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Mike Keller grins as he pulls the innards out of a boned duck at Keller's Farm Store in preparation for making a "turducken." The seasonal specialty, in which a chicken-stuffed duck is cooked inside a turkey, takes about six hours to prepare and five hours to cook.

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Look! On your Thanksgiving table! It's a turkey! It's a duck! It's a chicken!

No.

It's a turducken!

On a holiday when stuffing things is often taken to new levels, an unusual type of roast has been quietly growing in popularity in the Duke City - one that could even stuff Superman.

It's called turducken. It's a chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey, with layers of stuffing stuffed in between them.

That's a lot of stuff - and it's not a meal for the fainthearted, said Mike Keller, owner of Albuquerque's two Keller's Farm Stores.

"You're looking at 22 pounds of just meat, with dressing on top of it," Keller said. "It's usually a 30-pound item when you're done. It takes a lot of people to eat it."

Prices for a turducken range from about $80 to $150 or more at his stores at 6200 Coors Blvd. N.W. Suite H and 2912 Eubank Blvd. N.E., he added.

Keller's started making "turducken kits" - that's the boned birds nested together without the stuffing - about 15 years ago.

The stuffing - typically three different types such as cornbread, andouille and shrimp - is up to the customer, he said.

When he made his first turducken, the stores only had a few requests a year. But in recent years, the number has grown to about 25 over the holiday season, Keller said, his highly trained hands poking and prodding the bones from the turkey component of one such order last week.

Other local stores receive their share of turducken requests, but Keller's appears to be the only one that makes the "kits" to order, with about two days notice.

Angie Dafoe, manager of Glazed Hams & More at 5850 Eubank Blvd. N.E., said she gets at least a few calls a year from people on turducken quests, but the store doesn't sell them.

"We also had a few requests for just a turkey and a chicken, no duck - but that wouldn't be a turducken, that's a turken," Dafoe said.

Her store is looking into stocking turducken next year because the demand seems to be growing, she said.

"You have to keep up with the times as far as food trends go," Dafoe said.

Tully's Market, at 1425 San Mateo Blvd. N.E., sells all the meats you'd use in a turducken, and some customers have built them on their own - but the store doesn't make them either, said Johnny Camuglia, a co-owner.

"It's the most crazy thing," Camuglia said.

He added that the feast will probably never grace his Thanksgiving table.

"I'm more traditional," Camuglia said. "It sounds interesting, though."

Keller, on the other hand, first served turducken to his family about 10 years ago, and it's been a huge hit, he said.

"I love em," Keller said.

Ben Nelson, owner of Nelson's Meats & Produce at 929 Old Coors Road S.W., likes making turducken for his family, as well, although his store doesn't sell them because the demand - about four calls per season - is too low, he said.

"They're a lot juicier and a different flavor," Nelson said. "If I hear people (in his family) ask about it, I'll go ahead and make one up."

The origin of the turducken is shrouded in Cajun mystery. Many credit New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme with inventing the dish, although others say it was invented by Herbert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, La.

It was made popular nationally by football announcer John Madden, who has served one for many years while covering games on Thanksgiving Day.

Still, stuffing birds into other birds isn't a completely new idea.

Cook's Illustrated's Web site describes all sorts of strange stuffed creations, including a chuckey (a duckling stuffed in a chicken stuffed in a turkey), a gurducken (a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a goose) and a turgoduckmaguikenantidgeonck (turkey, goose, duck, mallard, guineafowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon and woodcock).

Wikipedia, perhaps not the most credible site, traces the bird stuffing record back to a royal feast in France in the 19th century - a 17 bird roast called a bustergophechideckneaealckideverwingailusharkolanine (bustard, turkey, goose, pheasant, chicken, duck, guinea fowl, teal, woodcock, partridge, plover, lapwing, quail, thrush, lark, ortolan and passerine).

Say that three times fast.

The trick to making the turducken is, first, leaving the wings and legs attached to the turkey as you bone it, and second, slicing the birds up the back - not the breast - to fit in the stuffing, Keller said.

"I tried the first time without cutting it and I couldn't make everything fit inside," Keller said, noting the lack of space to shove a stuffed chicken into a duck. "I gave up and filleted it open."

After laying the turkey out, you layer about one-third to one-half inch of stuffing on top of the turkey, put the duck on top of it, layer a similar amount of stuffing on top of the duck and do the same thing with the chicken.

When it's finished, you sew the back up, flip it over and roast it - and it still looks sort of like a turkey, Keller said with a laugh.

And while some may raise an eyebrow at the idea - the finished product makes his family very happy, he said.

"Everybody loves it," Keller said. "They joke about it - but they're all pretty happy when they eat it."