Bacon-Wrapped Wild Goose Breasts

I like to call this recipe “Bacon-Wrapped Honker Cubes”. This is a delicious way of putting wild goose meat on the table.

One of the great things about this recipe is that it works for Canada geese, too.

Since Canada goose isn’t generally considered to be good game meat, it takes a little extra effort to come up with something that people will really enjoy.

This recipe is easily in my top 3 ways to cook a wild goose, and I frequently do this with Canada geese. If you can make a Canada taste good, you know it’s a good recipe. The best part is that it’s ridiculously simple.

Before getting too far along, I just want to mention that it’s generally not a good idea to put honker meat right on the cooker without doing some prep first.

If you take some simple steps before cooking wild goose, you can get rid of a lot of the extra gamey tastes and make the meat much less tough. If you haven’t already, definitely read through my guide on how to prepare wild goose meat for cooking.

Now, to the recipe!

To make this, you only need a handful of things:

• Goose breasts
• Bacon
• Skewers
• Jalapeños
• Cream cheese

Preparation is really easy. It’s pretty much how you would make any shish kebab, but just more “packaged” for the perfect bite. The cream cheese is the secret ingredient that’s missing from everyone else’s bacon goose.

Here’s how to do it:

Start things off by soaking the skewers in water. This will help prevent them from catching fire and burning away on the grill.

Trim off any thin areas of the goose breast. Usually, the base of the breast tapers out into a really thin section.

Thin pieces won’t cook as evenly as the other pieces, so I either recycle them into other meals or just cook them off to the side so I don’t accidentally serve anyone something that tastes more like jerky. Goose is pretty unforgiving when it comes to cooking.

Chop the breasts into 1″ cubes. That’ll be roughly the thickness of your thumb, for the sake of reference.

Slice the jalapeños into squares about 1/4″ across. This is really subject to your preferences, though.

At 1/4″, these bites are pretty punchy. Some people that want less heat finely grate the peppers, then sprinkle a small amount directly on to the goose meat.

Wrap half a strip of bacon around the goose and pepper, then skewer it.

Let the grill warm up to a medium heat and lay out the skewers. They should take about 10 minutes to cook. Turn them occasionally so they don’t burn on the bottom.

I use the bacon as the ultimate indicator of when to pull it off the grill. If the bacon is nice and crispy, the goose should be perfect as long as your cubes aren’t bigger than 1″. That seems to be the sweet spot for me, at least.

Just before pulling them off the grill, add a small dollop of cream cheese on each package of meat. It’ll melt pretty quickly, so I usually add the cream cheese just as I’m taking them off.

Now get ready for them to disappear before your eyes! These skewers are fantastic at backyard barbecues and for when you have your friends over. Since they’re such a novelty, just about everyone will want to try them.

Bacon-Wrapped Wild Goose Breasts

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This is probably my favorite way to cook Canada geese! Savory and spicy, I've yet to find someone that doesn't enjoy this.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 goose breasts
• 1 pack of bacon
• 1 cup of cream cheese
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• Bamboo skewers

Instructions

1. Soak the skewers in water so that they won't burn on the grill.
2. Trim off any thin corners of the breast. Cut the breasts into 1" cubes.
3. Chop the jalapeno pepper into 1/4" squares. Feel free to make the peppers smaller or larger to suit your preferences.
4. Cut the bacon slices in half.
5. Put a piece of pepper on a goose chunk, then wrap the bacon around it. Load up a skewer with at least half an inch in between.
6. Grill the meat for about 10 minutes on medium heat, or until the bacon is done.
7. Just before taking them off the grill, immediately add a dollop of cream cheese and allow it to melt over each piece of meat.

Notes

Adjust the amount of jalapeno to suit your heat preferences.

Make sure that the goose meat has been soaked for 3 days in saltwater while refrigerated, with daily water changes. Completely remove any silver skin, or the meat will be very chewy.