My parents got a turducken for Thanksgiving from a place called Big Daddy’s on Long Island, primarily because they love me and want me to be happy. As it turned out, the turducken was delicious. We actually had regular, unduckened turkey, too, but it seemed like pretty much everyone preferred the turducken. It was slow smoked, so the outer/turkey layer had a distinct but not at all overwhelming smoky flavor. All the meats stayed surprisingly moist, and the andouille stuffing inside added an awesome sausagey flavor.

Here’s what the turducken looked like. I believe this is technically a boneless turducken or turducken roll. It’s tremendous:

That’s a lot of meat, my friends. And it meant a lot of leftovers for me, thankfully.

Here are some sandwiches I’ve made from turducken:

Turducken sandwich:

This was the first turducken sandwich I made, late in the evening on Thanksgiving because we ate dinner at 2:30 p.m. or something. It’s basically just turducken on whole wheat challah (which will be a theme) with pan gravy and jalapeno-cranberry chutney, both of which came with the turducken. The latter, notably, is a great condiment for a turducken sandwich. It’s spicy and sweet and tart.

It was delicious, but I failed to follow my own advice and put on a bit too much stuffing, so it was pretty bready. Also, it was late and I’m lazy, so I didn’t bother heating up the turducken or the gravy or toasting the roll.

Turducken, egg and cheese:

Damn right I did. TIP: To make any sandwich appropriate for breakfast, add a fried egg. I actually added two. That’s more whole-wheat challah doing the sandwiching, and there’s more jalapeno-cranberry chutney on the bottom. I skipped the gravy this time because c’mon, man, it’s breakfast. But I added a slice of cheddar cheese.

This sandwich was awesome. I am thinking about this sandwich now and craving it again. I need to make another one of these before I run out of turducken. The smokiness of the meat made it seem alarmingly appropriate for an egg sandwich, with the chutney serving the role of both the ketchup and the hot sauce I normally use on egg sandwiches. The egg was a bit runny and got all over my shirt, but the excess yolk I managed to contain to the plate served well for sopping.

Turducken sandwich with cheese:

The cheddar cheese added very little to the equation here, but I did a much better job measuring out the meat to stuffing ratio and heating up all the things that should have been hot. I made it massive because I wanted to get all three meats on there. It kept me sated on a long walk downtown and the subway ride back.

The gravy, I should note, is excellent on the sandwich. It’s really peppery and sort of tangy to boot. Preferable to mayo if you’re not aiming to travel any distance further than my kitchen to my couch.

Thanksgiving wrap:

This is today’s lunch: Turducken (albeit mostly turkey) on a whole-wheat wrap with stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, string beans and the jalapeno-cranberry chutney.

Say what you will about wraps, they might actually be the best medium for a sandwich containing so many non-bread starches. In terms of concept and construction, this is probably the best of the sandwiches I’ve made from the turducken. The sweet potatoes — courtesy of my sister — add a hearty sweetness and creamy texture, and the string beans provide a nice crunch. I will probably have this again tomorrow.

That concludes this episode of Things I Ate This Week. I never like rating my own sandwiches, but they’re all delicious, and all presented in loving tribute to John Madden.