I suspect that DeerTexas shoots way more than I do, so probably has multiple good recipes.
Very cool idea about the dimes! 👍🏻
With practice, it’s easy to breast the doves out at the end of your shoot. I always remove the head AND the craw as soon as I retrieve my birds regardless of whether they’re stone cold dead or not. 1, it prevents slightly wounded birds you thought were dead from escaping from your dove vest and causing your buddies to laugh hysterically as you try to chase down your “dead” bird. 2, it’s the humane thing to do for those birds just mentioned, and 3, the craw is the quickest part of the bird to spoil and that can be a factor in early September in Texas. Anyway, at the end of the shoot, I break both wings near the body and discard, then pull the skin down the breast, stick my thumb just below the bottom of the breast and push it through the skin to the backbone, then pull. This separates the body and remaining attached entrails from the breast. Once back at home, I rinse the breasts of all blood feathers. Once clean, it’s a simple task to peal the breast meat from each side of the breast. Rinse again, taking care to remove any blood, bloodshot meat, feathers and pellets.
Some folks soak the meat in Italian dressing overnight, but it’s not necessary in my opinion. Slice some fresh jalapeños and onions, then wrap 2 pieces of breast meat (from 1 bird) a slice of jalapeño, a slice of onion and a dollop of cream cheese with a strip of bacon and secure the bundle with a toothpick. Grill until medium rare - DO NOT OVERCOOK. If cooked past medium rare, like most wild game, the meat dries out, gets tough and can take on a livery or “wild taste.” Most of the time this means removing from the grill BEFORE the bacon is crispy. The purpose of the bacon is to add fat and flavor to the ultra lean morsels while preventing the meat from becoming overdone and dry. For this reason, I personally choose to discard most of the bacon. Some folks prefer crispy bacon and don’t mind the dry, livery tasting meat, but I’m not one. I suppose that’s more about personal taste, though. Anyway, that’s my favorite way to enjoy a mess of doves. Bon appétit!!
