The dish consisting of a deboned turkey stuffed with a duck and a chicken is turducken.
The name is a portmanteau of “turkey,” “duck,” and “chicken.” The chicken is placed inside a deboned duck, which is then placed inside a deboned turkey. The spaces between the birds may be filled with seasoned breadcrumb dressing, sausage meat, or separate stuffings, producing a layered roast that can be sliced across all three birds.
Turducken is strongly associated with Louisiana and Cajun cooking. Chef Paul Prudhomme is generally credited with introducing the modern named dish, with print references appearing in the early 1980s. He later trademarked “Turducken” in 1986. The dish became especially well known nationally after football commentator John Madden promoted it during NFL broadcasts.
A common mix-up is “gooducken,” which substitutes goose for turkey. Turducken also belongs to the older culinary tradition of engastration, in which one animal is stuffed inside another; similar multi-bird preparations existed in Europe long before the modern Louisiana version.