Chef Mike explains how to properly prepare your fatty fowl
Geese can be scary animals. I say that, not because my crotch has been repeatedly violated by these maniacal feathered psychopaths; nor because they still give Captain “Sully” Sullenberger recurring night terrors; the fear of geese I encounter most is in the eyes of American cooks when I mention the classic holiday dinner centerpiece – roasted goose.
There’s a lot of Victorian romance surrounding roasted goose, especially around the holidays, but far too often the fantasy of a majestic, crispy-skinned bird crumbles with every bite of dry, livery meat surrounded by limp skin and pools of liquid fat.
Overcooked goose will absolutely become livery and geese are undoubtedly one of the fattiest birds you will encounter. But properly cooked goose is stunningly delicious, with a flavor that’s like a cross between duck and venison, and the texture of a steak.
Pro tip: What a goose eats affects the flavor of the meat, so don’t snatch a goose from your neighborhood duck pond unless you like the taste of discarded Skittles, stale white bread, and police taser.
The biggest mistake people make when cooking a goose is overcooking. Geese are red meat birds, so their breasts need to be served medium-rare (140°-150°F), and the rest around 165°F. This is, of course, impossible unless you take the bird apart. Yes, you lose the Instagram moment of a perfectly roasted, intact bird. But that intact bird will taste like minerally cardboard, no matter how beautiful.
If you remove the breast partway through cooking and finish it in a pan once the rest is done, you still get a nice roasted flavor on the whole goose, crispy skin, and properly cooked breast meat.
There are dozens of other ways to roast a goose, but this method is relatively easy and requires only a handful of ingredients, yet the finished bird is so luscious you’ll wonder what you were scared of all along.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Holiday Roast Goose
- 2 c. orange juice
- 4 shallots, roughly chopped
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 1 10- to 12-pound goose
- 1-2 oranges
- 1 c. chicken broth
- Salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Trim any visible fat from the goose, pat dry, then score the skin in a diamond pattern with a sharp knife, being careful not to cut through to the flesh. Thoroughly rub the body cavity with salt and leave uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to dry out the skin for ultimate crispiness!
Combine juice, shallots, 2 sprigs rosemary and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Heat to a simmer and reduce to about 1 cup. Remove from heat, discard solids, and set aside.
Slice the oranges into quarters and place into the bird’s cavity with the remaining 2 sprigs rosemary, sew or skewer the openings shut and truss the bird.
Place breast-side up on a rack set into a deep roasting pan—you don’t want any part of the bird to sit in the fat that will collect in the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper and place in preheated oven.
Once the breast temperature reads between 130 and 140 degrees with a probe thermometer (about 40 minutes) remove the goose but leave the oven on.
Using a thin, sharp knife, remove the breasts, set aside, and tent with foil.
Return the goose (sans breasts) to the oven and cook for another 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove the goose when the temperature at the thickest part of the goose’s thigh reads 165°F.
Transfer the goose to a cutting board and let rest 15 minutes. Meanwhile, strain the pan drippings through a fine-mesh sieve. Return the solids to the pan and add the reserved juice mixture and chicken broth. Place the pan on a stove burner(s) and simmer the liquid until reduced by half, stirring frequently.
(Rendered goose fat is liquid gold. Use it like bacon grease or duck fat with even more spectacular results).
While jus is reducing, place the goose breasts skin side down in a frying pan with 2 Tbsp of reserved goose fat and sear the skin crisp, pressing down slightly to get good contact with the pan. DO NOT cook on the meat side! When skin is crispy, set aside skin side up.
Slice the breast meat thin, cut the leg and wing meat from the bone, and serve both with warm jus.
Pro tip: You worked hard to get crispy goose skin, so put your jus underneath the meat, not over the top of the skin.
Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan who has traveled abroad extensively, trained chefs, and owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits