turducken

noun

tur·duck·en tər-ˈdə-kən

: a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey

Did you know?

You can probably guess the origins of turducken just by looking at the word; it is a portmanteau (a word whose form is derived from a blending of two or more distinct other words) created by combining the words turkey, duck, and chicken, and the dish does indeed incorporate all three varieties of fowl. Turducken was first noted in print in 1982, although it may have been in use before that. The dish is a cousin of ballotine, a less familiar food item consisting of deboned meat, poultry, or fish stuffed with seasoned meats or vegetables, rolled and tied into a bundle shape, and usually braised. (The word ballotine derives from the French word for "bundle.")

Examples of turducken in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web When Fetterman emerged in his casual-business-formal turducken, another senior staffer rejected the bulky look. —

Kara Voght, Washington Post, 23 Apr. 2023 One of our guests told us that our Sierra Beauty was fantastic with their Thanksgiving turducken. —

Chelsea Davis, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2022 Judy Labrasca buys a 15-pound turducken at Thanksgiving to serve four people. —

Suryatapa Bhattacharya and Joseph De Avila, WSJ, 25 Nov. 2022 The result is a 196-square-foot galley that is both large enough to cook a massive turducken and seat the boat’s guests for the breakfast Miller cooks to order between seven and nine. —

Hannah Selinger, Outside Online, 8 Sep. 2022 Miller only serves the turducken on the first and last trips of the Maine Windjammer Association’s season. —

Hannah Selinger, Outside Online, 8 Sep. 2022 But before those meals, there is this one, the burnished turducken, a feat both of culinary rigor and circumstance. —

Hannah Selinger, Outside Online, 8 Sep. 2022 Mistich knew, Madden was boasting about his turducken on air, exposing 10 million people across the country to the concept of the Frankenstein-like creation. —

Dave Quinn, PEOPLE.com, 29 Dec. 2021 And just like last fall, each kid will bring enough to stuff an entire car like a turducken. —

Susanna Schrobsdorff, Time, 22 Aug. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'turducken.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.