Make Your Own Turducken (Slideshow)

For size, keep in mind that 10 to 12 pounds of turkey feeds 12 to 15 people. 

Debone the turkey except for the drums and wings. They are left on so that it resembles a full turkey headed for the oven. When cutting and deboning, be careful to keep the skin on the turkey. Push the turkey meat down so that it's lying flat on your work surface. 

You should have about a pound of stuffing rationed into three equal portions. Take one portion of the stuffing and layer it on top of the turkey. Echelon Foods recommends Italian sausage stuffing or chicken apple sausage stuffing, but feel free to use whatever stuffing recipe you'd like. 

Take about 10 ounces of chicken, Echelon Foods uses just the white meat from the breasts, but you can choose white or dark, or both, and place it on top of the layer of stuffing. Make sure that there is no skin left on the chicken.

Place another portion of the stuffing on top of the chicken.

Then place filleted duck breasts onto the layer of stuffing, and place a third final layer of stuffing on top of the duck.

Now you're ready to put it all together. Pull the turkey up and around the chicken and duck and stuffing and stitch it up with butcher's twine (about 2 to 2 ½ feet), all the way back down to reassemble the carcass of the turkey.

After the body is stitched up, tie the drumsticks together like chopsticks, the same way you'd truss a chicken to hold them together.

Time to cook it: The key here is low and slow. Cook at 220 degrees for five to seven hours. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer, 165 degrees is the minimum temperature. 

Once the turducken is done cooking, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing and serving.