Barbecued Doves Recipe - How to BBQ Doves | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

Barbecued Doves Recipe - How to BBQ Doves | Hank Shaw? ›

The technique is stupid easy: Salt your doves as they come out of the fridge, paint once with the barbecue sauce of your choice, then stick them in a covered grill away from direct heat. Cover the grill and shoot for a temperature of about 200°F. Hold this for about an hour to 90 minutes.

Since dove is a red-meat migratory bird, it is best served medium-rare. A proper roast should crisp the skin but never cook the meat inside past medium-rare. I take the time to age and pluck my birds for a few days prior to roasting, too. If you've never aged doves, consider giving it a shot.

If you cook a dove breast until it is medium-rare, and I'm talking no more than 130 to 135 degrees, it doesn't taste the least bit funky.

One dove is a good portion for an appetizer, three to four for a main course. Pigeons are larger, so one pigeon makes a light dinner main course — two is a bit much because the meat is so dense.

Wash whole doves and dove breasts to remove all feathers and bloodshot meat as possible before storage. Vacuum seal or store the meat in a zip-sealed bag and bleed as much air as possible out of the bag before placing in the freezer.

Let your dove breasts soak in milk for two hours to help diminish the gamey taste. After they have soaked, pat them down with a paper towel. Wrap the dove breast in bacon and secure with a toothpick. Sprinkle the breast with garlic powder before putting them on the grill.

Pulling the cut breast apart, pull out its entrails starting with the gizzard. If you wish, you can cut open and clean out the gizzard, so you can eat its meat also. You can also remove what is left of the trachea if you wish; part of it came off with the head.

A dove breast yields about 3 ounces of meat. A whole dressed dove yields a little more. 10. The edible portion of one dove equals 10 large shrimp, one chicken leg, two chicken wings, 2 1/2 wieners, three sausage patties or one bratwurst.

That's right about as much as a whole dove weighs. A mourning dove breast weighs 2 oz., or about half a wiener's worth of meat.

Simple Grilled Doves

For a well-rounded meal, serve with fresh greens or a hearty rice bowl.

How to tell if dove meat is spoiled? ›

The texture and smell seem "off"

If the beef is sticky, slimy, tacky, or smells bad, toss it. "If you leave ground beef in the refrigerator, eventually it will start to spoil after so many days," Magoulas said. "Typically with meats, they'll be sticky, slimy, and have off or foul odors."

The word "squab" probably comes from Scandinavia; the Swedish word skvabb means "loose, fat flesh". The term formerly applied to all dove and pigeon species (such as the wood pigeon, the mourning dove, the extinct-in-the-wild socorro dove, and the now extinct passenger pigeon,) and their meat.

A dove is a very lean, dark-meat bird that most wild game chefs will recommend you cook until medium rare in the 130 to 135 F window, similar to duck or goose.

A dove is a very lean, dark-meat bird that most wild game chefs will recommend you cook until medium rare in the 130 to 135 F window, similar to duck or goose.

Safe Preparation

After freezing, thaw the birds in the refrigerator or microwave. If microwaving, be sure to cook immediately after thawing. Fully cook game birds to an internal temperature of at least 165°F.

More recently, squab meat comes almost entirely from domesticated pigeons. The meat of dove and pigeon gamebirds hunted primarily for sport is rarely called squab.

The good thing for us hunter-eaters is that doves are delicious. And tender. It's also easy to tell when they're done. Doves, being migratory birds, have fairly dark meat with a tiny bit of white meat.