>> male announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: >> Prudhomme: Hi, y'all.

I'm Chef Paul Prudhomme.

In the '80s, I created this incredible dish.

You take a chicken, and you put it in a duck, and then you put it in a turkey.

And it's called a turducken.

It's one of the best things you've ever tasted in your life.

And we're going to show you how to do it next.

[lively Cajun music] ♪ ♪ Hello, welcome, everybody.

Yes, turducken.

Have you ever heard of a turducken?

Well, it's a turkey, a duck, and a chicken.

A turkey, a duck, and a chicken.

That's why we got three chefs here, because we got to handle this stuff.

This is one of the most wonderful recipes for a holiday and for a gang to have fun with that's in existence, so I employed some help.

And to my left is... >> Paul Miller.

>> Prudhomme: To my right is... >> Marty Cosgrove.

>> Prudhomme: And I'm Paul Prudhomme, and we're all chefs.

And we actually work together.

So what we're going to do is try to explain a turducken.

And you literally do three dressings.

You do three birds, and you do a sauce for it, or a gravy, as we call it.

And so we each got-- Paul's going to do the boning of the birds, and we're going to show that to you.

Marty's going to do two of the dressings, and we're going to show that to you.

m going to do one of the dressings, and I'm going to do the sauce for it.

Now, I'm going to give you an idea about this.

And if you guys want to go to work, go right ahead.

I'm going to just keep chatting here for a minute.

>> I'm off.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

I got to tell you some of these-- I've got to tell you some of these things, and it's not to scare you.

This is a wonderful thing to do, to make this.

But you need some friends to help.

I mean, it's really important to do that, have friends to help.

You think about the word "turducken," and it's turkey, a duck, and a chicken.

Yeah, that's why it's called turducken, and it's stuffed.

The turducken was created in the 1980s, the early 1980s.

If you have a problem with all this boning out, just take it to your butcher and have him do it for you.

Well, then, you just take it home, put the dressings in it, yeah.

Now, we're starting off cooking.

Marty's got started.

Marty, you want to take that and try to tell them what you're doing while I get my pot hot?

And I'm going to start on mine.

>> Well, I'm doing the corn bread dressing and the andouille dressing today.

So I started off with the corn bread dressing.

So I sautéed a little-- I'm sautéing some of the onions.

I'm going to get a little color on that.

I sprinkled a little bit of the herbs and spices on that.

I've got the skillet warming for the andouille dressing.

And then while that was getting warmI actually whisked together the evaporated milk and the eggs.

So that's the start for the corn bread dressing.

And in just a couple of minutes when my skillet gets hot, I'm going to start with the andouille dressing.

>> Prudhomme: All right, so we got some stuff going here.

And we're going to go to Paul Miller, and he's going to do the turkey later.

And the turkey, really, is the most visual.

It's the one that can really make you understand deboning, because it's so big and it's easy to see.

But he's working already.

I've got mine going.

I'm starting out with the shrimp dressing.

And I've got my onions cooking, and they're getting to be brown.

I'm going to add the bell pepper, and I'm going to add the celery.

And this is a real butter dish.

I mean, you don't want to spare anything here.

I mean, you got to use butter.

And you got to use unsalted butter.

And especially if you use the seasoning blend, unsalted butter is a good thing to do.

And so we're going to take and get this cooking.

And as we're doing this-- oh, I seen something in here that we need to get out.

Here it is.

There we go.

Just a piece of onion.

But we're going to get it out of there anyway.

And so we're going to put some herbs and spices in this.

And we probably should take a second and go over and see how Marty's doing.

I can see him working because we're right next to each other.

And he's got some really good smells going on.

>> Thank you, Chef.

All right, I started the andouille dressing.

And I sautéed-- melted a little bit of butter, I'm sorry-- in the bottom of the skillet.

And then we took the ground andouille and added a little bit of the ground andouille.

Then, I also brought a piece of whole andouille.

And I thought maybe we could talk about this.

I know that you used to make andouille.

>> Prudhomme: Yes, as a matter of fact, when I was a kid, the andouille was one of our favorite things to use to season things with or season any kind of food with or just to eat plain.

And we would do the andouille.

And we would use-- literally, back then, we'd use the scraps of what came off of the boucherie, or the butchering.

And then we'd put potatoes, and we'd put onions in it.

And we'd caramelize, like you've seen me do, if you've watched me on television, hundreds of times.

We would caramelize those things and put them inside the andouille, which made it very, very unique.

d it's always been my favorite.

I mean, you smoke it.

It's got a great smoked smell to it.

And so the andouille's great.

So I'm going to continue on.

I've got my vegetables in good shape.

I'm going to add-- I've been talking so much, I'd better look and see what I've got.

I'm going to add some bay leaves to it.

And I've got some garlic.

It's time to put it in.

And I've got some more butter.

All right, I've got some bread crumbs to add to it.

I'm going to let my butter sort of melt a little bit and then get the bread crumbs going.

I need herbs and spices to it because you need lots of herbs and spices for the bread crumbs to calm them down, to make sure that they got a lot of flavor to it.

I'm going to put the bread crumbs in.

Now, the shrimp that I'm going to-- and I'm making a shrimp dressing.

The shrimp I want to do totally at the end, because if you put them in last and don't overcook them, you're going to have a better taste to the shrimp.

So we're going to go to Marty and see how he's doing with his dressing.

So can you give us an update, Marty?

>> Sure, Chef.

I've added the bay leaf to the corn bread dressing.

In addition to that, I've added the bell pepper and the celery.

I gave it a little bit more herbs and spices, and I'm letting that cook so I can get a nice caramelization on that, bring out the sugars.

And I'm still giving the andouille-- still letting that cook, the ground andouille in the skillet, 'cause I want to get it just a little brown.

Then after that, I'm going to add some of the onions to it.

So I'm going to let this brown, Chef, and then we'll check and see what's going on with you.

>> Prudhomme: All right, I got my skillet going in good shape.

I'm going to add a little bit more of the bread crumbs to it.

And what I'm going to do with the bread crumbs is absorb all the moisture from the vegetables and from everything that I've put in so far and start it browning, because I love brown.

And with bread crumbs, it's important, I think, to brown it.

It gives it a much better flavor and a much better texture.

We've got the shrimp left.

And we've got more seasoning to put in.

And we got the stock to put into it.

So I'll finish the seasoning.

Now I'm going to add the stock to it.

All right, now, what's going to happen here is that this is going to turn out to be a sort of dry dressing.

It's going to have moisture in it, but it won't be wet.

You won't see moisture in it.

I'm going to put the shrimp in.

And the dressing has got to be really cold.

And it takes a whole lot more than you see in our skillets over here.

We got the dressings made, and they're ready to go.

They've been chilled out.

And it's incredibly important that the dressings get cold, cold, cold, because you want to start off with a cold bird, or cold birds, 'cause there's three of them, and cold dressings.

And it really is safety as a factor to do that.

So mine's almost done.

When you're doing a dressing, especially a shrimp dressing-- you know, I would prefer not to cook the shrimp all the way 'cause I know it's going to cook inside the bird.

So I'm going to just take a little taste here.

Oh, that's good.

Man, I don't think we ever get anything here-- at least the ones not in front of me-- that don't taste good.

And that's the truth.

I'm done with mine.

I'm going to shut my dressing off.

Marty, how you doing?

>> Well, Chef, I'm getting there.

I'm not quite as far as you, but on my corn bread dressing, while you were doing that, I added some of the ground-up cooked giblets to it, or the duck giblets that I got from Paul Miller.

So I added that to it.

And then I added a little bit more herbs and spices.

And then now I'm just going to go with the corn bread that we cooked and we oven-dried.

>> Prudhomme: Go to it.

>> All right, we oven-dried it.

And as you said, this is just a small portion, just to let everybody see exactly what want.

And my dressing, the corn bread dressing, is also sort of very, very dry, because it's going to depend on the moisture from the bird.

And then I'm going to finish-- put the rest of the butter in.

And then we add a little pepper sauce, nice little amount of pepper sauce.

I've got one more step, Chef, for the corn bread dressing.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

>> And that is the egg and the evaporated milk that I whisked.

So I'm going to go ahead and turn the fire off.

And then I'm just going to add this.

And this is going to give me my moisture, finish it off with a little bit more of the herbs and spices.

We'll give it a good mix.

And of course with this one, the last thing that I have to do is remove the bay leaf.

We don't want anyone to have the bay leaf.

>> Prudhomme: Yodon't want them chewing a bay leaf.

>> No, no, it's done its job, I think, and I will take it out.

All right.

Well, Chef, the corn bread dressing is done.

>> Prudhomme: We got to taste it.

We got to make sure it's done.

>> Yeah, I know.

Let's go.

>> Prudhomme: Ah, c'est bon.

That means it's good.

>> Oui, c'est bon, which means, "Yes, it's good."

I'm going to switch.

This one is done.

It's ready.

>> Prudhomme: Corn bread dressing.

>> Yes, sir.

And this is my andouille dressing.

And I've just got one-- couple things left to do.

Just put the remaining butter in.

There we go.

Put the remaining butter in.

And I've got some dry bread crumbs.

So finish it off with some dry bread crumbs.

And I just have to put the last of the herbs and spices in it.

And this andouille dressing is ready to go.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

Well, let's stir it up, and we can get taste of it as we go through it.

>> This is my andouille stuffing.

And it's ready to go.

The only thing we have to do is put a little dash of pepper sauce and taste it.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

Tasting's very, very important.

Got a fresh spoon.

You got a taste it, taste it, taste it.

>> And I've got a spoon on this side.

Ready, set, let's go.

>> Prudhomme: All right.

Very good.

>> Thank you, Chef.

>> Prudhomme: Yum.

We've got the three dressings done.

We're going to set them aside.

Paul Miller's still working on the duck and the chicken, and he's ready to do the turkey at any time.

>> All right, Chef, thanks.

Last but not least, we've got the turkey.

It's actually the biggest, but it's the easiest one to do.

What I'm going to do is make a line or a cut right down the middle.

And all three birds are the same.

And basically what I'm going to do is start taking the meat away from the bone by using just a corner or the point of the knife and just taking my time in little, small cuts and pulling.

And it's almost pulling away by itself, but I'm just going to give it a little tug to make it a little easier.

And then while I'm doing that, I'll also explain as I get to different parts of the bird so you can see exactly what's it.

Marty's going to come over.

Come on over, Marty.

>> Hey, how are you?

>> And he's going to talk about the stock.

>> So we actually have the bones from the duck.

We have the bones from the chicken.

And first we're going to take them, put them in a sheet pan.

We're going to roast them off.

And then we'll add some onions, and we'll add some carrot peel and whatnot, some celery leaves.

>> So what temperature you have that oven at?

>> We're going to slow roast them.

We're going to slow roast them.

It's just like a little quiz, right?

Exactly, exactly.

We're going to slow roast them so that we can render all the fat from them and get a nice color on the bones.

And then we're going to start the stock in cold water.

We'll bring that up to a boil.

And then of course, then we'll let it simmer, removing all the bones and whatnot.

But the stock is such an important part of this recipe because we use it not only for the gravy, but we also use it for the dressings and the fillings and whatnot.

So the stock is very, very important.

>> On the chicken and the duck, we took all the bones out, 'cause that's going to be inside of the bird.

The turkey, we're going to leave the wings and we're going to leave the legs there, 'cause it looks grt, and I know in my family, there's three or four people that are going to fight over the legs anyway.

>> I might fight you for one of those legs.

>> So I'm coming around the bottom here, just pulling it apart, little bit at a time.

>> So you're basically just following the bone structure, right?

>> Following the bone, exactly.

If you keep the knife flat against the bone so that you get all of the meat off of it-- just take your time and just kind of pull back and forth like that so that the meat will come right off of it.

You want to be very careful not to cut through the skin, because when you cook it, it'll tear, and it won't look as pretty as if you don't cut the skin.

So I'm going to take it and cut it a little bit here.

And it's getting really close-- there we go.

Cut a little bit here.

And that's it.

>> All right.

>> It's going to make a wonderful stock.

>> You're right.

>> Okay, now, what I like to do is-- and you can also take the leg and thigh bone out and fill this with the dressing if you like.

But I like to leave it whole.

But I do take the thigh bone off.

And what I do is, I come along the bone this way.

Just cut right to the joint, then come back on this side and cut towards this way, kind of get my fingers underneath there before I put the knife.

Come back.

Take it off.

And cut it just to the joint.

And pull on it a little bit.

And let's see if I can crack it.

And here we go.

And that's the first one.

>> A little something else on my stock there.

>> There you go.

You need it.

You need that.

And you cut a little bit more.

Do one more here.

And then we're about ready to put this bger together, huh?

We got this one last little bone here to do.

And take it out.

And then we're going to stuff this bird.

>> All right.

>> You ready for that?

>> Oh, I'm ready.

I'm ready.

>> Okay, all right, I'm going to cut right through the joint there.

If you pull down on the bone, it's going to come apart, and you just kind of take your knife and just put a little bit of pressure on there and take it off.

One more for your stock.

>> There we go.

>> All right, now, I'm going to remove this rag right here and get this boy ready.

First thing we're going to do is, we're going to season it.

We've got some herbs and spices here I'm going to put a little bit of this one here, spread it evenly, put a little bit underneath there, everywheres.

And I'll put a little bit more of this over here.

Lots of herbs and spices, lot of different ones.

All right, now, if you'll hand me the corn bread dressing, we'll start with that one.

>> There we go.

All right.

You got it.

>> Oh, yes, I'm going to play with it.

>> How about if I hold it and-- >> Why don't you do that?

>> All right, there we go.

>> I'm going to put about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thickness of it.

You want to make sure that you cover the whole inside here.

>> Boy, that smells good already, huh?

>> And we can probably serve this extra stuffing on the side, right?

>> Absolutely.

Take that.

Actually, all three of them, just something to snack on before the turkey's done, you know?

>> That's right, exactly.

>> Okay, now, the next part is-- this is the boned-out duck.

Now, there's absolutely no bones at all in this one.

Wipe my hands a little bit here, make sure it's all covered.

And a little more seasoning.

Got to have that seasoning.

>> Yes, indeed.

>> All right, now, andouille dressing.

>> All right, there we go.

>> Step two.

This takes a-- it's a little smaller bird, so it's going to take a little less-- >> I have to admit, the andouille stuffing is my favorite.

>> Well, the andouille is from our part of the country anyway.

That's pretty much where it's from, just like us.

Like the three amigos, huh?

>> Exactly, that's right.

That's right.

>> How's that look?

>> All right, looks good.

Looks good.

Looks good.

Okay, now, the chicken-- >> And now the chicken.

And now the last but not least.

>> And there are no bones in the chicken, right?

>> No bones in the chicken, absolutely.

Got it all out.

Boy, that's a big dude, huh?

>> You're right.

You're right.

Okay.

>> Now, this is the shrimp dressing.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> We're going to do a nice little even spread of that as well, and a bit more here, and a little bit more here.

All right, how's that look?

>> Looks good.

Looks good.

Looks good.

>> Okay, now, here comes the fun part.

>> Exactly, that's right.

>> This takes two people and somebody with long arms, like me.

What I'm goingo do is, I'm going to pick up one side and the other side and put it together.

Marty's going to take this pan, put it on top.

And this is going to be a juggling act here.

He's going to hold the pan down while I go underneath, and we're going to turn it over quickly.

>> All right.

>> You got that now?

>> Yeah, I got it; I got it; I got it; I got it.

I see why you invited me now.

>> Ah.

Not just for the company.

>> Of course not.

>> Okay, put it on top.

>> All right.

>> Now, hold it there for a second.

Push down on it.

>> I got it.

>> Push this in a little bit here.

>> Get your legs in.

>> Okay, now-- >> You ready?

Set, let's go.

All right, all right.

>> We did it, huh?

>> We did it; I know.

Have we done this before?

Maybe so, huh?

>> A few hundred times.

>> Exactly.

>> Okay, and we want to make sure everything is tucked in and like this.

Now, the next thing to do is to season it before it goes in the oven.

We're going to cook it about eight hours at about 225 degrees.

Cooking it slow like that's going to keep it moist.

But we want to make sure it's 165 degrees internally when it's done.

Now, you know, because it's very tight in here and it's going to put out a lot of juices, we're going to have to put this turkey, this pan and turkey, into another pan so that it can catch all of the drippings.

But I want to season it up first before we get it in there.

>> 'Cause we definitely don't want to lose those drippings.

>> Oh, no.

>> Can you imagine that?

>> That's what's going to really make the gravy wonderful.

>> Exactly.

>> Going to rub it in a little bit.

That's the fun part.

>> That's right.

You've got one leg there that, I don't know if he's trying to fly out or not, but I tell you what-- >> And then, here it goes, like this.

And that dude's ready to go in the oven.

Marty, if you'll get that oven door for me.

>> I got it, and this is nice and preheated.

There you go.

>> That's 225 degrees for about eight hours.

So we've got the turkey, Chef.

How about you?

How about some gravy?

>> Prudhomme: I'm ready to make e gravy.

If you think turducken's amazing after you've seen that, wait until you taste it.

And we're going to add something more to the taste of the turducken right now by making a sweet potato eggplant gravy.

Now, what we did is, we got some eggplant that's been roasted.

And you got to roast them.

Got onions that are roasted.

Got sweet potatoes that are roasted.

We got garlic that are roasted.

And this makes it a very, very quick sauce.

We got stock from the turkey.

We've got regular stock.

We've got some cream and the seasoning and a little bit of sugar, in case we need to.

And what I mean by that is that if we need a little sweetness to really round things off.

So we're going to put the butter in.

And you can see it's a hot pan.

And I'm going to put the seasoning on.

And love to roast the seasonings, as most of you know, if you watch my shows.

And we're going to do that first, because I've already got all of the other stuff ready to go.

And so it's going to finish very, ve quickly.

The next thing I'm going to put in is the sweet potatoes.

Now, the sweet potatoes is the thickening agent.

So you need to mash them.

And just mash them.

And you can just continue to mash them during the process, because at the end, I'll show you how we're going to do it.

But we're going to put the eggplant in now.

And we got the onions to go in.

And I want to make-- I'm watching the brown come up.

And I know I need to spread this around because I don't wt any off flavors in this.

And the butter and the seasoning is just making love to each other.

Going to put garlic in.

Oh, we got to put all the garlic, 'cause this is roasted garlic.

So I got to scrape it out.

And I need to just give it a little taste to see how the seasoning is up in there.

You know, it always seems like I want to add more, but this time I really need more.

There's no doubt about it.

So I got some brown sugar.

I'm going to put that in.

And then I'm going to put the drippings first, because the stock, I'm going to use only if I have to, because I'd rather just use the drippings and the cream.

And we're going to put the cream in.

Now, this is-- I mean, it's amazingly a quick sauce in the sense of this part of it.

But you got to remember, you roasted all those things.

And so they're already cooked, and they're ready to go.

Now, we're going to give you a little surprise.

And the surprise is not putting stock in, but I'm going to do that.

The surprise is, you take this and puree it.

And once you puree it, you got a really smooth, wonderful sauce.

And I'll show it to you right now.

And look at that.

I mean, isn't that gorgeous?

Now, if you want something to taste, that's what it is.

We got the sauce ready.

And we're going to bring that turducken over.

>> Look at this dude.

>> All right.

>> Prudhomme: The boys are back.

Isn't that gorgeous?

All right, so what we need to do is, we need to cut it, slice it.

And we need to eat it.

>> And look, I've got three plates.

>> Prudhomme: Three plates.

I like that, Marty.

I like that.

>> Well, the first thing I want to do is to get this wing out of the way.

So I'm going to pull on it a little bit and just kind of tug.

And I'm going to put this over here, 'cause I'm coming back to that.

>> Prudhomme: I think one of the things that you need to know is that once you start cutting it, you know, it's very vulnerable to break up.

And so don't hesitate to hold.

Do you see how Paul was holding the side of the breast there and pulling on the bone out?

That's a very, very key thing to do, because you want to be able to cut it and get a slice out of it to where whoever's going to eat it can see the chicken, the duck, and the turkey, and all the different dressings, because it's so pretty.

It really is.

>> All right, here's the first-- >> Ooh, look at that.

>> There we go.

>> All right.

>> Prudhomme: Isn't that beautiful?

Oh, that's mine.

That's mine.

Look at that, y'all.

>> All right, here we go.

>> Prudhomme: That's Marty'plate.

>> Right, exactly.

>> Prudhomme: Look-a-here.

Look-a-here.

Ooh, just put that across.

Oh, look at that.

Mm.

Marty, do you want a little bit of-- >> Of course.

>> Prudhomme: You got enough to share with Paul Miller there.

>> I think I will.

I think I will.

I think I'll share with him.

>> Prudhomme: I tell you, you shouldn't brag on your own stuff, but this is wonderful.

>> But I think this is an exception.

Exactly.

>> Prudhomme: The sweetness in it is just awesome.

All right, guys, we need to tell everybody bye.

And how do we do that?

Good... >> all: Cooking, good eating, and good lovin'.

We love you guys.

>> announcer: A cookbook featuring all the recipes from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking is available for $15.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling.

The cookbook features 97 recipes, color photos, and cooking tips from Chef Paul.

To order a copy of the companion cookbook, call: And pay by credit card.

Or send a check or money order to: >> Prudhomme: I tell you, I'm downwind of this thing, and I'm smelling it.

Oh, I knew something was going wrong.

>> Okay, look here.

Don't look at me.

Look at the camera.

>> Prudhomme: I didn't look at you.

Why would I want-- [laughs] Oh, does this smell good, but I don't know what it is.

>> Soy sauce.

>> Prudhomme: [laughs] Oh, it is such wonderful soy sauce.

I got to put them on there.

And then they-- [laughs] And then the crash.

We're going to put the plantains in.

And I'm going to start-- hey, did you see that?

[laughs] Oh, man, I never thought I could do that.

There it goes, all right.

[laughing] Put your best ugly face on.

Captioning by CaptionMax www.captionmax.com >> announcer: Funding for Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking was provided by: