What is a Turducken?

A deep dive into the niche Thanksgiving dish that John Madden helped turn into a household name.

John Madden turned the Turducken into a well-known Thanksgiving dish. / JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images.

Thanksgiving Day football is upon us.

Every year, the NFL plays three back-to-back-to-back games on the country’s most gluttonous holiday, making the upcoming Thursday slate one of the most anticipated sports traditions on an annual basis.

In 2025, for a third year in a row, the NFL is set to honor the late John Madden—who, much like the sport he played, coached, and called on TV—has become synonymous with Thanksgiving as well as his love for a once-niche holiday dish: the Turducken.

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What is a Turducken, you ask? You’ve come to the right place.

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What is a Turducken? A look at John Madden's legacy and impact on Thanksgiving Day football

The Lions ate turkey on Thanksgiving last year. Perhaps this year they'll be lucky enough to take on a Turducken. / David Reginek-Imagn Images

The Turducken, in its simplest terms, is a dish that consists of a deboned chicken, stuffed into a deboned duck, stuffed into a deboned turkey. The concoction is credited to Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme, who claimed he came up with the idea while working in Wyoming during the 1960s.

Over the course of the last several decades, however, the Turducken has taken on a life of its own.

Alongside legendary play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall for a majority of them, Madden called 20 Thanksgiving Day games from 1982 to 2001, and in the process, turned the Turducken into a well-known dish. Not only did Madden teach the audience how to prep and cut the meal, but he even did so himself—with his bare hands—for the first time in 1996, during a game between the Saints and Rams in New Orleans.

“You got the turkey on the outside, then you stuff the turkey with a duck, then you stuff the duck with a chicken. So it's tur-duck-en.“

Nobody brought Thanksgiving football to life like John Madden ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FgoP2WlcoW

— NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2025

Following each Thanksgiving contest Madden called, he and his broadcast crew would award turkeys, turduckens, and turkey drumsticks to the winning teams.

Since Madden’s passing, the NFL has dubbed its Thanksgiving Day games the “John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration,“ with each game awarding a “Madden Player of the Game.“

This year's Thanksgiving Day games will consist of the Packers vs. Lions at 1:00 p.m. ET, the Cowboys vs. Chiefs at 4:00 p.m. ET, and the Bengals vs. the Ravens at 8:20 p.m. ET.

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