Snow Goose BBQ Confit

Snow geese get a bad wrap when it comes to table fair. Last year a friend told me he thought it was because familiarity breeds contempt. He was referring to the peculiarity of snow goose hunting in that when its good its really good. During the early part of the spring conservation hunt its not uncommon for a group of hunters to transform a hundred or more snows from aerial acrobats to permanent terrestrial residents. More than once I’ve piled high the bed of my truck with birds that other waterfowler’s didn’t want. I’m not complaining. I’m more than happy to fill a freezer with a running ton of goose meat, but there is something exceedingly shameful about folks that participate in only the preliminary parts of the hunting experience. I’ve probably eaten a couple hundred snow geese over the last decade or so and I’m here to tell you they do in fact taste good. I’d argue that most folks couldn’t tell the difference between a skinned out mallard breast and that of a snow when it came down to taste. Yes, there is variance depending on what the birds are eating, but here in Arkansas every single one I ever cooked tasted great.

Snows are the only waterfowl species I don’t pluck (I almost exclusively kill dabblers). To my mind snow goose skin can have a bit of an off taste and as the birds I get here in Arkansas rarely, if ever, have much fat I remove the breasts and the leg quarters sans epidermis. The breast can be used for any “steak” you choose, but the legs and thighs respond best to low and slow cooking to become tender and delicious. This recipe uses the method of confit to accomplish that texture and taste, but adds to it the wonderous alchemizer of smoke. The result is a top shelf BBQ sandwich that tastes fantastic and presents snow goose in a way that’s palatable for just about anyone. I completed the entire cooking cycle on my Traegar pellet grill, but the same could be accomplished with your standard charcoal burning apparatus and an oven.

Ingredients

snow goose leg quarters

rendered fat (duck or pork)

favorite dry rub

BBQ sauce

brioche buns

coleslaw

1. Season leg quarters with your favorite dry rub. It’s important that your seasoning contains salt. This isn’t a problem with most store bought blends, but if you make your own remember to include enough of it. Think of it as seasoning to taste on the front end, don’t go too salty and feel free to err under the premise that less is more. Place meat in a large ziplock bag and refrigerate for 24 hrs.

2. Next, remove the leg quarters and place them on a wire rack in your fridge for at least 4 hours. This is when we’ll let the meat develop a slightly tacky surface which will allow the smoke to stick.

3. Now it’s time to introduce some smoke to the process. I did this on a pellet grill, but feel free to use a traditional smoker or even a basic charcoal grill. You’ve got a couple of options here. You can either place the meat on indirect heat and allow the smoke to permeate the leg quarters for a while or you can opt for a quick smokey sear. The indirect heat method will result in a smokier tasting and softer textured finish product. A quick sear over smokey heat will yield a less intense smoke flavor and and a slightly more “toothsome” quality for the meat. If you go this route there is more room for error so watch the meat intently, flip it mid way and be prepared to remove it from the heat quickly. These are small, lean pieces of meat and they will dry out quickly if you let them. I rocked the Traegar at 450 and it only took around 5 minutes total, but truthfully I wish I had pulled them a minute or so earlier. The confit process can add fat to dry meat, but it’ll never really “rehydrate” it. There’s kind of a fine line you’ll need to ride, so pay attention.

4. Once removed from the grill, the leg quarters should be placed into a heavy cast iron pot. I prefer an enameled one, but really any heavy lidded vessel will work, as long as its oven safe. Stack the meat as efficiently as possible so that the vertical height is as shallow as you can get away with. This will save on the amount of fat you have to use. Now, cover the meat with the rendered, liquified fat of your choice. Duck or goose fat is obviouly top shelf for this, but pork lard will work great as well. In the past I’ve even done confits with reserved bacon grease, but you’ve really got to be mindful of your salt if you go that route. Whichever fat you use just make sure that the meat is completely covered. Sometimes weighing the meat down with a glass bowl or plate can help out in this regard. Set your oven or pellet grill at 200 and allow the goose to gently cook, lid on, for around 4-5 hours. Start checking the meat with a fork around the 4 hour mark and once it’s tender to your liking, you’re good to go. I determined my goose was cooked, right around the 5 hour mark.

5. Pull the meat from the pot, allow the fat to drip off and once cool, pull the meat from the bones. At this point that should be an easy job. I opted to run a knife a few times over the meat before tossing it with a tomato and molasses based sauce. Just use enough sauce to coat the meat and allow it to have a bit of structural integrity when mounded up. I piled the sauced meat up on a buttered and toasted brioche bun, topped it with a hearty dose of my jalapeño-cilatro coleslaw and went to town.

   Yes, you could accomplish a bastardized version of this by covering goose meat in Sweet Baby Rays while it takes a ride in a crockpot, but I promise the results will be indiscriminate. With a few easy preparation steps you can turn the legs and thighs of “flying carp” into table fare that will satisfy any respectable BBQ aficianado. Get more use out of your birds and show your smarter than everyone else by saving the gams and filling your belly