Talking turducken: The turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken is coming to a supermarket near you

Is it a table centrepiece that's the height of indulgence? Or a Frankenstein food that should never have been created? The turducken – a turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken – is a Christmas main course that divides opinion. But you may be seeing more of the poultry trifecta this year, as Coles offers the seasonal specialty for the first time.

The supermarket giant joins Aldi and specialty butchers who have for many years assembled thousands of these Russian doll-style roasts each December.

"It's like a complete Christmas feast in one bite," says Sydney butcher Adam Stratton.

The deboned, many-layered creation also makes for easy carving, can solve the problem of dry turkey, and gives more choice to picky eaters.

Stratton, who owns four Tender Gourmet Butchery stores across Sydney, is expecting to sell 600 to 700 turduckens as people plan to splash out on Christmas to make up for family gatherings missed throughout the pandemic. His free-range mutli-bird roast is $140, about $30 a kilogram, which is on par with Coles. Luxury butcher Victor Churchill charges approximately $66 per kilogram for its version.

A Thanksgiving staple in the US since at least the 1970s, turducken searches on Google soared in the States between 2007 and 2011 but only gained momentum in Australia after 2010, likely thanks to the power of food blogs.

Our thirst for the triple-treat roast peaked in 2014 according to Google search data, but all signs point to a comeback this year, particularly as turduckens show up in hundreds of Coles across the country from December 18.

"It has a lot of wow factor," says Harrison Nguyen, owner of John Cester's poultry shop at Prahran Market.

Nguyen has already sold several turduckens to Americans in Melbourne who celebrated Thanksgiving on November 25 and he expects this Christmas to be another big year based on current orders.

Stratton says "if you cut one directly in half, you look at all those colours in there and it's like a medieval feast".

Ancient, and later Tudor, feasts often involved a multibeast centrepiece dish to impress powerful guests. Engastration is the technical term and the turducken is just the latest example.

"I guess everything has its place back in the sun," says American barbecue specialist Lance Rosen of Melbourne's Southern Grace Diner, who enjoys the technical aspects of assembling a turducken.

There is some dispute over the best way to approach this feat of culinary engineering.

Some butchers, such as John Cester's, reduce the size of the final product by using cuts of turkey and duck, a smart move when a whole-bird turducken can weigh up to seven kilograms. Cester's turduckens, made with either breast or maryland, weigh between three and five kilograms.

Rosen likes to zero in on a single cut of meat for more even cooking. He creates a roulade using the breast from each bird.

Stratton, however, is about whole birds. He butterflies a deboned turkey to create a 45 centimetre surface area that can accommodate a free-range duck and a chicken, then the whole lot is rolled and secured with twine.

He and four other experienced butchers will form an assembly line and can turn out a fully trussed turducken in about two minutes.

"You can't have the apprentice on this one," he laughs.

Coles and Aldi have inverted the turducken, presumably to reduce its heft, creating what might be called a "chuckey": a whole chicken stuffed with duck and turkey.

Then there's the stuffing debate. Stratton uses three different stuffings between the layers to enhance each bird's natural flavour. Nguyen of John Cester's sticks to one stuffing throughout to prevent competing flavours. Coles offers an assertive mix of Davidson plum, five spice and pistachio.

"The flavours are unexpected but complement the protein perfectly," says Coles development chef Michael Weldon.

Rosen leans into his love of American barbecue, using a layer of sausage stuffing to add moisture to the breast meat, plus the traditional cornbread and cranberry.

Whatever way you feel about it, the turducken is undeniably a conversation starter. If your Christmas table needs an icebreaker this year, you could do worse than a trifecta of meat.

How to turducken

• Look for one that's been assembled fresh, not pre-prepared and frozen.
• Buy free-range if you can afford to – the birds taste significantly better.
• Many butchers offer gluten-free stuffing or other allergy-friendly stuffing. Just ask.
• Turducken can be cooked at temperatures ranging from 105C to 180C. Cover with foil for most of the cooking time for a more even result.
• Cooking time will depend on weight, but most recipes suggest 40-60 minutes per kilo. Consult the cooking instructions provided with your turducken.
• A whole bird turducken will take longer to cook than one made with smaller cuts.
• Adding a small layer of chicken stock to the roasting pan will create steam and stop the poultry drying out.
• For a glossy finish, follow Adam Stratton's lead. Heat equal amounts of maple syrup and butter in a small saucepan until sticky, then baste the roast with this glaze every 10 minutes for the final 30 minutes.
• Sturdy spatulas can be helpful when transferring the turducken.
• When carving, don't cut the turducken too thinly or the slices will fall apart.
• Serve with roasted vegetables or, to keep things lighter, grain salads with lots of texture and herbs.