Turducken Sausage Rolls

Looking for a festive snack this Christmas? Get into the holiday mood with these Turducken sausage rolls made with turkey, duck and chicken! This decadent filling is paired with cranberries, pistachios, sage and onion. These delectable pastries have all of your favourite Christmas things in one!

A few years ago I made a turducken from scratch. It was delicious but also one of those things I swore was best made once and never again. But if you love the whole idea of a turducken (a turkey stuffed with duck and then a chicken) but you don’t want the stress of making a whole turducken yourself, I offer you this absolutely delicious alternative.

These turducken sausage rolls are made using chicken mince, turkey mince and minced up duck confit with cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, roasted pistachios, sage and onion. They’re perfect for serving as a pre-dinner appetiser, to visitors in the weeks leading up to Christmas or brought to Christmas work parties. These sausage rolls are larger and fatter than normal home-mae sausage rolls and look impressive when you serve them and they’ll look as if you’ve bought them!

I brought these to a little pre-Christmas picnic with the Elliotts. It was Mr NQN’s nephew Jett’s 10th birthday and there was a lot of family around including Mr NQN’s aunt Sisko and husband Seppo who live on the Central Coast. We haven’t seen them in a long time and it was great to catch up with them.

At family events Tuulikki does this thing every time where she takes sneaky photos of everyone. They’re usually highly unflattering, of people eating (shoving turducken sausage rolls into their mouths), talking with their mouths wide open and just completely unaware that they’re being photographed. Everyone tells her that she can’t keep taking sneak photos as it is a real source of annoyance for everyone.

People are happy to be in a photo but we have said to her that she has to let people know beforehand because they’re always terrible photos and also she loves sharing these photos online. But conversely if you take a photo of Tuulikki you aren’t allowed to publish them anywhere. You cannot even imagine the screams of protest and carry on if you show a photo of her. You could probably hear it from the other side of the world.

That evening she uploaded a lot of photos and they were hugely unflattering and of course of everyone but her! So we have a new rule, no more phones allowed because sometimes people want to enjoy their turducken sausage roll in peace without a paparazzo sneaking photos!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like your photo taken? Have you ever tried turducken?

Turducken Sausage Rolls

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 30 minutes freezing

Cooking time: 10 minutes plus 32 minutes per tray

• Oil for frying
• 2 brown or white onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced
• 400g/14ozs chicken mince
• 400g/14ozs turkey mince
• 400g/14oz duck confit (500g bone in duck legs)*
• 100g/3.5ozs pistachios, toasted
• 1/3 cup/100g/3.5ozs cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup/80g/2.8ozs dried cranberries
• 1 cup/85g/3ozs panko breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2-3 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 5 sheets butter puff pastry, thawed in the fridge
• 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon water for egg wash
• BBQ sauce to serve

*Buyer’s note: duck confit comes in 500g/1.1lbs packets with 2 marylands per pack. Once you strip the meat and skin off, you’ll end up with 400g/14ozs of meat.

Step 1 – First soak the cranberries in hot water from a kettle (10 minutes will do). Then roast the pistachios. Spread them out on a baking tray and roast for 8 minutes at 180C/350F.

Step 2 – Remove the meat from the duck confit and place the meat in a food processor to shred.

Step 3 – Fry the onion until softened and then add the garlic and fry for 1 minute. In a large bowl add the onions, garlic, chicken mince, turkey mince, shredded duck confit, roasted pistachios, cranberry sauce, well drained cranberries, panko breadcrumbs and egg. I find it easiest to mix it up using my hands, use latex gloves if you like. Season with salt and pepper. I always cook a bit in a frying pan to check it for flavour and seasoning. Place in a large piping bag (not all of it will fit, keep the rest in the fridge).

Step 4 – Take one sheet of pastry out of the fridge at a time. Pipe three logs of meat down one side of the pastry and then pipe one on top (4 logs in total). On the far side brush with egg wash and roll it up tightly from the other end. Wrap up and shape into a log and pipe some extra filling in each open end. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Step 5 – Preheat oven to 200C/400F fan forced. Cut each log into six pieces and place on a tray. Bake for 30-32 minutes. Serve with barbecue sauce.