By Patrick D. Bonin

There’s no denying that south Louisiana is world famous for unique, amazing food.

Blessed with ample fresh ingredients and family recipes perfected and handed down through Cajun generations, the list of taste-tempting creations concocted here seemingly goes on and on: seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, fried shrimp, boiled crawfish, fried crawfish, boudin, crawfish etouffee, blackened redfish, shrimp stew, crawfish bisque and fried turkey, just to name a few.

The list is long, but it does have a relatively new addition: the “turducken,” a tantalizing combination of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which is stuffed into a deboned turkey, with seafood or pork stuffing in between the layers!

The end result is a knockout flavorful combination that can be enjoyed year round, but is especially popular during the holidays.

The exact origin of the meaty meal remains up for discussion, but everyone concedes it was invented by Cajuns somewhere in south Louisiana. And its popularity skyrocketed in 1997 when football broadcaster John Madden sang its praises during a Saints game on Thanksgiving.

From that point on, it went viral and the rest is pretty much history.  The broadcaster continually awarded a turducken to his “All-Madden team” each year, and its place was cemented in National Football League lore forever.

Several butcher shops throughout south Louisiana produce turduckens, many by the thousands during the holidays. The three main ingredients are always the same, but numerous stuffing variations have been created, including plain cornbread, seafood jambalaya, pork sausage, crawfish and more.

Numerous recipes are available online, but if you want to try an authentic Cajun turducken produced right here in south Louisiana, click here for all the details. But be warned: you might not ever want a “plain old turkey” during the holiday again!