Monday, November 21, 2011

A very spa-ducken Christmas - pt 1

It's going to be a spa-ducken Christmas! That's right, spa-ducken!

Let me explain. We're hosting Christmas this year for 7. While I love cooking our house doesn't really have room for big dinner parties, but since it's family, they can deal with the tight squeeze.

I've always wanted to try to make a turducken, ever since I first read about it in Jeffrey Steingarten's book. If you haven't read It Must've Been Something I Ate, it's a must read fir any adventurous foodie.

Only problem with the infamous turducken (for the uninitiated, it's the chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in. A turkey) is that it feeds 16-18! Even with my partner's brother and brother-in-law who could eat for 3 each, we'd still have way too much meat.

So jnstead we're trying the spa-ducken, that is a spatchcock stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a duck. Should be a much more manageable size.

So...we're going to need some practice runs especially with the deboning of things. So 34 days until Christmas....

First up deboning the spatchcock. This was surprisingly okay with a sharp paring knife and some good YouTube instructions - I even managed to get some of the wing meat out.




Since it was a trial, it turned into dinner with some herbs, olive oil and some thyme.

Have you any Christmas dinner tips? Especially in the poultry department?