Smoked Goose

Smoked goose is a traditional Christmas item that has fallen in popularity over the years.  However, I think it should be brought out of retirement as it is a very flavorful dish, and easy to cook.  If you like the dark meat of a turkey, you’ll love a delicious smoked goose.

Most poultry does not have a lot of collagen or connective tissue, so it doesn’t really benefit from a “low and slow” BBQ smoke.  Geese are migratory birds, built to fly thousands of miles.  This means they are basically all “dark meat.”  When smoking a goose, you’ll want to get the temperature at least to 175 degrees internal temperature to ensure a tender bird and render fats.

How to prepare the goose

Preparing a goose is rather simple.   Using a 48 blade meat tenderizer or the tines of a fork, you’ll need to pierce the skin all over.  Geese have a lot of fat to help insulate them and store energy, and you want to be able to render that out.  Then season the bird all over and in the cavity.  For this bird, I used my Grillin’ Shake, then added a layer of my Lucky 7 seasoning.  The Grillin’ Shake adds a well-rounded flavor.  The Lucky 7 has some citrus tones, which will help cut into the fattiness of the goose.

I clip off the long wing tips the neck.  I put a quartered orange and lemon in the cavity along with herbs such as sage or thyme.  Prepare a smoker to run at 250 degrees with a medium-strength wood, such as cherry or pecan.

After that it’s pretty simple, just place the goose in the smoker and let it go until the temp is at least 175 degrees.  With the fattiness of the goose, it will be fine to go above that temperature as well.  I pulled it at 180 degrees and it was tender and juicy.

As always, I hope you enjpy!