put it in the smoker then finish it in the oven. For a general audience how long would you suggest I smoke this thing for? I don't want to overdo it with the smoke.

Any other helpful tips from people who have done this before would be appreciated.

[KevinG]

I believe MallardWacker did one a while back.

[Redneckinthecity]

Sorce -

How did it turn out?  I've assumed that the mass would be too much to get the smoke to penetrate very far.  Did you make one or buy it already disassembled/reassembled?

RITC

[Sorce]

It was amazing, everyone demands we do one again next year now. We Bought the 3 birds separate, my wife and father de-boned them all (I don't have the patience for this stuff). Next year we are going to use an extra box of stuffing. We used two this year with less water figuring it would absorb some of the bird juices. I applied 1 hr of hickory smoke to it. I would have liked more as it was a very faint smokey flavor, but everyone else thought the smoke was just right. I've got more pics on my canon at home that I'll post later, this one was taken from my cell phone since we were in a hurry and I forgot to take my good camera.

Here is what we did.

7lb chicken, skinned and de-boned
8lb duck, skinned and de-boned
12lb turkey, de-boned except for wings and drumsticks
Brined all of them in a gallon of water, cup of salt, cup of brown sugar and about 2 tablespoons of rosemary.

Laid out the turkey skin side down, sprinkled with house seasoning (garlic powder, salt, pepper)
Added a layer of stuffing
Put down the duck
Added another layer of stuffing
Put down the chicken
Added the rest of the stuffing

Pulled it back together and used skewers and butchers twine to pull the skin back together.

Smoked for 1 hour with hickory

Into the oven at 325 until 165.

It went up another 10 degrees after taking it out of the oven. Was perfectly moist and definitely the hit of the party.