Cant Lose Woodcock Recipe

[Brad Eden]

Wow that looks good!

It was good.  I tried this and despite my somewhat ham handed abilities in the kitchen, it came out outstanding.  I want to try the marinade with a w'duck or teal.

Good idea--it is especially great w/any red meat bird.

My daughter Liz is arriving home soon for XMas vacation and has ordered a Woodcock flash/stir fry dinner and I am glad to oblige!

[settem]

I am marinating a pork loin in this now. This is the second one I have done with this marinade and I gotta say it is just right for pork. I use dark rum and add a couple of extra shakes of the Asian Sesame Oil, and a shake or two of seasoned pepper. I like to serve it with carrots that I boil till just tender with Soy Sauce, a splash of Asian Sesame Oil, Brown Sugar, Butter and a little water.

It's a hit here and tomorrow I'll take the leftover and cube it up in a wild rice and diced veggie stir fry. Equally Outstanding!

[pa'tridge hunters]

WOW! I cooked up this recipe tonight with a mixture of pa'tridge and pheasant, I filleted the meat off the breast and served it up with wild rice and a medley of pea pods and carrots.

Dang, it was goooooood!!!

Thank you Ben and thank you Brad!!!!

Cindy

[Brian Edwards]

This has got to be the best Woodcock recipie out there.  I have done it  twice this week!  Subed the liquor with ginger ale and it was great.  Im going to use this for alot of other stuff as well.  Thanks alot!

[Brad Eden]

Im really glad to hear so many people are trying this recipe on woodcock and liking it. I think it has and will save quite a few WC from being left in the freezer and thrown out. I still have some left too and am gonna thaw them out for a stir fry soon.

[Ben Hong]

Im really glad to hear so many people are trying this recipe on woodcock and liking it. I think it has and will save quite a few WC from being left in the freezer and thrown out.

YES!

[North Dakota Hntr]

It's grill season now. I'm going to give this a try with sharptail on the grill.

Sounds wonderful!!

Craig

[Ben Hong]

TTT

With woodcock season only a week away up here, this recipe will help you answer the question of what to do with those little birdies.

[PartridgeCartridge]

I've tried this recipe too and have to say, it was an excellent combination of ingredients. Nice job Ben.

But I think the most important aspect of this recipe is a hot skillet and knowing when to get the meat out of the heat.

Cooking it to rare, and then getting it off the stove, is a critical aspect as it will continue to cook once it is off the flame.

Woodcock needs to be served, not cooked, medium rare.

JMO

[Cooter Brown]

Just made it--wonderful!

The only change I made was that I put the legs in the pan first--being white meat they can stand a little more cooking.

Ate four of the little guys--had eight and I'll do the rest in a couple of days.

Thanks for the recipe, Brad and Ben.

[pheasent 89]

I am going to cube up some pheasant breast and try this, sounds to good not to try

[Roost em 1st]

This smacks of an appetizer I had in XX a couple seasons back. The ingredients were a tad different and similar. Matt used teryaki instead of soy, but the garlic was there and I believe the brown sugar, we drank the liquor instead of cooking with it, skipped the rice and definitely reduced the remaining marinade for drippings over the cooked woodcock. 8 birds were gone about 2 minutes after being cooked. Great warm up from an October day spent grousin...

I will try Ben's recipe shortly with dove, if I can make time to get afield for them. It looks great!

[Curt]

I found that by tweaking some of the ingredients a little the woodcock were rendered palatable.  The main thing I did was to change the '1 oz. hard liquor' to '6-8 ounces hard liquor', I used Wild Turkey but use whatever suits your taste.

[River19]

I haven’t used this with woodcock yet, but I will as it is similar to something I’ve done with simple chicken stir fry, but I wanted to reiterate the point PC made (as well as others) in general with woodcock, cook to rare (ie sear the outsides on high heat) then pull them and let rest for a minute they will finish cooking out.  Sharp-tail from what I’ve read is very similar in color and texture to woodcock, so I would imagine this works well with them too.

I usually serve my woodcock with the following:

Cook a handful of hearty mushrooms in butter,  a little shallot never hurt either, salt and pepper and I add a touch of red wine as the shrooms get good and cooked so as not to steam them (I prefer a cabernet but tastes vary).  

I move the mushrooms and juice to the outside of the pan and add another dollop of butter to the center of the pan and let that get almost to the burning stage, I then add the WC Breasts lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.  

Once seared I pull them, let them rest and slice them to about ¼” and serve them on a toasted crustini with a light smear of goat cheese and topped with the shrooms and some reduced sauce.

My wife loves them like this………

[Backlash]

TTT

I used this recipe (this time substituting cider vinegar for the likker) with fresh teal. Outstanding. Between myself and the two boys, we mowed through all 5 of the teal and plates were cleaned up proper.  My 8 year old then instructed me to go shoot more teal.