If you've ever seen the show "MeatEater" with Steven Rinella on Netflix, maybe you've seen Season 6, Episode 1 "Southern Traditions: Virginia Doves". Well, if you've seen it, you know that Rinella ventures to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and goes on a dove hunt at a private farm on opening day of dove season. This year, I got to do the very same thing, on the very same farm. The man who owns the farm is also a part owner of the company I work for, and I got invited to participate for the first time this year. I had never done any bird hunting before, but it was absolutely the most fun I've ever had hunting!
I limited out shooting 15 throughout the afternoon. I then got to gather round the cleaning station and watch/learn how to clean and dress the doves. Then I took them home and put them in the freezer.... until today.
There are actually a few other ways that I plan to make dove in the future, but for my first time ever, I just thought I'd keep it simple. Most everyone at the hunt just saved out the breast, so that's what I did to.
Removing the meat from the bones was pretty simple once you find the lines to work the knife around. And in a short manner of time I had a bunch of breast fillets ready to go. I just wrapped most of them in a half-piece of bacon, but a few I left without bacon and sprinkled lightly with AP rub.
I also kept it simple with the cook. I've done a lot of chicken wings on my PBC, so I ran temp and cook time similar to what I would do for wings. I didn't check temps, but let it get up pretty high by leaving the lid cracked 1" for a half hour (assumed it was in the mid 300s at that point), and left the lid cracked for the entire cook, which took about 45 minutes. Just used two small pieces of mulberry for smokiness. I pulled the non-bacon wrapped pieces at 30 minutes to keep them from drying out.
Not the greatest photo, or the fanciest serving dish, but the flavor was enough to win the family over. We definitely preferred the bacon-wrapped to the non, but they claimed to like this even more than chicken wings. The flavor is similar (smoked poultry), but the breasts were very clean (no gristle, etc.) with good texture, and it is all dark meat too. They all agreed that I'm going to need to do some more dove hunting, which suits me just fine.
I limited out shooting 15 throughout the afternoon. I then got to gather round the cleaning station and watch/learn how to clean and dress the doves. Then I took them home and put them in the freezer.... until today.
There are actually a few other ways that I plan to make dove in the future, but for my first time ever, I just thought I'd keep it simple. Most everyone at the hunt just saved out the breast, so that's what I did to.
Removing the meat from the bones was pretty simple once you find the lines to work the knife around. And in a short manner of time I had a bunch of breast fillets ready to go. I just wrapped most of them in a half-piece of bacon, but a few I left without bacon and sprinkled lightly with AP rub.
I also kept it simple with the cook. I've done a lot of chicken wings on my PBC, so I ran temp and cook time similar to what I would do for wings. I didn't check temps, but let it get up pretty high by leaving the lid cracked 1" for a half hour (assumed it was in the mid 300s at that point), and left the lid cracked for the entire cook, which took about 45 minutes. Just used two small pieces of mulberry for smokiness. I pulled the non-bacon wrapped pieces at 30 minutes to keep them from drying out.
Not the greatest photo, or the fanciest serving dish, but the flavor was enough to win the family over. We definitely preferred the bacon-wrapped to the non, but they claimed to like this even more than chicken wings. The flavor is similar (smoked poultry), but the breasts were very clean (no gristle, etc.) with good texture, and it is all dark meat too. They all agreed that I'm going to need to do some more dove hunting, which suits me just fine.
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