Not just for the birds

Category: Recipes

  • Chukar Curry

    Chukar Curry

    According to our blog stats, we get hundreds of hits and searches for chukar and upland bird recipes every month. I have no excuse, but we haven’t posted a new recipe on here for a while; it’s been about five years to be exact. Thanks to Peat, Angus, Bob, and on good days when I can actually hit them, we’ve got a nice supply of chukar, huns, and grouse in our freezer to last quite some time for us and to also share in recipes for visiting friends and family.

    Grouse and chukar

    This chukar curry recipe was a hit with Bob’s students during his introduction to upland bird hunting class recently; some of the kids from our rural Idaho town had never tasted Indian food, or chukar for that matter, and became immediate fans of both. Two other teachers sampled the curry and immediately wanted the recipe. It must be a winner! The ingredients are pretty easy to find, plus it’s super easy to make. It is my new favorite go-to upland bird recipe.

    Chukar Curry

    serves 4-6

    8 chukar breast halves (from four birds) cut into 1-inch pieces*

    1 cup plain Greek yogurt

    4 garlic cloves, minced, divided

    2-inch piece ginger, grated, divided

    2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste

    3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

    1 large yellow onion, minced

    1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

    1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes*

    1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric

    1 teaspoon garam masala*

    1 tablespoon ground coriander

    1 teaspoon cayenne powder

    ½ cup water

    Fresh cilantro for garnish. Optional but recommended.

    Combine chukar breast with yogurt, half of the garlic, ginger, and salt in a bowl and set aside to marinade. You can use it right away, in an hour, or up to a day refrigerated.

    In a large heavy pan with lid, heat oil. Once hot, add onions and cook 5-10 minutes, until browned at edges. Add cumin, remaining ginger and garlic and cook one to two minutes more. Add remaining salt, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, and cayenne, and cook for two minutes.

    Add canned tomatoes, chukar and yogurt marinade from bowl, plus water, stir to combine, and bring to simmer, stirring. Simmer 30 minutes over low heat, covered, stirring once or twice to ensure everything is cooked evenly.

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    Serve over basmati or jasmine rice and a side of plain or garlic Naan.*

    * I’ve made this recipe using a mix of Huns, dusky grouse, and ruffed grouse cut into pieces instead of chukar. Adjust amount of bird meat to suit your taste.

    *If you use a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, use half of the can and freeze the remainder in a freezer container to use when making the recipe again.

    *Garam Masala is an Indian spice.

    Adjust all the other spices to your taste; I’d call this recipe mild or “Cambridge Hot.” Add more cayenne if you want it “Bombay Hot.”

    *Naan is a flatbread that can be found in most grocery stores in the bread aisle or near the deli. Follow the directions on the package. If you can’t find Naan, white Pita bread can be used instead. Warm the pita bread in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes, remove from oven and brush with olive oil before serving.

    Enjoy!

    Chukar curry served over basmati rice and sprinkled with cilantro

  • What do you do with your birds?

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    Aged birds ready to go

    For the past five years, at the suggestion of a biologist friend of mine who’s been bird hunting since the days of the Ottoman Empire, I’ve been aging my birds in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. I put them in my bag during the hunt, stick them in the garage fridge when I get home, and don’t do anything at all to them until I clean them after they’ve aged. I don’t gut them. And, I’m ashamed to admit, I usually just breast them when I finally set out to clean them. I have two reasons for this: one, I’m lazy, and two, my wife won’t eat the birds if they’re on the bone; since she doesn’t eat red meat and can’t share deer and elk with me, I want her to at least get the game birds into her system. I suppose I could save the legs for my own personal use, but often they’re the  most shot up part of the birds I hit. In any case, I do have a pang of guilt disposing of the legs. I don’t plan on remarrying, so I’ll deal with the guilt unless someone has a brilliant idea to help me out here.

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    Irony: a store-bought chicken breast thaws next to truly organic grouse, chukar, Huns, and quail

    After I’ve breasted the birds, I put the meat in a colander and rinse them off, getting as much of the embedded feathers from shot, and the shot of course, as well as the bloody parts out of the meat. When cleaning them after they’ve aged, I can tell a big difference between the birds I used to clean immediately: the aged birds’ meat is extremely tender, as it should be. After rinsing, I lay the breasts out on paper towels, pat them dry, and then package them with a vacuum sealer.

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    Birds, and a yeast starter for an IPA

    I forgot to mention that I almost need an IPA when cleaning birds. Check out my Recipes page for some of the ways we cook these delicious things.

    What do you do with your birds?

  • Chukar Al Roker

    Remember this guy?
    Remember this guy?

    Last week while searching for a recipe, I found an old crinkled recipe clipped years ago from a magazine.  The original recipe, courtesy of Al Roker, uses chicken  coated with a  pecan-cornmeal crust and then oven-fried.  Recently, we’ve thought about the strangeness of chukar hunting. Al Roker and chukar in the same sentence, now that’s strange, unless he’s an upland bird hunter.  We made his recipe last night for the first time using chukar and it ended up delicious. It’s now one of our favorite chukar recipes.

    Oven-Fried Chukar with Pecan-Cornmeal Crust

    6 chukar breast cutlets
    2  eggs
    1/4 cup milk
    1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
    1/3 cup cornmeal
    1/3 cup all-purpose flour
    1 tsp. salt
    1tsp. onion powder
    1 tsp. cayenne pepper
    1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
    2 tbsp.  butter, cut into small pieces

    Position a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 425F. Using heavy duty aluminum foil, line a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with sides at least 1 inch high. Spray the foil with non-stick cooking oil. Rinse the chukar under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels.

    In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. In another shallow bowl, stir together the pecans, cornmeal, flour, salt, onion powder, cayenne and pepper.

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    Pecan cornmeal and egg batter oven-fried chukar

    Dip the chukar pieces into the egg mixture, and then dredge them in the pecan-cornmeal mixture. Place the chukar in the prepared baking dish.

    Dot the chukar with the butter and bake about 10-15 minutes. Turn the breast over and bake another 10 minutes until golden brown.

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    Oven-fried chukar hot out of the oven

    Chukar breasts are small so be careful not to overcook. Adjust baking time as needed. Just as in fried chicken, oven-baked chukar can be served hot, at room temperature, or cold. We like to serve ours hot with brussels sprouts and creamy garlic mashed potatoes.

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    Thank you, Angus

     

     

  • Chukar Marsala with Capers and Sautéed Spinach

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    Chukar Marsala with sauteed spinach

    This is our upland game bird recipe modification of the classic Italian dish.

    16 fresh sage leaves
    8 large, thin slices prosciutto
    8 chukar breast halves (4 whole breasts)
    4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    4 tablespoons butter
    ¾ cup sweet Marsala wine
    2 tablespoons capers in brine
    1 tablespoon parsley

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 2 sage leaves in the center of each piece of prosciutto, then wrap each chukar breast half in the prosciutto, making a little breast roll. Put the flour on a plate or shallow bowl and season with the pepper. Dredge the breast rolls in the flour. Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet. Once the butter is foaming, add 4 of the breast rolls, seam side down, to the skillet. Sear over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Because chukar breasts have much less fat than chicken, it’s important not to overcook them. Transfer the seared breast rolls to an ungreased baking dish. Add another tablespoon of the butter to the pan and sear the remaining breast rolls. Transfer to the baking dish and cook in the 350-degree oven for 8 minutes.

    Reduce pan heat to medium-low and add the Marsala. Stir constantly, scraping up the browned bits. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the capers and parsley. Stir in the remaining butter until melted. Spoon the sauce over the chukar rolls. Serve on a bed of sautéed spinach. Recommended side dishes are creamy mashed potatoes or brown rice.

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    A plate cleaning treat for job well done.

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  • Hungarian Partridge Angus

    Angus and the wee Hungarian Partridges

    I must admit that after yesterday’s opening day take of two Lilliputian-sized Hungarian partridges I wasn’t all that excited. When we got home I put them in the fridge without even really looking them over, much less cleaning them. I usually hang my birds for a while, but it’s not really cool enough to do that yet. So this afternoon I thought I’d better do them now or I’d risk doing the unforgivable: tossing them several weeks from now… Never again.

    They were a little shot up, with some intestine goo on the thighs, but I cleaned them up okay. They were about the size of a decent cock quail. I let them air dry and put them in a Ziplock and into the fridge again, thinking maybe in a few days I’d do something with them. I checked my thawing tamales around dinner time, and they were still frozen. So I grabbed the bag o’Wee Huns and entered the pantry in search of something. I didn’t know what. Then I saw the soy sauce. And the rice wine vinegar. And the brown sugar. Within twenty minutes I was tasting the best bird – of any kind – that I have ever eaten. Here’s what I did, and I name the recipe after dear ol’ Angus (I realize, for those of you with a penchant for bathroom humor, that this could be mis-read in interesting ways; get your minds out of the gutter):

    The best bird I’ve eaten. Period.

    Hungarian Partridge Angus

    Ingredients:

    • Fresh Hungarian partridges (or chukar or quail), cleaned and separated by breast and legs
    • 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
    • 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
    • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
    • 1 Teaspoon sea salt
    • Olive oil
    • 1 clove garlic per bird, sliced; 2 per bird if decent sized
    • Fresh ground pepper

    Put the bird parts in a ziplock or covered container. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, olive oil, brown sugar, and salt, and mix everything together like your life depended on it. Do it the Zen way. Feel the molecules greeting one another with gusto. No, seriously. Do it. It will make a difference. I only had these birds in this marinade for a few minutes, and it was plenty. You can experiment with more time if you like (let me know how it goes)…

    In a large skillet, heat adequate olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the skillet) on high and add the garlic and ground pepper once it’s hot. Brown the garlic a little, and then add the birds with all the marinade. Reduce heat to medium and tend the birds, turning as needed. Do this Zen, too, and you won’t regret it. Test the breasts when you think they might be done. My birds took about 7 minutes to cook through, and the sauce was reduced to a nice syrupy consistency. Serve with sauce from the pan, or pour over rice, couscous, taters, or whatever you like (dipping sauce for bread?). Enjoy.