Canada Goose Popper Dip

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Shawn West

Field Staff Writer at Harvesting Nature

I grew up in a family of anglers and hunters, and time spent in the Ontario outdoors with my father, siblings, uncles, cousins, and friends figured large in shaping who I am now. The most valuable lesson of the outdoors that I learned as a youth was that nothing took more importance than respecting the life of the animal that you had just hunted.

Latest posts by Shawn West (see all)

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• Canada Goose Popper Dip - October 22, 2021

It is confession time.

I do not like “poppers”. Not one bit. You know the drill: cream cheese and a chunk of wild game stuffed into a hollowed-out jalapeno, wrapped in bacon, speared with a toothpick and slapped on the grill. I’ve had them with duck, goose, wild turkey, and even with venison. They are universally not my thing. Dove hunters everywhere have now closed their browser window in disgust.

Now, I am not a picky eater. Ask any of the numerous people I’ve hunted and/or dined with over the years and they’ll confirm that I’ll try almost anything and what I do eat is usually scarfed down in the blink of an eye (there is a lot psychologically to unpack there too, but that’s another time and topic). I have rarely met an appetizer that I did not acclaim. So why the hate for poppers?

I’ve thought about it, and for me, they just don’t do anything well. The bacon? Rubbery and underdone. The cream cheese? Smeared and running everywhere. The wild game? Usually the only passable part, but if you want crisp bacon, you are often going to have overcooked game meat. The jalapenos? Soggy, limp, and neutered of heat by pulling all the seeds and veins out of them. Smoking poppers is the only palatable way to eat these and even then, most of the same issues apply, but at least there’s some smoke flavour, which I am admittedly a sucker for. But still, poppers are a camp staple so how could I make this and still have it get plowed away by a cabin full of hungry goose hunters?

Inspired by a recent appearance on the Harvesting Nature podcast, I decided to make every component the best version of itself and then reassemble it as a dip.

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Worried that the goose would get overcooked, I decided to cure it into pastrami and then chop it. I exclusively use this pastrami recipe but other recipes for goose or duck pastrami are available Raw chopped jalapenos would be stirred into the mix, seeds and all, for a true spicy kick. Chopped, crispy bacon could then be sprinkled like delicious crunchy pork confetti over the top, and all this would be carried on a thick, rich base of herbed cream cheese and sour cream, with some stringy melted cheese on top.

The result? A 12” x 9” casserole filled to the brim with this bubbly wonderful mess was demolished by a dozen hungry (and perhaps thirsty) waterfowlers in under 10 minutes. So I’d say that puts our goose camp’s reliance on poppers to rest. This is a great, rich appetizer in the vein of all the best pub food, but it would go equally well at a potluck dinner with some friends that need to be introduced to wild game, or as a wild game addition to your Super Bowl party spread. Enjoy it with friends and cold beer.

Canada Goose Popper Dip

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Recipe by Shawn West Course: Wild Recipes

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• 2 Canada goose breasts, cured as pastrami, OR, 1.5lbs of ground goose breast, browned in vegetable oil.

• 700g of pre-mixed herb and garlic cream cheese

• Six whole jalapenos, chopped

• 250ml of full fat (14-18% MF) sour cream

• 150g of pre-shredded nacho-cheese blend

• 500g of reduced salt bacon, chopped

• Crackers, baguette slices, or tortilla chips (of your preference)

Preparation

• Chop the goose breast pastrami into small pieces and set aside. If using ground goose breast in place of goose pastrami, brown the goose meat over medium-high heat with a teaspoon of vegetable oil and set aside.
• Chop the jalapenos finely and set aside. If you are sensitive to heat, you can remove the seeds and white veins, but we kept them intact for our version.
• In a glass or plastic bowl, combine the herb & garlic cream cheese with the sour cream and stir together until smooth and uniform.
• Once the cream cheese/sour cream mixture is smooth, combine it with the goose meat and jalapenos and mix thoroughly. Place in the bottom of a glass casserole dish and smooth to one layer.
• Sprinkle the nacho cheese mixture over the top of the goose/jalapeno/cream cheese layer and set aside.
• In a pan, cook the chopped bacon over medium heat until it is crispy. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towel to cool and drain some of the residual bacon grease. Set this aside.
• Pre-heat your oven’s broiler to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and once ready, place the casserole under the broiler until the cheese melts and the dip is bubbling at the edges of the casserole.
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle the bacon evenly over top. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
• Allow this to stand for 5 minutes to set up slightly, and then serve with tortillas, sliced baguettes, or crackers for dipping.

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