Healthy Hunter – Wild Game Recipes
Stuffed Pheasant Filets
Ground Pheasant, or Pheasant Sausage
Pheasant Soup | Wild Rice
Snow Goose Recipes
Marinated Wild Goose
Snow Goose Kabobs
Smoked Snow Goose Salami
Chinese Style Snow Geese
Becoming An Outdoors-Woman Workshop Appetizer Recipes
Teriyaki Wild Game Sauce
Cheese Stuffed Meatballs
Rolled Schnitzel
Sandra's Grouse Fingers | Honey Mustard Sauce
Field Dressing Tips
FILET PREP – Remove filet from bone, being careful to leave inner "tenderloin" attached. Lightly score silver skin side of filet with a sharp knife to minimize shrinkage. Lay tenderloin open, and make a pocket cut in the thick portion of the fillet opposite the tenderloin.
STUFFING – 1 fresh loaf French bread, cubed or chopped in a food processor, 1 pound of sausage, ¼ to ½ cup chopped onions, ¼ cup chopped celery, 2 cups chicken or pheasant stock. Seasoning can include using seasoned sausage, such as chorizo (Mexican), Cajun, Italian, etc., or you can use traditional stuffing seasoning such as sage and thyme. Brown sausage and sauté vegetables in skillet. Place bread and other ingredients in large bowl and mix stock in thoroughly. The stuffing mixture should be like a stiff cookie dough.
FINAL PREP – Place several tablespoonfuls of stuffing in pocket and cover with tenderloin. Pin tenderloin in place with 2-3 toothpicks and brown filet in small amount of butter or margarine. Place browned filets in uncovered baking dish and bake at 325 degrees to internal temp of 180 degrees, or 1 to 1½ hours.
Remove from baking dish, and make a white gravy using pan drippings, flour and milk.
Serve with gravy.
Options include adding or changing stuffing ingredients, such as sautéed mushrooms, different sausages, or other types of bread, including cornbread.
Ground Pheasant, or Pheasant Sausage
When preparing filets as above, save meat from thighs, back and upper drumstick and freeze in airtight containers. (Should yield 8-10 ounces per bird.) Other parts can be included, such as shot-up breast pieces of pheasant, quail or ruffed grouse.
When you have accumulated a supply of meat, grind with beef fat at about 4-5 parts pheasant with 1 part fat.
For a low-fat, low-cholesterol version of this add 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil in place of fat. This is handy for grinding in small batches in a hand-operated grinder. Bigger batches are best left to a game processor.
This ground meat can be used for patties, meatloaf, hamburger steak, and hamburger gravies. It can also be seasoned to make an excellent breakfast or Italian sausage. Because it is white meat, it will work well for anything that calls for pork sausage.
Pheasant Soup
BASIC STOCK – (Requires about 3 pheasants) After boning the carcass separate leg bones, breast bone, and back from pelvis. (Because the pelvic area is often tainted and contains kidneys it should be discarded.)
Place the bones in a large stockpot with a small amount of cooking oil and ½ cup each coarsely chopped onion, carrots and celery. Brown thoroughly on high heat, until vegetables begin to caramelize and the meat is well-done. (Undercooking will cause cloudy stock from blood cooked out of the meat into the stock.) The dark color of the caramelized vegetables makes a rich, dark stock, about the color of tea.
Add water to cover and simmer until meat can be easily removed from bones. Take bones out of stock and strain stock to remove remaining vegetables and scraps. Season to taste.
Remove meat from bones and reserve for soup.
Complete the soup by cooking noodles, rice, wild rice, barley, vegetables, or potatoes in the stock. Add meat at the last minute to heat through. A small amount of cornstarch dissolved in water can be added to give body to the stock.
A good side dish for pheasants is:
Wild Rice
1 cup wild rice
½ lb mushrooms
½ cup slivered almonds
3 cups chicken broth
4 tbsp. butter or margarine
salt, pepper and garlic to taste
Brown dry ingredients on medium 10-15 minutes. Place all in casserole, cover with foil and the cover. Bake at 325 for 1½ hours.
Can be made in a crock pot. Cooking time about 8 hours on low.
Snow Goose Recipes
Marinated Wild Goose
1 snow goose
crushed red pepper
crushed black pepper
onion salt
lemon pepper
2 tsp. poultry seasoning
½ cup teriyaki sauce
½ cup Italian dressing
½ cup white wine
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 large onions
1 can mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
8 strips bacon
Rub inside of goose with peppers and onion salt.Rub outside with lemon pepper. Combine teriyaki, dressing, wine, Worcestershire and poultry seasoning and pour over goose in a heavy plastic bag.Seal and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning several times.
Remove goose from bag.Place onions and soup in body cavity.Cover breast with bacon. Place in oven baking bag with marinade and chicken broth, seal bag and bake at 325 degrees for two hours.Open top of bag and cook until tender, basting every 10 minutes with marinade.Serve with marinade as sauce.
Snow Goose Kabobs
4 snow goose breasts
½ cup soy sauce
1 tsp monosodium glutamate
1 medium zucchini squash
1 large red pepper
1 large green pepper
4-inch fresh ginger root, peeled/minced
½ cup rice wine
¼ cup fresh lime juice
4 large cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp. black pepper
3 medium, firm tomatoes
Bone breasts and cut lengthwise in ½ inch strips. Cut peppers into 2-inch squares.Slice zucchini one-half inch thick. Quarter tomatoes.Place meat and vegetables in a bowl with seasonings.Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Alternate marinated items on skewers and cook over charcoal until meat is cooked throughout.Simmer marinade 15 minutes and use as sauce.Serve with rice.
Smoked Snow Goose Salami
12 pounds ground snow goose breast
6 tsp. Liquid Smoke
5 tsp. garlic powder
6 tsp. black pepper
3 pounds pork sausage
¾ cup curing salt
6 tsp. whole mustard seed
Mix ingredients and refrigerate overnight in a covered container.Divide into fourths and roll into 8-inch logs in cheesecloth and tie ends.Cook on a wire rack at 225 degrees for four hours. Freeze or refrigerate until used.
Chinese Style Snow Geese
Use any of the popular Chinese vegetable stir fry mixes available at your local grocery store. Four breasts sliced about 3/16 of an inch thick, cut cross ways to the grain of the meat will feed 4 people.Serve with the vegetable mix over minute rice or wild rice. Special instructions are not needed, just substitute the goose and follow the directions on back of the package.
BCWF "Becoming An Outdoors-Woman" Workshop Appetizer Recipes
Teriyaki Wildgame Sauce
- 2 ½ lbs. boneless meat (bear, moose, deer, elk, beef, pork etc.)
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ cup Soya sauce
- 1-2 cloves crushed garlic
- Salt & pepper to taste
Slice meat into thin ⅛" strips and place in casserole dish. Mix all ingredients together and pour over meat and stir. Cover and bake at 350 for 1-2 hours.
Cheese Stuffed Meatballs
- 1 lbs. ground meat (moose, deer, bear, elk, beef, pork etc.)
- ½ cup fine bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 2-3 tbsp. milk
- 1 tsp. season salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
- ¼" cubed cheese (sharp is better)
Mix meat with all ingredients except cheese, shape meat into balls with a small piece of cheese inside. Best if chilled for an hour, but not necessary. Pan fry in oil or deep fry, nice for fondues.
Rolled Schnitzel
- 2 large boneless steaks (moose, deer, elk, pronghorn, caribou, bear, cougar, etc.)
- 1 lb bacon, salami or spicy sausage
Mix: (will curdle a bit)
- ½ cup of margarine melted
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
Mix:
- ½ cup fine bread crumbs
- 1 cup of fine crushed Corn Flakes
- ½ tsp. onion powder
- ½ tsp. parsley
- ½ tsp. paprika
- Salt & pepper
Pound steak until ¼" thickness, cut into 2" wide strips, top with salami or bacon. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Dip in moist ingredients, then coat with dry, place in greased pan and cover. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake 20-30 minutes more.
Sandra's Grouse Fingers
- 3 grouse breasts and legs
- ½ cup flour (approx.)
- Wash, bone and cut grouse into finger length strips; coat each strip in flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp. water
- 1 tbsp. soya sauce
- Pinch of salt, pepper and onion powder
- 1 ½ cup bread crumbs (approx.)
- Vegetable oil for deep frying
- Mix eggs, water, soy sauce, salt, pepper and onion powder together. Dip floured grouse strips into mixture, then coat in fine bread crumbs. Deep fry strips in vegetable oil until golden brown.
Honey Mustard Sauce (for Sandra’s Grouse Fingers)
- ½ cup mayonnaise (mayonnaise not Miracle Whip)
- 2 tbsp. liquid honey
- 1 tsp. mustard
Mix mayonnaise, honey and mustard. Amounts can be varied depending on tastes.
Field Dressing Tip
Dress grouse when first shot by stepping on wings, breast up, wings out, head at the top, take hold of the feet and steadily pull towards you. The grouse will separate, leaving you holding the feet, legs and entrails. On the ground remain the exposed breast, heart and liver attached to the wings. Remove the legs if it’s a fair size grouse, you may get a few finger strips after you remove all the sinew. At least one wing must be left on for identification until you reach home.