Grouse Breast Recipe - Grouse Northwoods | Hank Shaw (2024)

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This is a grouse breast recipe that has come a long way, but it remains my favorite grouse recipe because it celebrates the Northwoods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, where ruffed grouse are king.

Its origins lie in a tough time for me back in 2011. I had been on tour promoting my first book, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast,for more than eight weeks non-stop, and I was exhausted. Tired on a cellular level.

One day I found myself in Minnesota, at the home of my friend Chris, the man who got me into hunting in the first place. Holly had flown in just for the occasion — a grouse hunt in the Minnesota Northwoods. It was the first time I’d seen her in two months.

Under normal circ*mstances, such an adventure would be invigorating. Walking in the woods is restorative, especially the grouse woods. I hold ruffed grouse as high as any other game animal when it comes to the table. But it was not to be. Too many troubles, too much left unknown at that stage in the tour. So I let Chris and Holly hunt, and just sat on a pine stump and let the woods wash over me.

It was enough to give me the inspiration for this recipe. I made it first in Chris’ house with some of the staples he had around him, and which we found in the woods on our hunt: Grouse breast, wild rice, wild mushrooms, highbush cranberries.

This is that dish, revised, simplified and, in my opinion, improved.

Eating it evokes the forest. Deep “brown” flavors from the mushrooms and wild rice, punctuated bythe bracing tartness of the cranberries and vinegar-fruit syrup. And the grouse! Those of you who have eaten ruffed grouse know.

There is no flavor like it in the world. Grouse breast looks like chicken, but smells and tastes beguilingly funky — gamy in the best possible way. Grouse is not for weak eaters, but nor is it challenging in the way that, say, stinky French cheeses are.

Even the texture hints at a walk in the woods. Mostly you get the soft “give” of treading on wet leaves, but then there are popping cranberries, chewy wild rice and the surprising crunch of the ground wild rice coating on the grouse; it’s just enough crunch to be interesting without being off-putting.

I urge you to make this recipe with grouse breast if you have them. And if not, use another bird and dream of that someday when you’ll get the real thing.

Use real wild rice, which is not cultivated, if you can get it, but any wild rice will work. Mushrooms and fruit syrup are your choice. As for the fruit syrup, I prefer something that lives in the Northwoods, like gooseberry or highbush cranberry or blueberry. I also use homemade gooseberry vinegar here, but cider vinegar is perfectly fine.

Looking for other grouse recipes? I have a simple roast grouse recipe for starters, as well as shredded grouse salad with barley, and a Nordic grouse soup.