Family friendly grouse recipe

I was fortunate enough to get some grouse this weekend and cleaned them leaving them on the breast bone. I have typically breasted them, lightly battered and pan fried, then served with some rice.

I am wondering if anyone has a great recipe that my kids would also enjoy? Any one willing to give up their favorite recipe?

Grouse McNuggets – battered and fried, serve with their favorite dipping sauces. We have done it with grouse, pheasant and duck over the years. Now that the kids are adults they are on board with other recipes but they never turned their noses up at the nuggets.

Grouse wild rice soup is good even though it doesn’t show off the grouse all that well, otherwise you can tenderize/pound them flat and then slice, bread and fry “chicken” strips. You can obviously just slice and fry as well, but that takes a little more time in the fryer. Another go to for us is marinating in teriyaki, pan fry/rest/slice the grouse, add stir fry veggies, and add grouse back in with teriyaki sauce and serve over rice.

My wife made a slow cooker wild rice grouse / woodcock meal this last weekend. I’ll get it and post it. Yummo!

Grouse Parmesan

-6-8 grouse breast halves
-Favorite red sauce (I use homemade)
-Italian bread crumbs
-shredded Parmesan cheese
-spaghetti noodles

*breast out grouse, trim, rinse in cold water, poke holes in meat with fork, soak in water/lemon juice/Lemmon pepper seasoning mix for 12-24 hours

• rinse grouse in cold water after soaking
• Roll and coat grouse thoroughly in bread crumbs
• Preheat oven to 350
• Place grouse on greased cooking sheet
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until grouse is cooked through but still tender and juicy
• Heat up red sauce
• Boil 1 box of spaghetti noodles

⁃ Place serving of noodles on plate.
⁃ Cover noodles with red sauce
⁃ Place baked grouse on top of noodles/sauce
⁃ Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top and ENJOY!

this is our go to for kids and adults
Breasted Grouse
kentucy kernal coating
burritio shells
peppercorn ranch dressing
cheese
lettuce
batter and fry grouse put on burrito shells and dress with what you like.

Best ive found is to lie about hunting, sit in bar all day, buy a couple small chickens and cook how everyone likes. JK ive never shot a grouse but all the recipes sound delicious especially the wild rice one.

Thanks all! Grouse Parm might get the nod here. I’ll have to get a few more and try the stir fry as well. And, dang… the wild rice stuff sounds great, too!

Brown some breasts in butter for a short time then place in a slow cooker with a can of golden mushroom soup and a can of water. Cook on low until the meat shows no red juice when poked with a fork. Serve over rice or along side of some raw fries.

9×13 with cooked wild rice in bottom.
grouse breast on top of rice.
cream of mushroom soup over the top.
350 in oven 1 to 1.5 hrs.

Lots of mushroom recipes….. Yuck! Might have to substitute for cream of chicken soups!

mark-bruzek wrote:

9×13 with cooked wild rice in bottom.
grouse breast on top of rice.
cream of mushroom soup over the top.
350 in oven 1 to 1.5 hrs.

I do this almost the same. I use sliced potatoes instead of rice and cream of chicken soup. A touch of water under the potatoes to help soften them. Its amazing

beardly wrote:

Lots of mushroom recipes….. Yuck! Might have to substitute for cream of chicken soups!

I agree.
I use cream of chicken or broccoli in place of cream of mushroom all the time

I made this recently and it was pretty good:

2 complete grouse breast, deboned
1 c all purpose flour
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp basil, dried
1 tsp thyme, dried
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp parsley flakes
2 eggs
1 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp butter for frying

– Using a large zip lock bag mix flour add all the dry ingredients, zip up bag and shake to mix.
– Mix egg and milk in a bowl large enough to dip grouse breast. Dip breast in egg mixture.
– Put pieces into bag and shake to coat.
– Melt some of the butter in frying pan, transfer breasts to pan and cook on med-low until golden brown on both sides approx. 25-30 min.

I did the grouse parmesan. The wife and kids really enjoyed it.
I did it a little different than duluth1an (mainly the brine ingredients) but followed some of the same steps. I used bread crumbs and panko and fried it really quick before finishing it off in the oven. Great stuff!

We also did some fried strips and the kids enjoyed that too. Next up I want to try the stir fry idea! Need to get a few more birds. Thanks all!

I dont shoot enough to eat them any other way than plain. They have such a delicate wild flavor I wont cover that by using them in recipes that are for common chicken.
I may dry bread lightly with one of my favorite fish breadings, but that’s it. Usually just flour or Drakes. The one thing I do for sure is to concentrate on not overcooking them. I use a thermometer and make sure they DO NOT OVERCOOK. I’m definitely more lenient with pheasant and mostly just cut them up and deep fry with breading. As long as you dont overcook game birds they are juicy and tender. Once you go past that it goes down hill fast.

Last night I cooked two young birds shot over the weekend. Pan fry. The most tender bird of any kind I can think of. Cut with fork and chew with tongue practically. Less meat (but more tender) than mature birds and you dont get that great photo op tail but wow.

I love the continuation of this thread. Hope to be eating my favorite game bird soon along with timber doodles opening up this Saturday. I love grouse fresh never frozen and I’m a plain grouse guy myself. But they are delicious in any form stated with cream of mushroom or chicken and with a bed of wild rice. Never thought of potatoes!
More recipes please!

We did grouse tacos with really light seasoning as to not mask the delicious flavor of the bird. Also did a few nugget style. Still think the grouse parm is the family favorite.

Any new recipes out there?

A friend of mine cooked this for us at grouse camp last week and it might be my new favorite grouse meal.

Grouse/Pheasant Meal

Breast out game bird
(Poke holes in breasts and marinade in Italian dressing for 24 hours in fridge)

In 9×13 pan, spray bottom with cooking oil first. Lay breasts in bottom of pan.
-cover with slices of Swiss cheese
-in a bowl, mix 1 – 15oz can of wild rice (already cooked, Canoe brand) and 2 cans of your choice of creamed soup (mushroom, broccoli, celery, etc).
-pour on top of cheese, spread evenly
-cover with package of stuffing (not prepared)
-pour 1 cup of melted butter over stuffing evenly
-bake @ 350 for 1 hour.

-add spices to your liking