Grouse Soup with Wild Rice

This is a dish I came up with as a use for two skinned grouse I had from a trip to Minnesota. Sometimes birds are shot up, or you have so many you don’t feel like plucking them all — I should be so lucky. Skinned birds will not have the strength of grouse flavor that skinned ones will, but simmering them in a soup is a good way to concentrate it.

I just love the combination of ruffed grouse and wild rice, too. A friend gave me some real wild rice — not cultivated, but foraged — so I wanted to highlight it with this soup. Just to add to the forest theme, there are acorns and porcini mushrooms in this soup, too.

One problem with a grouse soup would be getting enough carcasses to make a proper stock. If you are a big grouse hunter, this won’t be a problem, but for the rest of us, you will need to bulk up your broth. Start with a good game broth if you have it, or chicken broth in a pinch. Add in whatever grouse carcasses you have and simmer it for an hour or more to get that grouse-y flavor.

If you are not a hunter but want to approximate the flavors of this soup, use turkey or chicken thighs for the meat, cultivated wild rice for the foraged variety, and chestnuts for the acorns.

This soup makes enough for 8 as a main course or up to 12 as a soup course in a larger meal.

• 2-3 skinned grouse
• Any saved grouse carcasses you have, up to 4
• 4 quarts game or chicken stock
• 1 cup acorn or chestnut pieces
• 1 cup wild rice
• 1 handful dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 onion, sliced into thin half moons
• 4 chopped garlic cloves
• 2 carrots, cut into disks
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig rosemary
• Salt
• 4 cups (loosely packed) chopped chard or spinach leaves

1. Put the game or chicken stock into a large pot and add the grouse carcasses. Heat it slowly to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer for an hour.
2. Skim any foam or impurities that come to the surface and discard.
3. Add the rosemary, bay leaf, skinned grouse and dried mushrooms to the pot. Simmer the grouse for 20 minutes, then remove to a plate to cool.
4. Pick off all the meat from the grouse breasts and set aside. Return the rest of the grouse to the pot and simmer another 25 minutes.
5. Remove all the grouse pieces from the pot and place in a bowl to cool. When cool, pick off all the meat you can find and put it into the bowl with the breast meat. Discard the bones.
6. Add the onion, carrot, and chestnut or acorn pieces if they have not been roasted. Simmer until done, about 30 minutes. After about 15 minutes add the wild rice.
7. Taste for salt and add if needed.
8. Add the grouse meat back in as well as the chard or spinach leaves, cover and turn off the heat. Wait 5 minutes before serving.

More Upland Game Bird Recipes

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