Smoked Canada Goose
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Recipe contributed by Managing Editor K. Slye.
I’ve only been waterfowl hunting once in my life, and that was long before I was interested in how to cook the wild game. Back in high school I went goose hunting with a friend and his dad, Doc. Doc owns a few hundred acres of farmland in western Pennsylvania and manages it to be prime wildlife habitat for deer, pheasants, and geese. We had success and a lot of fun, getting close to our limit of birds on my first and only goose hunt. It was a long time ago and I can’t remember how we cooked those birds up. Since then I have not gone waterfowl hunting or had the chance to eat goose.
Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of good looking food made from geese while scrolling through my Instagram feed. I even noticed one of my old hunting buddies, Casey, having some success while goose hunting. So, I asked Casey if he could spare a few goose breasts for me and he was more than happy to share his harvest. I stopped by his house one evening and he was generous enough to fill a grocery bag of breasts for me, giving me the ability to try a couple different recipes.
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For my first recipe with the goose I decided to smoke them on my new Kamado Joe grill. I thawed out a package of the breasts and when I pulled it from the vacuum sealed package it had a very distinct smell. Not a rancid meat smell, but something I wasn’t used to when dealing with venison. I wasn’t sure if this was how they usually smell or if somehow the meat had gone bad. I decided to go ahead with the recipe anyway.
I’m going to be honest, when I sliced that first piece off I was very hesitant when taking a bite. But it didn’t take long before I was licking my plate clean and going in for more. Coming right off the smoker, I sliced it thin and ate it like steak. The leftovers I put on a sandwich with avocado, grilled peppers, lettuce, and my Assault sauce.
Listen to the Recipe:
Brine:
2 goose breasts
- 1/2 gal water
- 1/2 cup Kosher salt
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp mustard powder
- 1 tbsp whole peppercorns
- And some green onions.
- Assault and Pepper from tacticalories.com
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Combine water, salt, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, muster powder, and peppercorns in a non-reactive dish
- Rinse breast meat and place in brine, allow it to sit in brine in the refrigerator overnight.
- Remove meat from brine, discard brine. Wash and pat the meat dry.
- Apply EVOO and Seasoning.
- Smoke them at 225-235°F for approximately 4 hours until they hit an internal temperature of 150-155°F.
- Allow meat to rest, then slice thin and enjoy
Assault Sauce
- Melted butter
- Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Assault and Pepper Seasoning from tacticalories.com
- Melt a spoonful of butter in the microwave
- Mix with 2-3 spoonfuls of mayonnaise
- Mix in an equal part of ketchup
- Mix in seasoning to taste, about half a spoonful.
I don’t use exact amounts each time I just go by taste.

Tacticalories creates small-batch, craft seasonings, ground only a few days before arriving at your door. So you know what you are getting are the freshest, highest quality ingredients that your wild game deserves. Tacticalories offers a full line of seasonings that work with any type of wild game or fish, from antelope to whitetail, arctic char to yellow perch, and everything in between.
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