Three Bird Roast Recipe (aka Royal Roast, Turducken)
Turducken, Royal Roast or Three Bird Roast, is a magnificent alternative to your standard Christmas or Thanksgiving Roast. A bird, in a bird, in a bird!
1portion stuffing of your choiceor use 2 types, but half the amount
1celerysliced thickly
2carrotssliced thickly
1celerysliced thickly
1onionquartered
4clovesgarlic
handful of fresh herbs - I used thymerosemary and sage
salt and pepper
Tool
butcher's needle thread
scissors
Instructions
Heat the oven to 200˚C/Fan 180˚C/400˚F. Rinse and pat dry all the birds. Place the duck flat on your work surface, skin side down. Rub a pinch of salt all over and sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper.
Spread the first stuffing all over, stopping short of going all the way to the edge.
Place the chicken, skin side down, on the duck. Do the same with the salt and pepper. Make sure that there is about an inch of spare duck all around the chicken. You will need that extra to wrap it all up. If not, don't be afraid, get a pair of scissors, and trim that chicken. Use the chicken trimmings in the gravy, or freeze them to cook another day.
Same again, spread the second stuffing all over.
Finally the 2 pheasant breasts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. No need for stuffing.
Now comes the fun (messy!) part. Roll the duck up very slowly, make sure to displace as little stuffing as possible. But don't worry too much about it - it's going to be messy!
Using the butcher's thread, start stitching the chicken at bottom end. You could do a total of about 4-5 single dead knots across the bird (or more for a turkey). Or you could just literally, sew the 2 ends from the bottom to the top. I did 4 single knots here. Leave a bit of thread hanging and make sure you stitch about 2cm (just under an inch) away from the edge, to prevent tearing when the meat is cooking.
When you get to the neck end, fold the flap in and stitch across tightly, or secure with a cocktail stick or two. I left it open, in this case, as you might make out from the picture.
Now it's time to cook it. Weigh your stuffed royal roast, so you know how long to cook it for. The time here are for a 3kg roast.
Get a large roasting dish, lightly greased with olive oil. Scatter all the chopped up vegetables in it, followed by some salt and pepper.
Place the royal roast on the vegetables and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover tightly with foil and place in the oven for an hour. This timing is for a 3kg (6 3/5 lb) roast.
Baste the roast, lower the oven temperature to 180˚C/Fan 160˚C/350˚F and cook for 2 more hours, basting occasionally.
After 2 hours, remove the foil, baste and cook for another 30 minutes to brown it. At the end of this time, the birds should be done but if you want to make absolutely sure, insert a meat thermometer, the temperature should read at least 70˚C (160˚F). Roast for an additional 15 minutes for every 500g (1.1lb) more of the total weight you have.
Take it out of the oven, cover with foil and place a tea towel over it and let rest like that for at least 30 minutes while you finish the spuds off! This resting will give you a moist roast.Slice your multibird roast and serve with all the trimmings.