Although my Brittany “Molly” was retired as of the '07 upland bird season, she provided hundreds of stellar, rock-solid points over her nine years in the field. Many of those points involved relatives of this little guy:
and his cousin, this guy:
While many upland bird hunters don’t like “dark” flesh such as that of the Sharptail and the Prairie Chicken, above, and thus limit their time in the field to Pheasant or other “white” fleshed birds such as Ruffed Grouse, the dark flesh can be spectacularly good if cooked properly - and NOT over cooked. My favorite “dark” flesh recipe for grouse:
Sharptail recipe from NEBRASKAland Magazine Cookbook:
1 grouse breast (2 fillets)
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 TBL butter
1 TBL olive oil
3 shallots, sliced very thin
6 or 8 juniper berries, crushed
freshly ground black pepper
dash paprika
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup game bird stock (or chicken broth)
flour (for dredging grouse breasts)
fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Dredge grouse breasts lightly in flour seasoned with pepper, paprika and half the crushed juniper berries.
In a medium skillet, heat 2 TBL butter and 1 TBL of olive oil. Sauté the garlic until it is tender but not brown. Remove and set aside the garlic for later.
Add butter if necessary and sauté the dredged grouse breats until very rare at the center. Remove and let sit on cutting board. They will continue to cook, so be sure to remove them when they are pinker in the center than you want them to be when served (should be medium to medium rare when served).
In the same skillet, now sauté the shallots until they are translucent. Raise the heat to high and begin adding wine, a little at a time, scraping up the brown particles from the skillet. Add the stock, the remaining juniper berries, and the reserved garlic, and then boil to reduce the liquid to about half its volume. Add any juice that has bled from the meat. Thicken the sauce with a very small amount of the flour and stir in 1 TBL of butter.
To serve the breast, I like to then slice them into strips (similar to fajitas), pour the sauce over the strips, and then garnish with the chopped cilantro leaves. Serve on pasta or a bed of rice (I prefer the rice).
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