Introduction: Bacon Wrapped Thanksgiving Turducken

About: Hi All! I like to learn, Period. It does not matter what it is. I then try to pass any and all knowledge that I find and learn to all of you. Which is why this site is perfect for doing so!

This instructable will show you how to make a bacon wrapped truducken for thanksgiving or whenever you feel the need to make one.

Step 1:

Ok lets get started, this is what you will need.

1. Turkey (biggest one you can buy, mine was 22lbs)
2. Chicken (biggest one you can get)
3. Duck (not in photo, did not want to cause cross contamination by having the raw birds touching, Also the duck is going to cost you more than the turkey so get ready to pay some $$)
4. Quail (I wanted to get all the birds I could in this)
5. LOTS OF BACON
6. Turkey oven bag (it will fit with some finessing, this is going to be a big bird when we are done)
7. Pan to hold the birds in
8. Oven
9. Large METAL coffee can (biggest you can get) to catch all of the bacon grease before you pull the birds out of the oven

I could have tried to get a goose and other birds, but I live in the U.S  (west coast) and those birds are not sold in my stores, you can get them sold/shipped to you online but that gets expensive. You can also google for a Ostrich if you want to go EpicMealtime on this instructable, once again that will cost you some major $$.

Step 2:

now for the fun part, make sure that all of your birds are fully defrosted and thawed out and clean all of the gut bags out, rinse, and let (or paper towel) dry. You want to start with the smallest bird (for me, this was the Quail) and start to wrap/weave it with your Bacon. As you can see my bacon weaving skills are not that great. Maybe I should look on here if they have a instructable on how to do this.

Now that you have your smallest bird (Quail) Fully wrapped in bacon grab your next smallest bird (for me it was the Duck) and shove the bacon wrapped Quail into the empty cavity of the Duck.

Step 3:

After you do that, Proceed to wrap/weave the bacon the Duck. You want to COMPLETELY wrap each bird with bacon and then put it into the empty cavity of the next biggest bird.

Do this with the next biggest bird (for me it was the chicken), Sorry guys, I forgot to take a photo of that one

Step 4:

Here comes the fun part.

Put all of your birds int the biggest bird (Turkey, or Ostrich if you bought it).
Wrap the biggest bird in bacon.
Put your turkey (or biggest bird) in the turkey bag, (if you bought a ostrich you are on your own for finding a oven and oven bag that big).
Put the Birds in the oven pan.

These birds were so big that I had to cut the turkey to get the cavity to open up enough to get all of those birds in it, just wrap the bacon around the bird tight, or if you want close it with butchers twine.

Step 5:

Stick your birds into the oven @350 degrees for about as long as it takes you to normally cook your turkey (most people have different cooking time pref so what ever you normally do is good)

Don't forget to poke wholes in the top of your oven bag so it does not explode.


Now here is a cooking choice for you to make, you can either put the birds in the oven like I have shown (breast side up), or you can cook it breast side down. I highly recommend that you cook it breast side DOWN because the white meat is normally dry and with it breast side down it will marinate/cook in all of that good bacon grease that is going to drip down to the bottom of the bag.

Note: Because you used a ton of bacon you are going to get a ton of bacon grease. Don't get worried when you see it fill the bag half way up. Grab your empty large (metal) coffee can when you open the oven to take the birds out and poke a hole in the bag on the side to let all of the grease drain out. If you buy a good name brand turkey bag it will hold up to the hot grease and not pop. Also if you remembered to poke holes in the top of the bag this will not happen.

Step 6:

Now take your birds out of the oven: This is going to be HEAVY, all of that bacon and birds added up to over 50lbs for mine, so get some oven-mits, bend with your knees, and lift that bird out of the oven.

Open the oven bag up and let cool for at least an hr. (this is because you have all of those other birds in there steaming keeping the internal temp of the birds up for awhile).

If you cooked your birds breast side up like mine the bacon will be crispy on top, if cooked breast side down it will be moist and crispy on the bottom(topside) of the bird.

Now CAREFULLY (it is still really hot and will most likely give off steam when you) cut open the birds, and serve. Remember that you have a lot of birds which equals a lot of bones to go through, but your birds will be cooked so good buy all of that bacon grease that it should just fall right off of the bone.

Enjoy!