26 December 2010

Turduckery.

Over Thanksgiving Break, my mom and I went to St. Louis to tour Le Cordon Bleu and go shopping. While we were there, we picked up a food magazine called Feast that featured a recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Turducken. Our minds were immediately made up and we decided that we would finally attempt and conquer the Turducken.



I'm happy to say we both created and conquered the Turducken with relative ease. Finding the duck proved harder than we both thought, but was well worth the effort. This meat-roulade turned out to be delicious. Wrapping it in bacon added another dimension. The bacon dimension. And we all know that that is the tastiest dimension of them all.




Bacon-Wrapped Turducken
Makes about 12 servings

6 cups water
1/3 cup kosher salt
1 boneless, skinless turkey breast
2 boneless, skinless duck breasts
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
12 slices hardwood smoked bacon
Butcher’s twine
2 tablespoons olive oil
Bring water and salt to a boil in a large pot, and then remove from heat. Once cool, submerge turkey breast in brine for at least 1 hour, up to 12 hours. Remove turkey and pat dry.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place turkey breast on a large cutting board and cover with a large piece of plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet, gently pound the turkey to an even 1/4-inch thickness. Do the same with the duck and chicken breasts.

Season the turkey, duck, and chicken breasts with fresh herbs, salt, and pepper. Lay the turkey breast flat, and then top with the duck breasts. Top the duck breasts with the chicken breasts. Bring the sides of the breasts up into a log shape and press together to hold, creating a roulade. Set aside.

Layer the bacon, slightly overlapping, on the cutting board. Place the roulade on top of the bacon, seam side up. Bring the bacon up around the roulade, overlapping the ends. Truss with butcher’s twine to secure.

Place the olive oil in a large nonstick pan over high heat. Once hot, add roulade and turn on all sides to sear bacon. Place roulade on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 90 minutes, or until an internal temperature of 170 degrees is reached. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

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