Do praire chickens?

I've never eaten a grouse. Chickens are my least favorite game in terms of taste, but I suck it up and eat one every year (if I'm luck enough to hit one each year). The last chicken I shot was 2 years ago. He is in his booming stance in my house. I truly enjoy prarie chickens being in my state. I found a spot last year where they were performing their mating rituals about 50-yards from a chip-and-seal road that doesn't get a lot of traffic. If you haven't seen that spectacle and you're a wildlife enthusiast, get out there and see it before your time is up.
 
All I can say is YUCK. I think both taste pretty bad, thats why I don't waste ammo on em any more. It's hard to believe the differance between a sharptail and a ruffeled grouse, the ruffy's are awsome eating. But There might be a magic way of cooking them out there that I don't know of.
 
I lived in North Dakota for 5 years. I shot a lot of sharptails and I really did not care for the taste of them. I loved Ruffy's and thought the sharpies would be like them. WRONG! I can't even describe how they tasted to me. I just did not like them. I had some of the locals fix them for me. I thought I was doing it wrong, same result.---Bob
 
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I didn't like them very much at first, I was over cooking them. I found that if I left them a little more rare they are pretty good. Of course ruffed grouse are better,but bobwhites is best IMHO. I usally take my hunting buddies share of grouse and they get more of the pheasants when we divide up the birds after the hunt because they do not like the prarrie grouse, which is fine with me. I find them a fantastic game bird to hunt.
 
I have this all figured out except the why which I leave to the scientific types.
Somewhere along the line grouse split up into two different groups--those that taste good and those that do not.

Ruffed Grouse and Blue Grouse are good. They have fan tails, lighter meat.

Sharptails, Spruce Hens, Prairie Chickens taste strong. They have pinnated tails, dark meat. I fry them fresh with bacon and onions and find them a little better than tolerable, like liver.

These are the species I have shot. I note the Red Grouse of Scotland is pinnated. Has anyone ever eaten one? Ptarmigan? Also pinnated.

What other grouse have fantails? edible?
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RT1
 
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To me the Prairie Grouse need to be treated more like beef. But beef with very little fat content.

One of my favorite recipes is a chipotle, cilantro and tequila marinade. Take a deboned breast and marinate overnight (longer is good too) and cook on a smoking hot grill to medium rare. Medium at most. The meat will be tender and have a lot in common with a good steak.

The legs I will also debone and use in gumbo (great use for pheasant legs too). Just be sure to put them in the gumbo at the end and cook at most five minutes before removing from the heat. Keep the lid on and the residual heat in the gumbo will cook the darker leg meat perfectly.

Over cooking gamebirds of any kind is a cardinal sin and the prairie grouse are especially vulnerable to too much heat over too long a time. Brining is also a good idea with gamebirds. Nothing helps the tenderness of an old rooster or adult sharptail more than a 3 or 4 day soak in salty water. Adds flavor and breaks down the muscle fibers.

DB
 
As far as I'm concerned you can't make a old or late seasons sharptail taste good. The early season young birds aren't to bad.
 
How to make a Chickin or Sharpie taste Good

Marinate breasts and thighs in Italian Salad Dressing (Oil/Vinegar Garlic etc...) for two days then grill lightly over as hot fire, serve rare to medium rare ( just as soon as juices run clear from the meat when pricked with a fork) over wild rice with Salad and a good glass of red wine.

Wonderful flavor and texture. They are a red meated bird and do need to be treated more like beef than chicken, pheasant or ruffed grouse.
 
My grandparents homesteaded in Jackson county, SD, starting in the Fall of 1898. When winter arrived they had nothing but a sod hut and grandpa's shotgun. They ate prairie chicken three times a day all winter, cooked over buffalo chips.

Fifty years later, grandma told me she'd rather die of starvation than eat another (expletive deleted) prairie chicken.
 
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That's how they got the name chickens. You just went out and "harvested" one anytime you got hungry and had nothing else.
Pheasants were the chickens of the '50s. "What's for supper?" "Why don't you drive out of town and shoot a pheasant?" Done
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Buy silver surfer
 
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I don't shoot a lot of them, but the ones I do I usually end up making Rumaki out of. Basically I marinate the breast in 1/3c sherry 2/3c Soy sauce a little garlic and a little brown sugar. Then I cube up the breast and wrap them in bacon with a water chestnut and staple them with a tooth pick. I barbacue the whole thing so the sharpie is medium rare (about 2 minutes on a charcoal grill). Just about anything wrapped in bacon and grilled is good. It's a nice hearty appetizer and I've never had any complaints. I do the same thing with woodcock.
 
Uncle Buck said:
I have this all figured out except the why which I leave to the scientific types.
Somewhere along the line grouse split up into two different groups--those that taste good and those that do not.

Ruffed Grouse and Blue Grouse are good. They have fan tails, lighter meat.

Sharptails, Spruce Hens, Prairie Chickens taste strong. They have pinnated tails, dark meat. I fry them fresh with bacon and onions and find them a little better than tolerable, like liver.

These are the species I have shot. I note the Red Grouse of Scotland is pinnated. Has anyone ever eaten one? Ptarmigan? Also pinnated.

What other grouse have fantails? edible?
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Red grouse are considered a delicacy in the UK. They are nomally roasted after hanging for 3 days (I think its 3 days.) It all dark meat, but prettty good, especially with a nice red wine.

Best,
 
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