Roasted Dove with Raspberry Champagne Sauce
Celebrate September with a champagne reduction sauce and skin-on, whole-roasted doves
We sweat bullets all summer while honing in our shotgun swing at the local trap range. Everyone’s eager to graduate from clays, put a bead on a live bird, and make a fraction of a meal. As a result, September 1 is a special day.
The dove opener is a celebration worthy of busting out the bubbly. Folding birds and fixing poppers is pure tradition. But this year, instead of the classic poppers, perhaps it is worth considering popping something else.
A friend who had never tasted dove recently accepted a new job. To celebrate and sample this late-summer quarry, I thawed some birds from last year and created a champagne reduction, which is incredibly easy to make. This sauce will go great with any wild game, but it pairs best with red meat birds such as doves, ducks, geese, and even prairie chickens.
Instructions here also include how to roast a whole dove perfectly. If you’re not making poppers, I recommend plucking doves. You can also age them, which increases their flavor dramatically. When plucking doves, do so delicately while they are dry. Their feathers will come off easily. By plucking doves and leaving the skin on, you retain moisture while roasting along with getting to savor the crispy skin, which has a great flavor and is worth keeping whenever possible.
You can pair roasted dove and this sauce with any vegetable. When I cooked this recipe, I paired it with cauliflower rice. I also roasted some whole poblano peppers, peeled off their skin, and placed them on the plate. Lastly, I lightly oiled chunks of kale and roasted those at 400 F until crispy. Who doesn’t love kale chips?
Roasted Dove with Raspberry Champagne Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 whole doves plucked
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper freshly cracked
- Olive oil
- 1 medium shallot finely minced
- 2 tsp garlic freshly minced
- 1 oz fresh ginger finely grated
- 1½ cups Champagne or sparkling wine
- Orange zest from one orange
- 12 oz fresh raspberries
- ½ cup raspberry preserves
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Optional garnishes
- Fresh basil chiffonade-cut
- Pine nuts toasted and crushed
Instructions
- Before cooking, pull the doves out of the fridge and lightly coat them with olive oil. Lightly dust them with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Allow the doves to sit out at room temperature for two hours before cooking.
- To make the sauce, add a thin layer of olive oil to a medium-sized skillet and heat it on medium. Add the shallot and stir until slightly seared and soft. Add the fresh garlic and grated ginger, then turn the heat to medium-low. Stir for a couple of minutes, then deglaze with champagne.
- Allow the champagne to reduce to about half (takes approximately 10 minutes), then add fresh raspberries, raspberry preserves, brown sugar, and orange zest. Turn the heat to low and stir frequently while the sauce reduces and thickens.
- To cook the doves, preheat your oven to 400 F. Once heated, insert the doves and cook for three minutes for a medium-rare finish but slightly less crisp skin. For crispy skin and a medium-well cook, roast the doves for four minutes.
- To serve, first, add the raspberry sauce to the plate. Then, place the doves on the sauce. You can sprinkle fresh basil overtop. If you also want to include pine nuts, roast them at 400 F for three to five minutes, then remove and lightly smash them before adding them as a garnish.
Nutrition
