As many of you know, after you pull away from the fast food drive in you have instant regret. One of my favorite things to do is to recreate those fast food meals with wild game and make it better! here is what I came up with, enjoy your Wild Game Big Mac!

Venison Big Mac’s 

Patties:

• 2 pounds ground wild game meat  
• 2 Tbsp Garlic, minced 
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire 
• 1/4 cup onion, minced 
• 1/2 Tbsp cracked pepper 
• 1 tsp paprika 
• 1 tsp sea salt 
• 1 tsp garlic powder 

Special Sauce:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp ketchup
• 2 Tbsp sweet pickle relish
• 2 tsp finely diced onion 
• 1/4 tsp finely minced garlic
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt plus more to taste
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika 

Fixings:

• Cheddar or American cheese 
• Shredded lettuce 
• Buns 
• Pickles
• White onions, diced 

Directions:
 
1. In large glass bowl, mix game meat along with all other ingredients. 
2. Take a baseball-size handful of meat mixture and roll into ball. On a piece of parchment paper toss ball down, press down on the ball and with other hand follow along the sides to form a perfect patty. Continue this until all patties have been formed. Place all patties in fridge for 30 minutes before cooking. This is key.
3. Preheat grill to high heat.
4. Place the burgers on the grill and don’t touch! Once they’ve cooked for 5 minutes flip once. ONCE.
5. The cheese is melted to the two bottom buns in the recipe, so when your burgers are almost done, toast your bottom bun with a slice of cheese and finish along with the burgers. You can do this on a baking sheet if you don’t want over crispy buns. 
6. Now we layer: bottom cheese bun, special sauce, pickles, onions, lettuce, burger patty, bottom bun, special sauce, pickles, onion, lettuce, burger, sauce, and top bun 
7. Enjoy! 

Cajun Duck Sausage Skillet 

w/ Rice and Red Beans 

Ingredients: 

14oz Smoked Cajun Duck Sausages (See Recipe) 

1 tbsp Avo oil 

1 tsp smoked Paprika 

½ tsp oregano 

½ tsp thyme 

½ tsp garlic powder 

½ tsp onion powder 

1/8^th tsp cayenne 

½ tsp cracked pepper 

Salt to taste 

1 15oz can fire roasted tomatoes, diced with juices

1 ½ cups rice 

2 cups chicken broth (Or wild game broths) 

1 green bell pepper, chopped 

3 cloves garlic, minced 

1 can red beans, drained 

3 green onions, chopped 

Directions: 

1. Slice sausages into ½ inch slices. In a hot deep skillet or Dutch add oil and sausages. Cook until sausages are browned. Don’t worry if they start to get dark, this is going to add a richer and deep flavor. 
2. Add chopped bell peppers to sausages and cook 1-2 minutes more. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds more. 
3. Add all spices to the sausage and pepper mixture, sauté for 1 minutes to build more flavor within the spices. 
   Remove tomatoes from can and chop them, add back to juices from can.
4. In same skillet add rice, tomatoes, beans and stock. Stir to combine and scrape the bottom, getting all that stuck on flavor
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes covered. 
6. Remove lid, stir combining all ingredients better, and plate with green onions and your favorite hot sauce. 
7. Enjoy 

Spicy Cajun Duck Sausage 

Ingredients: 

1 pound ground duck 

½ pound pork fat or bacon 

½ white onion, minced 

3 cloves garlic, minced 

½ green and red bell pepper, minced 

1 green onion, minced 

1 tsp black pepper 

½ tsp salt 

½ tsp insta cure 

½ tsp red pepper flakes 

1 tsp smoked paprika 

½ tsp cayenne pepper 

1 tsp celery seed 

1 tsp thyme 

1 tsp dried parsley 

2 tbsp nonfat dry milk powder 

¼ cup cold water or beer 

Hog casings. 

Directions: 

1. Cube your meat and mix, place in freezer for 1 hour to chill, along with grinder parts
2. Clean and rehydrate your casings in warm water or follow-on package instructions. 
3. Grind your two meats along with onions, peppers and garlic through the rough chop plate on your grinder. If meat is warm place back in freezer to chill down to 40º below. and pass through the smaller grind plate
4. Add remaining ingredients and mix by hand, your meat mixture should be very sticky and tacky. It should stick to your hand when held upside down. 
5. Stuff sausages, poking and air pockets you see forming during the stuffing process. Twist to desired size and cut. 
6. Let your sausages rest in the refrigerator overnight to help develop the flavors. 
7. At this point you can freeze, smoke or grill your sausages.

(If you choose to smoke your sausages, smoked at 165-180º for until internal temp is 155º )  

Here is my super simple and fool proof recipe when It comes to my favorite bourbon glaze.

Bourbon Glaze

Ingredients: 

2 cups bourbon or whiskey 
¾ cup low sodium soy sauce 

1 tbsp Worcestershire

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp cracked pepper 

1 tbsp molasses

3/4 cup brown sugar 

Directions: 

1. In medium skillet add 1 cup of bourbon over med-high heat, ignite bourbon and burn off all alcohol. When the bourbon has stopped flaming, add the 2^nd cup and ignite and burn off alcohol same as before. 

1. Reduce heat to medium and add soy sauce immediately after flames burns out. 
2. Add molasses, honey & Worcestershire and whisk until combined 
3. Add garlic and pepper, mixing well. 
4. Add brown sugar and continue whisking as its melts. Reduce heat to low and whisk until sauce begins to thicken, about 2 mins.
5. Remove from heat and give 1 minute to rest before you use as glaze, or store in airtight container for up to 7 days. 

Now let’s get into what Birria is shall we? Birria is a traditional Mexican dish that utilizes slow cooked goat meat along with guajillo chilies, garlic, thyme, cumin and bay leaves to create a beautiful soup or stew. Leftovers are typically turned into amazing tacos. The tortillas are dipped in the reserved cooking grease that floats to the surface during the cooking process, then stuffed with leftover shredded meat, quesadilla cheese and cilantro and skillet fried until crispy. 

The problem you have when recreating this dish with wild game meats comes from the lack of fat, and therefore the lack of grease that you get. One way I found to add that much needed fat and oil without adding domestic fats is avocado oil. The oil grabbed onto the flavor while cooking and gave me the greasy oil needed for dipping these tortillas. 

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think, it can be used on all wild game meats from birds to all four-legged critters. 

Birria Tacos: 

Ingredients: Meat 

2-3 pounds wild game stew meat rough cubed 

(I use shoulder roasts and trimmings, use any tough cuts)

8 guajillo chilies, stem and seeds removed 

(Or 4 guajillo and 4 ancho chilies)

2 chipotle peppers, chopped and 1 tbsp adobo sauce from can 

1 white onion, quartered

8 cloves garlic, smashed 

2 tbsp cumin 

1 tbsp smoked paprika 

1 tbsp Mexican oregano (Can use regular)

1 tsp chili powder

3 sprigs thyme, whole  

4 bay leaves 

1 tsp salt 

½ tbsp cracked pepper 

1 cup avocado oil 

4 cups chicken or wild game stock 

2 carrots, rough cut 

2 celery ribs, rough cut 

4 tomatoes’, quartered

½ cinnamon stick  

(Water or a beer to cover meat if stock is not enough)

Ingredients: Tacos

2-3 cups quesadilla cheese 

1 cup cilantro, chopped 

Corn tortillas 

Directions: 

1. In a large Dutch oven, stock pot or slow cooker add all ingredients under meat section. Yes, I get this sounds incredibly strange to add everything, but trust the process. 
2. Bring your stock pot or Dutch oven to a boil, reduce heat to med low and cook 30 minutes. (If using slow cooker, set to high and cook 1 hour) 
3. Remove guajillo chilies from your pot or slow cooker, pace in blender along with ½ cup cooking liquid. Blend until smooth, add puree back to pot and mix well. This is a great tome to stir your meat and mix all those flavors around. 
4. Now set it and forget it for 3-4 hours of until the meat is fork tender and pulls apart easily. (Sometimes this may take longer depending on cut of meat and animal) 
5. Skim off all the greasy goodness that is on top of cooking liquid. Reserve this DO NOT THROW IT OUT. Do this a couple times until most of it is removed and you have a nice bowl full of cooking oil/grease
6. At this point I pull out the meat, strain the cooking liquid removing all veggies and nasty bits. Again, save about ½ the cooking liquid. 
7. Shred your meat and place it back in cooking liquid and set aside. 
8. Now comes the fun part, building the tacos. 

Tacos:

1. Heat your skillet or flat top to med-high heat
2. Dip a tortilla on each side in the reserved cooking grease, lay on flat top and place cheese, meat and cilantro on one half, fold over other have and repeat filling cooking surface. 
3. Cook on one side until crispy 1-2 minutes, flip and cook on other side. 
4. Once all tacos are cooked, serve alongside remaining cooking liquid to dip your tacos into and enjoy. 

You can add anything you’d like to the tacos from onions, pepper, jalapenos. Get creative and have fun eating! 

Jeremiah Doughty

One of my favorite meals ever is a good old greasy diner chili cheeseburger, but with my beef allergy has pretty much shut that down. I can’t believe I’ve let tried to recreate it, well that is ending now. Here is my take on that greasy burger, without the grease! 

Ingredients: patties 

1-pound wild game ground. (Elk, deer, moose, bear, duck. Etc.)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 

1 tbsp garlic powder 

1 tsp sea salt 

2 tsp cracked pepper 

1 tsp paprika 

1 tsp chili powder 

Ingredients: Chili 

1–pound wild game ground. (Elk, deer, moose, bear, duck. Etc.)

¼ brown onions, diced 

1 jalapeno, diced and seeded

1 tsp cumin 

1 tbsp chili powder 

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp oregano 

1 tsp cracked pepper 

2 tsp paprika 

1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional) 

1 tbsp tomato paste 

¼ cup water 

1 tbsp oil 

Directions: 

Patties:

1. Keeping meat as cold as possible, mix all ingredients into the bowl and kneed with had until fully mixed. Make 4 quarter pound meat balls, press and form into a patty. Put back in fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is key to keeping the patties from falling apart and allowing the meat to get firm again. 
2. While meat is resting heat grill to 325º, place patties on grill and let cook 5-6 minutes without looking or flipping
3. flip burgers, once, and finish cooking until desired temp, add cheese 1 minute before you pull. 

Chili: 

1. While burgers are cooking, let’s work on chili. In a skillet add your favorite oil and cook down your onions and jalapenos for 1-2 minutes. 
2. Add your meat and crumble, add spices and Worcestershire sauce, cook down until browned. 
3. Add water and tomato paste, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. 

Burger:

1. Place some chili on the bottom bun, followed by patties, smothered by more chili and cheese. Top off with anything else you’d like to get all over your face. 

Now that you’ve got the basics, get out there and make a killer burger! 

Enjoy making this fun dish and get ready for the fall sport season with this amazing grab and go appetizer. You can sub out boar meat for any wild game you have! Enjoy. 

Wild Boar Shooters

Ingredients: Smoked Boar 

Wild boar shoulder or roasts 

1 cup rib rub* 

½ cup mustard 

Directions: 

1. Rub your roasts or shoulders down with mustard and cover with rib rub
2. Place in a shallow aluminum pan, add a can of beer or 8oz apple juice and cover with foil 
3. Cook at 225º on your smoker until 206º internal temp is reached 
4. Remove foil cover and do a super smoke for 15-20 minutes
5. Remove from heat and place in ice chest for 1-2 hours allowing the meat to sweat and continue breaking down. 
6. Shred and toss with a little more rib rub and sauce if you want. 

The reason I cover the whole time with a liquid is for the simple reason wild boar lacks fat and this will help keep moister in the meat and keep it from drying out. 

Ingredients: Rib Rub

3 tbsp Garlic powder

2 tbsp Onions, dried

2 tbsp Black pepper

2 tbsp Brown sugar

1 tbsp Cayenne pepper

2 tbsp Chili powder

1/4 cup Paprika
1 tbsp Salt

2 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp Cumin, ground

1 tsp celery seed, crushed 

Directions: 

1. Mix baby, that’s it! 

Ingredients: Corn Bread 

½ cup melted butter 

¼ cup sugar 

½ cup sour cream 

½ cup whole milk 

2 eggs 

1 ¼ cups flour 

¾ cups corn meal 

2 tsp baking powder 

½ tsp baking soda 

Two pinches salt 

Directions: 

1. In large bowl mix all your dry ingredients
2. Add eggs, sour cream, butter, and milk, mixing until just combined. You don’t want to over mix; this will make your corn bread dense. 
3. Grease your Shot Glass Mold so your shot glasses will come out clean 
4. Place 1 spoonful of mixture in mold and push down center mold press. Don’t over fill, corn bread expands a lot while cooking, you want to keep room for that expanse. 
5. Cook at 400º until the tops are firm about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and demold to cool. 

Ingredients: Honey Butter

½ cup room temp butter 

¼ cup honey

Directions: 

1. Mix butter and honey and set aside. 

Ingredients: Bourbon BBQ Sauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup all-natural ketchup

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup favorite brewed coffee 

1/2 cup bourbon 

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup molasses

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cracked pepper  

Directions 

1. In sauce ban bring bourbon to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, this will burn off the alcohol and leave the flavor
2. Add remaining ingredients, whisk together, bring back to boil. 
3. Reduce heat and simmer cooking 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently so not to burn. 
4. Once sauce has reduced, remove from heat and chill 
5. Sauce will keep in fridge for a week, but I doubt it will last that long. 

Now you just put everything together and fight off everyone as they come to steal your amazing meal!

It was well known that Big Bob was a man who loved to fish, hunt and drink whiskey. So when I was researching and figuring out what recipe I wanted to write for Alabama it soon became a no brainer, I was going to make white bbq sauce. Now came the task of what to pair it with in the wild meat world. I tossed up quail and pheasant, but landed on turkey because of the giant Easters that roam the Appalachia mountains of pine and hard wood trees. 

Know that I knew the critter I wanted to cook and the Alabama dish I wanted to create I started to research more on what this white sauce was all about. You start too look and you’ll find everyone has their own version of this famous sauce, from Gas stations to restaurants and family trees it seemed every sauce was different. The one this that stayed true in each recipe was the two basic ingredients that Big Bob used, “Mayo and Vinegar.” 

I want to thank Big Bob Gibson for his passion for family, the outdoors and bbq. I would have loved to sit down and hear his stories around a big plate of pit roasted chicken and pulled pork. 

Alabama White “BBQ” Sauce

2 cups mayo 

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice 

1/5 tsp cracked pepper 

1 tbsp Worcestershire

2 tsp yellow mustard 

1 tsp sea salt 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

1/2 tsp garlic powder 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika 

Directions: 

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, whisk until smooth, cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours before use.  

The best part of sopes, like tacos is that you can top them with anything, and they taste good. In the recipe below I’ll show you how to make the sopes and my taco seasoning mix. From there it’s up to you to create your sopes exactly how you would like. 

Wild Turkey Sopes 

Ingredients: meat

1 pound ground (You could sub any wild game here)

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup white onion, diced

2 Tbsp Taco Seasoning (See Recipe below) 

Ingredients: Sope

2 cups Maseca flour

2 cups warm water

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp garlic powder 

Directions: 

1. In a large bowl mix your Maseca, warm water, salt, and garlic powder. Mix with your hands until you form a soft dough ball. Unlike mixing with flour the dough will still be very soft and not firm. This is what you want. 
2. Make a 3” dough ball, smash it and form it into a 6” round. You will have it a little ticker about a 1/4” thick. 
3. Over med-high heat cook your sopes until cooked and browned about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 1 minutes.
4. Pinch the side to create a wall, your sopes should still be hot to the touch when this is done. Set aside and work on meat. 
5. In skillet add 1 tbsp oil and onions, cook until fragrant and translucent. Add garlic and cook additional 30 seconds 
6. Add your ground meat and taco seasoning, cook until browned
7. Remove from heat and start assembling the perfect sope, 
8. Enjoy! 

Taco Seasoning: 

1 tbsp chili powder 

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ onion powder

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

¼ tsp oregano 

½ tsp paprika 

1 tsp cumin 

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cracked pepper 

One of the most iconic fast food meals of all time has to be the Big Mac. This burger even had its own jingle, photo shoots and cult following. So how do you take such an iconic fast food meal and put a fun wild game twist on it? You wrap it up in an egg roll and fry it!! 

Let’s get into this fun and simple recipe that takes all the flavors you love and puts a spin on it that will get your whole family grabbing for seconds. 

Wild Game Big Mac Egg Rolls:

Ingredients: Egg Rolls 

1 pound any wild game ground you have

1/2 sweet onion, minced 

3 cloves garlic, minced 

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce  

1 tbsp chili powder 

1tsp smoked paprika 

1 tsp garlic powder 

1tsp onion powder

1 tsp cracked pepper 

1/2 tsp sea salt 

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 

Egg roll wrappers 

Oil for frying 

Ingredients: Special Sauce

1 cup real mayo 

1/4 cup ketchup 

2 tbsp dill pickle relish 

1 tbsp Worcestershire 

1 teaspoon horseradish 

1 tsp smoked paprika 

1/2 tsp cracked pepper 

1/4 tsp salt 

Directions: 

1. Starting with your special sauce, mix all ingredients until fully combined. Place in air tight container and place in fridge until dinner is ready. 
2. Add 1 tbsp cooking oil to hot skillet, add onions and cook 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and cook additional 30 seconds until fragrant. 
3. Add meat to skillet along with pepper, salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and Worcestershire. Cook until meat is browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You want the filling cold when you stuff your egg rolls. Make this ahead of time and place in fridge
4. When you’re ready to cook remove meat from fridge and mix with cheddar cheese. 
5. In deep kettle or fryer bring 2-3 inches of oil to 350º and hold at that temp
6. While oil is heating start working on your egg rolls. Put 1-2 spoonfuls of mixture in the middle or your wrapper. Wrap your egg roll and seal end with wet finger. 
7. In your fryer fry egg rolls until crispy, 1-2 minutes. If your egg rolls are burning or getting to many large bubbles in wrapper, it means your oil it to hot, make sure your staying at 350º 
8. Remove egg rolls and allow to rest
9. Shred your fresh iceberg lettuce, and plate. Cut your egg rolls in half, plate on lettuce and serve with a side of special sauce.. 
10. Enjoy! 

Subbing out the chicken for wild turkey just makes since, so let’s take a moment and dive into this simple recipe and get creating dinner shall we.

Wild Turkey Cutlet Cordon Bleu 

Ingredients: 

2-4 turkey cutlets or 1 breast

1 cup Italian bread crumbs 

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese 

1/2 cup flour 

1 egg, beaten 

Salt & pepper 

1 tsp smoked paprika 

1 tsp garlic powder 

6 slices ham

6 slices Swiss cheese 

Sauce:

2 tbsp butter 

1.5 tbsp flour 

Garlic, minced and smashed 

1 1/4 cups whole milk 

1 tsp mustard powder or 2 tbsp dijon mustard 

1/4 cup parmesan cheese. 

1 tsp paprika 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Pound out cutlets or butterfly and pound out breasts, season both sides with salt and pepper 
3. Lay out meat on plastic wrap.
4. On each piece lay slices of ham & Swiss. Roll tightly in using the plastic wrap to keep it tight like a little burrito.
5. Place in fridge for 1-3 hours allowing the rolls to set and from up, this is key for them staying together. 
6. Mix bread crumbs, cheese, paprika and garlic powder, set aside. In another bowl lightly whisk eggs, and in a 3rd bowl add your flour.
7. Dredge each cutlet in flour, egg, bread crumbs and set aside. 
8. Bake on a wire rack for until internal temp reaches 155º about 30-40 minutes. Another option is you can fry the cutlets in 2 inches of oil 5 minutes each side, and finish off in the oven until 155º is reached 

While turkey is cooking its time to work on the sauce. 

Directions: 

1. In small sauce pan melt butter, add garlic and cook for 15 seconds. Whisk in flour until smooth and let cook 1-2 minutes, stirring so not to burn. 
2. slowly add milk, whisking as you pour.
3. Add all remaining ingredients minus the cheese, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer or 5 minutes. 
4. Remove from heat and fold in parmesan cheese until melted

Fit & Finish: 

1. Remove wraps from oven, allow to rest. Slice into 1 inch pinwheels. 
2. Pour sauce over each piece and finish with some fresh chives. 
3. Serve along side some fresh garlic mash.

Jeremiah Doughty: From Field To Plate