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Best Ways to Tenderize Game Birds

Upland birds and waterfowl can be tough meat. Here's how to tenderize game birds to take your cooking to the next level.

Best Ways to Tenderize Game Birds
Brining a whole pheasant helps to make the bird tender. (Photos courtesy of Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)

As nuanced as the birds themselves, the number of ways to cook game birds can be just as variable. Species, age, diet, and lifestyle all play a part in the meat’s flavor and texture, and as hunters and cooks, we should be aware of this knowledge to do our quarry justice at the dinner table.

Seasonings and marinades can help complement the flavor of different game birds, whether upland or waterfowl, dark or light meat, but what of texture? One of the most common complaints about game birds is that they can be tough to eat. Here are a few tips on how to help tenderize them.

Wet Aging

meat packaged in a vacuum sealed bag
Vacuum seal wild game and set in the refrigerator for 3-10 days to wet age. (Photos courtesy of Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)

While dry aging is preferable when you have whole birds with feathers intact, wet aging is the better tactic if you come home with meat already quartered or breasted out—a common situation if you had to travel to hunt or were limited on cooler space. That is, you wouldn’t dry age bare pheasant breasts because you’d lose too much meat from the outside becoming dry and rubbery.

To wet age, package meat in a vacuum-sealed bag and then place it in the refrigerator for 3 to 10 days to age. During this time, enzymes go to work to help break down muscle and connective tissue, which results in tenderer meat. Cook it afterward or store in the freezer for a future meal. I find this method works well with white-meat game birds, such as pheasant breasts, turkey breasts, quail, and some species of grouse.


Wet aging can help tenderize darker-meat birds, too, but be aware that stronger tasting birds might taste stronger with longer aging time. I usually go no more than 3 days with waterfowl.

Marinade

Game birds are good candidates for marinating because they’re thin enough for this surface treatment to have considerable impact. Commonly used acids, such as vinegar, wine, citrus, and yogurt help break down muscles and connective tissue, while salt can make a marinade mimic a brine, infusing not only flavor but also moisture. Finally, the addition of fat, usually oil, helps herbs and spices adhere to the surface of meat. Four hours of marinating is the sweet spot for me. Pheasant and goose kebabs are my favorites for the grill.

Check out some marinade ideas in my story “Why You Should Marinate Upland Game Birds.

Jamaican Jerk Quail Recipe


jerk quail cooked on the grill
Whole quail marinated with jerk spices and grilled. (Photos courtesy of Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)

Pounding, Cubing, and Grinding

Pounding tough cuts of meat with a meat mallet or using a meat cuber or tenderizer tool will help improve tough-to-chew meat considerably. For game birds, the rough side of a meat mallet is enough to transform a tough piece of pheasant breast; place meat between two sheets of plastic wrap before pounding.

Pounded and cubed meat are best for coating and frying or eaten inside a sandwich. German schnitzel, chicken-fried pheasant, and Japanese katsu come to mind. Game bird breasts also can be pounded thinly to stuff with a filling and rolled for a more elegant main dish.

Grinding is always an option, especially when it comes to game bird legs. Sometimes, no matter what you do, those pheasant, turkey, or goose legs are still going to be tough. And it might be mid-summer and 100 degrees outside, and you don’t feel like turning on your oven to make stew or watching a stock pot for hours. Ground meat is a versatile option—guaranteed to be tender. Wild turkey burgers, Middle Eastern-style ground meat kebabs, and meatballs are tasty ways to utilize extra tough cuts of meat.

Goose Kofta Kebabs Pita Sandwich Recipe

goose skewers on the grill
Ground snow goose was mixed with ground pork and Middle Eastern seasonings. The meat mixture was formed onto skewers and grilled. (Photos courtesy of Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)

Brining Game Birds

Brining is an easy way to enhance the juiciness, flavor, and texture of game birds, while also safeguarding the meat from drying out in the pan, oven, or grill. This saltwater solution helps to break down and denature muscle fibers, therefore tenderizing it and allowing the water in the brine to be absorbed. Brining works well with breasts and whole birds.

My go-to brine recipe is 4 cups water, ¼ cup kosher salt, and ¼ cup brown sugar—multiply as needed. When brining pheasant, duck, or similar size breasts, a couple hours of brining will do—increase brining time with size. I might brine a whole pheasant 4-8 hours, depending on the age and toughness of the bird. A pen-raised bird will be fine after 4 hours whereas an older, wild rooster will need more time. Make sure the meat is fully submerged in the brine, and if not, flip the meat occasionally.

One pitfall of brining meat is that the skin gets soggy, inhibiting the Maillard reaction when you cook it. So, to combat this, I place the meat skin side up, if any, on a plate overnight in the refrigerator uncovered. This dries out the surface enough to help you achieve browning when cooking.

Roasted Pheasant with Tarragon Cream Sauce Recipe

Slow Cooking

Stewing, braising, and making soup is one sure-fire way to tenderize tough game meat. With enough moisture, time, and consistent low heat, even the chewiest piece of meat will become edible. With game birds, slow cooking is my go-to method for cooking tough legs and thighs and sometimes, the breasts. Goose, pheasant, and turkey legs make wonderful stew or pulled meat for sandwiches and tacos.

For stewing or braising meat in the oven, 325° Fahrenheit is the magic number. Use a Dutch or French oven with a tight-fitting lid and make sure you have enough liquid to keep things moist. When braising larger cuts of meat, flip the meat occasionally to make sure all of the meat gets equal exposure to the braising liquid.

Pheasant legs might take 1.5-2 hours to soften, goose legs might take 3 hours, and the legs of an old tom turkey might take 4-plus hours to become edible. Each individual will be different, so check the meat occasionally and be patient. If it’s still tough, keep going and add more water or stock as needed. That meat will eventually give.

Wild Turkey Leg Chipotle Fried Tacos Recipe

shredded turkey meat topped with chives
After slow cooking, wild turkey legs are shredded and seasoned to make taco filling. (Photos courtesy of Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)
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