Ep. 726 - Duck Camp Cooking Made Easy w/ the BBQ Ninja - Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Jerad Henson (01:43):
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited
podcast. I'm doctor JaredHenson. I'm your host today.
We've got a great episode foryou.
Weather's cooling off. It'sfootball season. It's hunting
season. We got a lot of time nowspent at duck camp, and we wanna
take today to really talk aboutsome awesome approachable
recipes. I think it's gonna begreat.
Well, we've got the smokealready rolling. Y'all stay

(02:04):
tuned and see what's in store.

VO (02:08):
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I'm your host, doctor MikeBrazier. I'm your host, Katie
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Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited
podcast. I'm doctor JaredHenson. I'm your host today.
We've got a great episode foryou.
Weather's cooling off. It'sfootball season. It's hunting
season. We got a lot of time nowspent at duck camp, and we wanna
take today to really talk aboutsome awesome approachable
recipes. And so to do that, I'vegot a cohost with me.

(03:43):
I got mister John Gordon.

John Gordon (03:45):
Thanks, Jared. Just got back from North Dakota,
author of road for DUTV. Man,great to be here. The hunting
season's already going up there.Soon to be here.
We got a really special guesttoday, you know, with us who's
gonna really show us how to cooksome easy simple recipes.

I'm excited about that. We have Craig Verhaga with
Royal Oak aka the barbecueninja.

Craig Verhage (04:07):
Man, appreciate the intro and really appreciate
the invite here. I tell youguys, you know, coming to the
grounds of of Ducks Unlimited isis a bucket list of mine. And
really to come here and to sharemy passion of barbecue and
hunting and cooking at thehunting camp and and, you know,
sharing fellowship with thefamily and easy recipes, very

(04:29):
approachable recipes because Itell you, it doesn't have to be
that hard. No. These days,there's very affordable options
at the grocery store, and havingduck as the protein, the primary
protein, which is really, I say,is really like steak.
Yeah. And and to use that and tosubstitute that into easy
recipes, I'm looking forward togetting this on.

I think it's gonna be great. Well, we've got the
smoke already rolling, and y'allstay tuned to see what's in
store. Craig, one of the recipesI'm most excited about you doing
today is a taco. Man, it's the eone of the easiest ways and most

(05:12):
versatile ways to make anythingdelicious, so I'm excited about
it. Go ahead and take us intowhat you got going.

I tell you, it's like you said, man, you can taco
almost anything. You just haveto have the basic ingredients,
and I do this green sauce, whichyou'll be able to get the
ingredients in the link below.And I do a fresh slaw and, of
course, the protein. And whenyou put those together Simple,
easy

Right. And amazing. That's the important
part.

Other than, you know, the it's a little involved
getting that sauce right, butI'm gonna tell you, once you get
that sauce right, it's good onthe shoe.

I was about to say, it's it it looks really
versatile, so that's a prettycool thing to to do.

Right. Right. And the like I said, the slaw, it's
basically just two ingredients.It's lime, it's pineapple to
have that little bit of sweet inthere that that kinda cuts down
on a little bit of the heat, andand then that duck comes in
there and that's that proteinthat that hits and it marries up
great.

I'm ready for it. So let's jump into it.

Well, I tell you what, it's it it's gonna be
quick. It's gonna be easy. Gonnadump one bag of slaw. I'm gonna
use the the juice of threelimes. And the the main thing is
is do this right before.
Yeah. You that You don't wantsoggy slaw. Right. Exactly. And
that Yeah.
That happens, and it's gonnahappen if you do it too far

(06:29):
ahead of time. And I tell you,it's just the these these
flavors really marry up togethergood because you got the acid of
the lime, you've got the thesweet of the pineapple, and then
in this this sauce, this sauceis just fantastic. I mean, it
hits a lot of notes on thetongue. That's the lime. We're
use about half a can of thispineapple.

And that's just crushed pineapple.

That's just crushed pineapple. And I like I
like it to be simple, but I alsolike for it to keep that crunch,
keep

that

texture because, you know, a lot of food is is
texture. Right. You you

eat That's the an important thing with a taco.

Right. A lot of times, people, they like
something because of texture orthey don't like it because of
texture. That's right. They maylike flavor.

My kids especially.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So really and
I tell you, you can't let's justput a touch of this in here. You
know why?
Because you can.

Because you can,

and it's good. There you go.

Sauce made up.

That's slaw. And then, you know, after this,
we're gonna go to the grill,we're gonna grill up the duck,
and then we're gonna come backand we're gonna build the final
product, which is that tacoyou're gonna eat.

I'm looking forward to it.

Alright, Jared. One last thing we gotta do
before we go to the grill andsear off these these duck
breasts. As you can see, theseare some good awesome teal
breasts that were killed inearly season, and I'm gonna put
a light coat of some TwistedOliver all purpose rub. I was

gonna ask, what's your favorite what's your go to
rub on here? Just an AP This istype rub, all purpose rub? This
is salt, pepper, garlicky type.

Exactly. Okay. I mean, that's what it is, and and
it puts a a a great flavor onthere as far as I love garlic.
Of course, who you know, if youdon't like garlic, you gotta
kinda wonder about a person thatdon't like garlic.

It goes well, those that plays well with duck

It does.

Because it's a red meat, so

And the other one I like to use, this is a it's
called Fade to Black by LCBarbecue out of Texas, and this
is a charcoal activated rub.

That's

cool. So it is a black rub, but it is man, it it
just explodes with flavor, andthis is what I use on steaks.
Like you said, the

Yeah.

The red meat, It it it There. It's what it's for.
Okay. So we'll do a little bitof a layer of this, and then
we'll hit the grill.

That sounds good. I'm ready to hear sizzles. It's
looking pretty. Everything'sstarting to seasoning, starting
to stick on there. Like, it'stime to go.
I'm looking forward to this.What are you looking to try and
do, like cooking wise? You'relooking for a medium on the

(09:06):
inside

or I'm looking for a medium rare. Medium rare.
We're gonna we're gonna hitthese things just, man, a
minute, two minutes on eachside. Uh-huh. Just kinda watch
it, get that good sizzle, getthat good char, turn it one
time, another minute, minute anda half, two minutes.

It's done. It'll be done. Alright. Alright.

Here we go. See that sizzle?

It's doing it.

And you know, when you cook these to the point
where you start to see, youknow, yeah, some of the juices
coming out of the top, you know,it's starting to

See that color come up from the bottom a little
Yeah. Bit

That's when you know.

That's when you know. Big thing is just don't
overcook duck.

That is it, yeah.

Everybody talks about, oh, ducks gamey, ducks
strong, because you probablyovercooked it.

Right, right. And it goes back to, you know, duck
is a migrating bird. It's notlike a a chicken or a turkey
that is farm raised that don'tfly.

Right. Right.

That's where your white meat in the breast comes
because they don't fly. They gotno blood pumping through the
breast. Yep. A migrating bird,like a duck, a dove, a goose,
it's gonna be red meat. You'regonna cook it to what you would
a steak, not 165 plus like youwould a white meat chicken or
turkey.

That's something that I, you know, I'm kind of a
nerd, yeah, it's that red meat'sgot myoglobin in there and what
it does, it's got a lot of iron.And so if you cook that iron,
same thing you'd have withblood, right, it's gonna make
gamey flavor. Right. And sobeing careful with that not
overcooking it is important.

And you're a doctor, so you can say
myoglobin.

I can. I taught I spent a while in the classroom.
I didn't talk

about that stuff. I I'm not educated enough to
pronounce to say that word, muchless pronounce it right, much
less spell it. So, all right,we're turning these. I mean,
look at the color. You can seethe dark in the rub, that's that
charcoal rub, but also, youknow, the sear

that You the things are can smell that
starting to really kick off

too. Oh yeah. I think it's time to get these
dudes off. What do you think?

I think so. They're smelling good. Are you
gonna let them rest for a littlebit? Yeah.

We'll let them rest, you know, like you would a
steak. I mean, we we keeptalking about how these these
red meat, just like steak, fiveminutes, let it rest.

Let them rest. Let those juices kinda re spread
back out. Let's get these to

the table and let's

get you

eating tacos. Cut up.

Yep. Sounds good.

Hey. We're here to the prep of the tacos. We've
got the slaw done. We've got thegreen sauce done. We've got the
duck done.
We've got the the taco shellsdone.

Threw them on the grill real quick, toasted them
up. You always wanna warm yourthe tortillas a little bit, no
matter if it's corn or a sausagetortilla.

That's it. And, you know, what I'm gonna do is
is I'm gonna slice this duckreal thin.

Still got a nice pink on the inside. That's what
you're going for?

Yeah. And and and I tell you, you know, it's it's
one of those that let's say itagain. Don't overcook your
dough. So we're gonna go that'sgonna be one taco.

These are you said these are some teal breasts, so
these are small. If you did amallard or something like that,
you'd make a lot more tacos witha mallard breast.

Definitely. For mallard breasts, you could
probably make all four of thesetacos. Yeah. But I I tell you,
you go back to the spice and thegrill flavor of this duck breast
to the sweet and the acidity inthe slaw to the the guacamole,
jalapeno, a little bit of spicein this green sauce. And I tell

(12:29):
you, man, it all comes together.

All comes together, and you've got a
little bit of tajin here too?

Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna put a little bit of
that tajin over the at the veryend.

Top it off.

And I tell you, can't wait for you to take that
bite because it will be anabsolute flavor explosion. So
here we are. And a lot of thattexture too in that slaw has a
lot to do with it. Little greensauce.

Green sauce. Mister John Gordon has
impeccable timing. He had to runaway, but he's gonna fly back in
now because Wouldn't

you know? He timed it just right. The food is
in. Just in

time, guys. You know, I was I had to put out
some fires for the new women'soutdoor shoes, DUSN on YouTube.
Be sure to check that out. SoI'm back, and Craig, I can't
wait for this taco, This isgonna be unbelievable.

Here's a napkin if you need it.

I'm gonna make a mess probably. Hey.

That's why we're out here and we're over grass
and and Cheers. Cheers. Here wego. Duck tacos coming at you.

Mhmm. Right? The green sauce is amazing with that
duck. Got a little heat in it,really good, like you're talking
texture from the slaw, thatcomes together perfectly.

And then that protein of that duck rolls right
in there. All balanced. It's aperfect bite.

Perfect bite. It's amazing. Well, Craig, you've got
another recipe up for us here.This one's a little different
spin. We went real classic kindawith taco and something easy on
the grill.
On this one, we're using thegrill for this, but you don't
have to have a grill for thisrecipe. So take us through what

(14:06):
this next recipe is,

and it's Yeah. Yeah. It is easy. I mean, what I
did was was I got, you know, oneof the box spaghettis, rice you
know, rice a roni, whatever.Actually what they call it, and
you can get all kinds ofdifferent flavors.
It takes all of about fifteenminutes to cook the pasta, get
it ready to go. And now with theduck, I'm a hammer it flat, and

(14:28):
then I'm a egg wash, panko, thenwe're gonna get a little bit of
olive oil in in the ironskillet, put it over the coals,
get it hot. A little shallow fryon Yeah. A little shallow fry on
it. We're lay it over the thepasta, put a little bit of
Parmesan over the top of that.
Now, when you look at this,there's all kinds of different
Ways you can do it. Ways you cando it. Now, you walk down the

(14:51):
aisle with the pasta and there'sall kinds of sauces. Mhmm. You
know, just like you walk downYeah.
And there's all kinds of graviesand and things like that, but
they're premade already.

Right.

All you do is warm it up, put it over the top,
and you got, you know, Alfredo,duck Alfredo. So just You

can take this and put a different spin on it in
all kinds of different ways.Yeah. I'm looking at it too
going, man, you could almost dolike a duck Parmesan type thing
as well.

Exactly. With

a little red sauce and Yeah. Marinara over It'd be
pretty good too.

Duck is so versatile and you can you can do
that. Just just go to thegrocery store, walk down the
aisle, see what you can do withit, know that it's a red
protein, and have fun.

Yeah. Oh, wow. This is gonna be a good one.

So next we're gonna do is we're gonna pound
out this duck. Now, the the thepounding process, what it does
is is it breaks that fiber up inthe duck and and it makes it
tender.

And it's easiest to do this in a ziplock.
Otherwise, you're gonna make abig mess. You will.

You will. And and, you know, I I do this with
with with duck, but, you know,you also with chicken, with with
pork, and, you know, differentthings that that like to pound
flat and break those fibers upin there to

You did it with deer as well?

Yeah.

Exactly. There you go. We'll egg wash this.

And you got one of the the panko the seasoned panko
mixes. I did. You know? So

Right. Right.

So it makes it easier Easier. Easier to travel.
If you're cooking at duck camp,this is a great way to minimize
all the ingredients you need. SoI really like that side of it.

So And and you know, the thing about it is is
bread crumbs is just like thepasta. It's just like rice. It's
Whatever's

been on it.

Seasoning. Yeah. You you can do different things,
but

but You're going twice in here.

You're doubling, double I'm gonna double up on
it, and it's ready to go.

We're gonna get that thing in the grease.

And you can see yeah. It's it's double pankoed.
We'll get the olive oil over onthe grill ready to go, and then
a quick sear on each side, andit'll be ready to go.

And we're going to a shallow fry now. Right?

That is. We've got the iron skillet on the over
the coals, and you got a littlebit of olive oil in there. But,
you know, this is something thatyou can have already in the
pantry at the at hunting camp.You can already have some
noodles in there. You gotbutter.
You got garlic. Sometimes youdon't have to use panko. You can
just use flour. Yep. So veryversatile.

(17:07):
And but now this this grease isready, we're gonna go in the
skillet. Oh, yeah. We'll get itbrowned up real good on each
side. I like to, you know, kindado it quick just like that's the
theme of cooking duck. Right.
It quick.

You're either doing it real quick or you're
gonna cook it to death, one ortwo.

Right. And and that's when that gamey part
comes which we're gonna avoidthat. We've been on here about
five minutes now and I took alittle bit of a peek and that
other side is golden brown. Itis. It is.
It is.

It's looking right.

I feel

I can also see it starting to creep, that color
change starting to creep on theedge.

Look at that golden brown.

Amazing. That's what you This side won't take
quite as long probably either.No.

Three to four minutes. And you got

the pasta out. We had pre made some the pasta roni
that you'd already made. Sure.It's a

great way to just heat it up. Heat that up. This
is I mean, this is gettingclose. You can already see how
it's starting to lift a littlebit. Mhmm.
So we won't go too much longeron that at all. Another minute.

You got a really nice even heat Yeah. Right now
too, which I've noticed with acook today. Like, it's been it's
not super hot, but it's hotenough to get it done quick.
Been impressed with that withthat fire management.

Well, after doing it for thirty plus years I
figured. We figured out a coupleof things. We got

a pro.

But this and, you know, iron skillet, you know,
anytime you're cooking, youknow, over over coals and
Evening it out. It evens it outand and does a really good job.
But I tell you what, Jared, thislooks beautiful. Let's take this
to the table, and let's get itplated up and have a biter, two
or 10 or 20. How about that?

For all of it.

It smells amazing, so let's get smooth.

We got this fried up duck. You've shallow pan
fried that thing up and panko.We've got our pasta ready. Let's
pull this thing together.

I tell you, I'm excited about this one. That
duck turned out absolutelyfantastic, browned up. So what
we're gonna do is here, Jaredand John, we're going to make a
little bed of this pasta.

And that's a garlic and parm pasta? Is that
what you?

It's a garlic and olive oil. Garlic and olive oil.
The the the panko is Parmesanpanko.

Okay.

And we're gonna actually add a little bit more
Parmesan at the end with thisit's a five cheese Italian
style, so Yeah. It's it'sdefinitely some different stuff.
So here we go. Right over thetop. We'll add a little bit of
this.
Alright, guys. Cheers. Here'sthis again. Mhmm. Duck and
pasta.

(19:36):
I tell you what, that'sfantastic.

It comes together really well since you pounded it
out. It's really tender bite.I've got that crunch on that
panko. Goes well with the thepasta, like Yeah. That one's a
I'm gonna be cooking that for mykids because they're gonna crush
that.

That that's a great bite. I mean, that like
you said, the texture of of thecrunch of the of that panko on
the outside and the softness ofthe pasta, and then you got
garlic in there. I mean

And people think about ducks a lot of times being
being a tougher texture of meat.Mhmm. I mean, that's just like
butter.

I tell you, the next recipe we're gonna do is is
a spin off of a southern classicof shrimp and grits, but we're
gonna do a ducking grits. AndI've heard around that you're
kind of fond of a grit. What alldo you do?

I do like grits. I like them a lot, and we use them
really versatile around ourhouse and and where you would
use, like, mashed potatoes orsomething like that in our
dinners. So we'll do a cheesegrits. My kids love them, which
is awesome. So anything thatyou've got, any kind of protein,
a little bit of, a gravy typething, man, they're good.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, this is very simple again.
That's been the whole point ofwhat we're doing is easy Easy.
Economical, and something thatthat if you're just around
hunting camp, you can look inthe cabinet and you got grits.

You can probably fold yeah. Pull this stuff up.

And then you can do this. And that's one thing we
have here. We just have someinstant grits. Half a cup Yep.
Of water, warm water

to a pack. We use the same thing when I cook.

It's Yeah. So And then, you know, the duck breast,
we're gonna we're gonna spice itup with a little bit of Bayou
blend by Little Malcolm stuff.Little Malcolm Reed there. And
this gives that Cajun kick, thatlittle bit of flare, that little
bit of heat in there, and we'regonna spice it up with that.
We'll hit it with both sides.
And these are these are tealbreasts. These will man, teal

(21:22):
are just good. They really are.

They really are.

They're small, they cook fast, they're
versatile, and and You

gotta be careful not to overcook them.

Yeah. Exactly. And then what we're gonna do is
we're gonna top it off with somebacon and I mean bacon. Bacon.
Bacon.

I would say you could use leftover bacon from
breakfast or something, butthere's no such thing as
leftover Right. A matter

of fact Breakfast. This bacon right
here, I cooked this morning, andI had to hide it from my wife
because I would not have had it

to I would have had to hide it for myself. Well,
But you can get, like, thelittle packets of precooked
bacon. That works well for thistype of stuff.

You can. Exactly. Exactly. And then after we get
done, at the very end, you'llsee I'll top it off with a
little Parmesan cheese. Mhmm.
You I mean, you can do a garlicbutter or anything like that to
to put over the top, greenonion, you know, a lot of ways
you can go with it.

I really like when I do my shrimp and grits, one of
the things that I love to do orjust with any kind of duck, I
like to bring some sage intothat too, a little sage in
there. Like, sage plays wellwith duck.

Noted. I'll have to work on that. Hey. Let's get
this duck going. Let's get tothe grill and fire it up.

You got these duck breast seasoned up, so what's
our plan here?

Man, you know, another quick sear on the grill,
you know, going medium rare. Weuse a little bit of Bayou blend,
killer hogs on here. And otherother than that, we're gonna go
with just a traditional shrimpand grits kind of flavors, have

some

garlic in there, have some bacon in there, you
know, and there's other ways youcan go with it with butter,
green onion, different thingslike that, but we're just gonna
hit this with a quick sear. Andthere again, don't overcook your
duck.

We're gonna say that a lot on here, and and
that's like that's the goldenrule. Yeah. It really is. It is.
And I think most people knowthat now, but no.

More one twenty five, one thirty.

If you're pinning, yeah, that one twenty five, one
thirty, don't go over one thirtyfive.

Right. Right.

That's kind of my go to, so

And know it's gonna carry over a little bit.
It will. Right. You know, thatone twenty, one twenty five,
stick in that range because itwill run over, you know,
somewhere from four to fivedegrees after you take it off
too, so be careful there.

If you want if you want a little more forgiveness
in that, I do this a lot, I'llbrine my ducks. Mhmm. It gives
them a little bit moreforgiveness on that doneness and
not drying them out too much,things like that. Right. It is
an extra step.
Generally, I generally do itovernight, and so it's not
necessary, but it's somethingyou can do to give yourself a
little more forgiveness cookingduck.

Well, you know, you speak of that, and it makes
me think of when I put duck upin the freezer, after I clean
them, I like to soak my duck forfour to six days in salt water.

Okay.

And I usually change it out every other day.
So and I do this with all of mywild game, but when I take that
duck out and I thaw it out, Iwanna have it grill ready.

Right.

I want it to be You want it go quick? Yeah. Same
thing with deer, same thing, youknow, I

But you've already got a little bit of that brine
effect by doing that. Yeah.

That that was what made me think of Right. Of
of that part, but evenalligator, I hunt alligator. You
know, I like to clean, I like toget the fat off, I like to get
the tendons out, I like to geteverything done so when it goes
time to cook, it gets thawedout, it gets seasoned, it goes
to grill, it's ready. I don'thave to do a lot of prep work
beforehand. Right.
Jared, the the coals got alittle lashed over, they were

(24:49):
getting a little bit of cool, sowhat I wanna do is hurry these
things up. So tell everybodywhat we got going on here.

So we went caveman style. You went straight. You
pulled them off the grates justto kinda finish so we could
speed that heat up and thatcook, and you went directly on
the coals.

Directly on the coals. And using that all
natural lump charcoal, you don'thave any binders, any fillers,
or anything in there to worryabout only. It's just all
natural.

And most of that that charcoal is gonna come off
when you pull it up. Right.

Let's go make some I'm ready. Dunking grits.
That's it. Alright. Let's go.
And then the grits are justsimple. I mean, they're instant
grits. I did an original, andyou saw what what was the other
I did?

It was a country bacon blend.

Country bacon blend.

Kinda pull some bacon theme through that.

Yeah. Exactly. And I'm gonna finish it off. I'm
gonna cut it up thin, put it inthe grits, and then I'm gonna
put a little bit of the allpurpose garlic, the twisted all
over it, a little bit more ofthe bayou blend over it, and
then finish it with a little bitof Parmesan. Parmesan?
Slicing it thin, and you can seethe red in there. Still medium

(25:55):
rare. This is cooked bacon.We're gonna sprinkle a little
cooked bacon in there, crumbledup, and you know it's all going
in there. I mean, it's everybodyin the pool.
Then we're gonna sprinkle alittle bit of this all purpose
garlic, a little more of thebayou blend, killer hogs. Then
we're gonna finish it off with alittle of this five cheese

(26:16):
blend, and that'll give it alittle bit of

grits up a little bit?

Cheese and grits. I mean, you know, it's kinda
like peanut and butter. It goestogether. It does. We're gonna
have a

little salsa. Give us a try.

Yeah. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Cheers. Here's to
some duck and grits, ninjastyle.

Easy. It works so well together. It's phenomenal.
Like, I kinda wanna take that asa snack out in the duck blind.

I mean, really. I mean, on the deer stand

Can just package it like that and I carry

it with

me with

a spoon?

At the tailgate? Yeah. Wherever you wanna go.

Put it in a ziplock bag, throw it in your
pocket with a spoon, and justpull it out. Good. Snack on a
little bit here

and there. So easy. It's delicious. Well,
gentlemen, this has been a lotof fun. The food was amazing.
Those tacos were fire. The gritswere amazing, and you throw that
in there with some of that duckand pasta. All that was awesome.
We're gonna wrap up this outdoorpart. I think we're gonna all
jump over into the podcaststudio and do a little bit of a
quick discussion kind of on howyou could take these up a notch

(27:12):
or manipulate them a little bitand just kinda tips and advice
on how to actually pull this offat duck camp.
Hopefully, y'all enjoyed thecooking part outdoors. We've had
fantastic weather. So we'll seey'all in the podcast studio.

VO (27:32):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan and Bird DogWhiskey after these messages.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. We're back in the
studio now. We just wrapped up aa great cooking episode. Got
back in the studio with me.
I've got John Gordon, cohostover here for today.

Great to be here again, Jared. I mean, was it was
fantastic. You know, Craig, histalent with creating really
simple and great tasting duckdishes is is really outstanding.

That's it. And, Craig, we're so glad. So we got
Craig Verhaga again, barbecueninja from Royal Oak. Again,
really glad to have you in hereto really talk about some really
easy but delicious duck dishesyou can do at duck camp, your
backyard, wherever. So, Craig,so so glad you were were here
for this.

You know, it it doesn't have to be hard. Right.
You know? It's one of thosethings, and and my cooking
philosophy is when you put goodI I use kind of a different
word, but when you put goodstuff with good stuff, you get
good stuff.

Right.

And and and there again, like I said, it doesn't
have to be overcomplicated. Somany things in the store these
days that are premade or or justyou just add one ingredient or
two ingredients and

That's it.

You know, there it is. And and, you know, duck
being as versatile it is as itis, you know, red meat, it it
can go into a lot of differentdishes.

That's it. That's it. And so we're gonna kinda go
dish by dish through some ofthese, just kinda talking again,
and I'm gonna start with thestar of the show for me because
that duck taco was phenomenal.It was pretty simple. That slaw
though, like, I've never had aslaw made like that, and it was

(31:11):
perfect.
Add that perfect texture to it,and then that that green sauce.

Man, that green sauce is unbelievable.

You know, we were

we were, you know, down in Texas filming DU Nation
back in during till season andand on Spread Oaks Ranch, you
know, that's where Craig madethat green sauce from start to
finish. So, you know, when thatepisode comes out, everybody
will see how to make it, butit's it's it sets that taco off,
and we did it with an alligator,so you can really use it with

(31:39):
anything.

Yeah. Yeah. No.

And it's one of those things too that as I go
out, because I mean my job is II travel the nation and, you
know, I do marketing for RoyalOak Charcoal, and and I get to
see all these different peoplefrom different areas of the
nation that have differentrecipes. And and that green just
a little history of the greensauce. I was out in Oregon, and

(32:04):
and I've been looking for asecond recipe for alligator.
I've had the the I call it, aredneck lobster roll where you
do the boudin cream cheese,ranch dressing stuffing. Well,
I'd been developing this tacoand I knew I had the the the the
slaw down.
Yep. You know, it's the lime,cilantro, pineapple slaw, and

(32:27):
and I had the the the alligatorwith the chorizo down. And when
I came across that green sauce,it was a team that I sponsor was
out there, and they were makingtacos as vending. And, you know,
I hit that green sauce, and Iwas like, oh, that that's That's
it. That that's gonna seal thedeal right there.
That's the that's the that's thegame changer. So so, yeah, it

(32:51):
goes it pairs well with it andIt does. You know, you you grill
the you grill the duck mediumrare

Yep.

And you you can use, you know I used the LC
barbecue Fade in Black Mhmm.Which is a charcoal activated
seasoning, and and it's really,really good. It's, you know,
it's garlicky, and it's got theIt's good. You know, onion pie.
Yeah.
It's just got a lot of of goodstuff that's that's really good

(33:17):
on on red meat. And, you know,sliced it thin, you know, the
the lime, cilantro, pineappleslaw, and then that green sauce,
which is a guacamole jalapeno.But that green sauce, yeah, it
gives it that vinegar pop and

It brings some brightness to it. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, that that it's one of those you
could you could put chicken onit. And matter of fact, I was at
camp this weekend and I had somesmoked turkey Yeah. And I made
the taco same way with smokedturkey,

and

and it's just so versatile. It really is.

Well, I mean and the cool thing about that whole
dish is, and any kind of tacois, like, you can put a little
of your own spin on it. So ifyou're listening to this and
that sounds good, but maybe youdon't want it so spicy, you
don't want the jalapenos, youcould probably throw some
poblanos in there or you coulddo a tamed jalapeno or
something. You could take thatdown a lot. If you do want the
heat, you can take the heat uptoo.

That's what I find more and more that people
want it hotter, you know. Andand of course, you could slice
fresh jalapeno

Yep.

And put on there, leave the seeds, get it, get
that heat level really really upthere. So but but it's just hot.
Like you said, where you wannago with it. That's it.

You could change the slaw a little if you wanted
to. You could add a little bitof, you know, cheese, maybe some
queso fresco, something likethat on there. But it didn't
need any of that, just so y'allknow. Give it a try. That thing
was was good.

The only way you really could mess it up is not
eat

it. That's true. Yeah. That's true. That's a
fact.
Anything else on that dish thaty'all wanna kinda talk to that?

We did a street taco

That's it.

Which which, you know, you you can do a regular
sized taco. Right. You can, youknow, or you can wrap that dude
up and burrito it. Yeah. Make aburrito.
That's it. Throw some beans inthere.

Yeah. You could do a little chopped fine chopped up
cilantro and white onion, yellowonion, just chop it up and
sprinkle all that on there andthat'd be really good too. That
goes good with duck. Duck'srich.

Yeah.

Right? And so that some of anything like that that
brings that brightness andfreshness to us can really
elevate that that duck flavor.The second dish we did was the
the duck and pasta, which, man,that the panko encrusted duck
was was amazing. It was reallygood and really and it was it it

(35:31):
took you like three minutes toget that thing like ready to go
in the pan. You pounded thatthat duck breast out flat to
make it a little more tender,spread it out a little bit, make
it cook more even, I'm assuming.

Yeah. That, it just, you know, to to get that
good coverage of that panko soyou get, you know, good crunch,
you bite. And, yeah, as you sawand as you'll see on the video,
was very easy. Walking throughthe store, you know, you got
Pasta Roni. Yeah.
And that Pasta Roni, all you dois add water.

That's it.

And so how easy, you know, can it be? And and so,
yeah. And and to have thattexture of the pasta, a little
softer with the crunch of thethe duck panko, and and, you
know, I knew it was good, but Iwas a little surprised it was
that good.

It was real good. Really good. The pasta roni you
got was a pretty simple. It wasolive oil and garlic or
something like that. Yeah.
Mean It's garlic and

olive oil.

So it you didn't didn't take that recipe too
crazy with flavors, but it wentreally well.

And if you're in the you're in the store, you
know that section. I mean Yeah.You know, Uncle Ben's has all
kinds of rice stuff. That wouldbe great. Can just Yeah.
You know, do rice, serve it overrice, serve it over pasta, and
put it in microwave for sixtyseconds or ninety seconds or
something, and you got, youknow, you got a meal

That's it.

With the rice or pasta. So very easy.

Yeah. Very easy, man. And it really had a very,
you know, with that panko crustand everything, it's very
Italian flavoring to that.Right? It just, you know, really
that crunch mixture with thepasta is outstanding.

And It's there again, it's versatile.

It screamed, like, tasting it, was like, oh, I
wanna do like a a a duck parmYeah. With this.

That's it.

Like, red sauce on it with some cheese and melt
that thing Yeah. The big thing,like, if you're gonna do that,
be careful not to overcook it inthe shallow fry if you're gonna
Yeah. Melt something over thetop of it. So just to to be
aware of your your temperatureand how long you're cooking.

And versatility there again, I mean, you can
pound out a chicken breast, youcan pound out a pork loin, you
can pound out

Deer steak.

Deer steak, you know, but I think the best way
is with duck.

Duck was it was good. It was real good. And
we're not sponsored by Kinders,but I think that was a Kinders
pancake It was.

It was.

Breadcrumbs and those were pretty good.

They are?

Just to let you know. And that's Pretty easy to
find.

Right. And there again, they have different
flavors of breadcrumbs, so youcould go some different routes
with that or just get regularbreadcrumbs

and Yep. Season

Yeah. Very easy.

Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. And and the third one
was what you would really thinkabout is a southern inspired
dish, right, with the grits.That's it.

Yeah. I mean, shrimp and grits is is southern
as it gets, and, you know, thiswas just a spin off of that.
Using the protein, the duck hasprotein and Mhmm. Medium rare
again, you know, make sure youget that thing, you know, cooked
right. And we, you know, spicedit with some, you know, good
rubs.
I think we did the LC with withthat also.

Yep. I think you did use a little Cajun on one of
those too.

Did. Yeah. Used them out. I thank you for
bringing that back to It's, youknow, been a few minutes, but
but, yeah, the King Craw

That was good.

Malcolm Reed. And so but, yeah, how hard is is
getting a little bit of instantgrits?

That's it.

You know? Hot water grits? Yep. Boom. And then
cut up the duck.

And it came together and you had you used,
like, three packets of grits forthat. Two of them were just
regular plain grits or or butterand the other one was it was a
bacon. Yeah. Yeah.

It was a country style bacon.

Country style bacon grits. Yeah. And that
pulled all those flavorstogether really well. I mean,
those are those are things that,like, we have at duck camp a lot
of times. I'll have some gritsaround there for cooking for
breakfast or something, instantgrits, then you got duck and you
definitely got Cajun seasoning.
I don't know a duck camp thatdoesn't have a can of of some
form of Cajun seasoning.

Exactly. Know, it is fun a lot of times, you know,
if if you do have the duckprotein to go to the pantry,
open it up, see what you got. Imean, you know, if you got just
regular spaghetti noodles, well,chances are you got butter in
the refrigerator, you got garlicin the refrigerator, and and,
you know, you can you can make aform of that dish, you know,

(39:52):
with that or

Right.

So, yeah, it's just I I don't know. I get I get
a lot of fun out of

It was good.

You know, going and Iron chef and yeah. But I
did chop grill mustards, youknow. So I did the chop basket
Yeah. One And that was a lot offun until I had a vegan lobster
in

my basket, you know. Was Yeah. Great. It's not

just bad. Vegan lobster.

So now I'm known for, you know, the vegan lobster
in the chop basket. So but, youknow, I'm from Mississippi. We
don't have too many of thosevegan lobsters around I hear
you. Yeah. So it kind of stompedme a little bit, but

Well, stick with what's in your wheelhouse. Duck
seems to be in your wheelhouse.One of the things that I thought
was really great about theserecipes, they were simple, easy,
you can find the ingredientseasy. All of them you can
actually elevate though too. Cantake the basic things that we
did and you showed us, and youcan take them up a notch.

Well, that it doesn't have to be hard. We said
that in

the in

the very beginning, and and there's so
many things out there that arethat make cooking at home easy.

That's it.

And you just need to add the protein to it. Mhmm.
I mean, it could be, you know,the ramen noodles or something
like that. And, I mean, you toldme a great dish you got.

That's one of my favorite ways to eat leftover
grilled duck is to actually goin because if you reheat grilled
duck, it can get rubbery. Mhmm.Right? And that's one of the
issues. Yep.
You that's not great. But if youmake a good bowl of ramen and,
no, don't use the cheap package.You can, but you can make it
better. I promise. And it's nothard to do.

(41:26):
Add some fresh veggies or oreven just frozen stir fry
veggies to it, mix that in thebroth, and then take that sliced
duck, grilled duck, and just layit across the top. Let that warm
broth heat it up. It'll beperfect almost every time.

That sounds good.

It does sound good. You know?

You know, I was I was a broke college kid and grad
student, you know, I was a wildas a wildlife student doing
doing my work, and you foundways to make wild game and and
stuff taste good off of a very,very thin budget. Ramen noodles
was a way to do that.

I'd tell you, as expensive as grocery store
proteins and meats areEverything. Now the taking
advantage of what we harvest, beit duck, deer, or any other wild
game pheasant or, you know, andturning that into food for our
families and putting on thetable, it becomes more and more
important, you know,

and It does.

And knowing, you know, what's out there as far as
recipes and and different waysof doing things, but easy way of
doing things too. Don't beintimidated. That's it. Yeah.

That's it.

Yeah. And and that's another way another
saying I've got. The I say thewrong way to cook is if you
don't do it at all. Right. Youknow?
Gotta try and

You're mess it up every once in while. Yeah. It's
okay.

Yeah. Exactly.

But you'll learn.

You will. You will. And and I tell you, you
know, you guys in making the theeffort to show the people out
there the way there aredifferent ways to cook stuff,
and and, I mean, I appreciatewhat you guys do as far as, you
know, the conservation part ofDucks Unlimited and and, you
know, making sure that thesebirds are you know, have healthy

(43:04):
habitat, you know, all the wayfrom the prairie in Canada up to
down all the way to here. Andthat way, when you do harvest
that bird, you know it's beenit's been, you know, well
treated and it's been it's ahealthy bird and Yeah. You know,
therefore, it's good food foryour family's table.

You can take pride in that. Right? One, you've got
that connection with, you know,you you gotta went out and you
supplied that that protein, butyou also when when you're eating
wild game that you youharvested, you've got a
different connection with thatmeal than you did with the, you
know, the packaged chicken youbought Right. From the grocery
store. Right?
A little more work went into it,but it also you know the

(43:44):
backstory. You know from fieldto table, the whole processing
and all that, you know, so Ienjoy that and the way that you
made those recipes soapproachable, that's something
that someone can cook any ofthose, serve it to a friend,
have people over, and they'regonna like those dishes, That's
something that they they tasteamazing, they're not super

(44:05):
complicated, it's a good way toget people started in cooking
while game too. Or if you'rejust, you know, bacheloring it
up at Duck Camp and wantsomething easy that's delicious,
that's another good thing forthat.

You know, and I did some some other recipes
that'll be out on DU Nation.

That's that's correct.

Yeah. At at the Spread Oaks Ranch, you wanna
mention

Yeah.

All of that? One one that I really enjoyed,
Craig, was the egg rolls Yeah.That you did. Right? And I mean,
I think,

you know and

and duck lends itself well to Asian fusion.

It does. It does. Big time. Those flavors go well.

Yeah. And and that was another pretty easy
one. I mean, you know, it gets alittle involved rolling an egg
roll, but Yeah. You know, I useda slaw, but all I did there's a
it's called miso naughty. It's amiso Japanese barbecue sauce
that Meat Mitch, a buddy ofmine, makes and did a slaw with

(44:57):
that miso and then had the thesliced duck and I egg rolled it,
fried it, you know, dip it backin a little of that miso, and
man, it turned out really good.

It did. It did. It's and once again, it's just
it was real simple and it, youknow, like it doesn't have to be
complicated whatsoever.

No. No. The the It's like we said, I think
sometimes that intimidationfactor, you know, initially of
saying, you look at that and go,this is deer. I've never cooked
deer or this is duck. I've nevercooked duck.
But you what you gotta think isis this is just a red Red meat.
Protein,

you know. It's a super lean Yeah. Red meat
protein. Yeah. So you gottaremember that.
So you gotta be careful on howyou cook it sometimes. Right.

Yeah. I think a lot of people's bad experiences with
a duck involve overcooking. Imean, to a person. Right? They
had a bad first time and theythen they just never ate it
again.

Comes down to a duck popper generally, And once
you get the bacon crisp on aduck popper It's overcooked. The
the duck is generally ameteorite on the inside.

Right. Well, you know, if you get that good,
really, really hot rolled oatlump charcoal and you get it
good and screaming hot That'sit. And you hit it and you let
that

That's it.

Bacon sear really fast and get it off.

But you would you need a you need a hot hot grill.
Most people, especially ifyou're trying to do it on a gas
grill or something like that.You're stuck the grill's not
gonna get hot enough. Set a gasgrill. We use multiple cooking I
don't know what do.
On it. Know you don't. But butyou can get a charcoal, like,
you get a green egg, even aWeber kettle, you can get those
things screaming hot. Yeah. Andthat's that's where if you're

(46:33):
wanting to sear something andget it quick, that's about the
only way you can do it.

But like John said, they have had it and it's
been overcooked and it gets thatgamey in there and Yeah. And
then but and you gotta givethings more than one
opportunity.

A lot

of times you you eat it that first time and it's
like, you know, it wasn't thatgood. Give it you know, and that
goes with anything, you know?Right. I'll give most everything
a second chance or a thirdchance just to know that that
may just been a bad experienceor a bad, you know, cook or
something and then try it again,but don't be intimidated by it.

No. And and kind of some of my rule of thumb on
duck is if you're gonna dosomething more grilled and
you're not gonna try and cook itto death, there's two ways to
cook duck. You either cook itmedium rare, not past medium, or
you crock pot it basically.

Shred it.

Shred it in. It makes a super rich, like, roast
like flavor, so you can do that,and that's fantastic. But if
you're not gonna go to thatroute, if you're trying to grill
it or something like that, ifyou wanna give yourself a little
forgiveness in the doneness, Ibrine mine. Just a basic turkey
brine, you know, six hours, fourhours to overnight, and he'll

(47:45):
give you a little forgiveness onthat doneness level and keep you
from overcooking it a littlebit. And it's just a trick that
I do, and that's something I'veI've shared with Malcolm when we
had him on and talked about it,and it you can also add a little
bit of brown sugar in thatbrine, little sweetness, and
that pairs really well withduck.

I did watch that, and I did notice that. So

thing too that I've always done that I I I was
taught it, you know, early on,especially with geese was
because it's such rich red meatis I like to bring the blood out
of it. Right? And you gottareally soak that in water Yeah.
With a little salt or whateverfor, you know, multiple days,
really. Can do it.
Keep changing the water out, andthat makes a massive difference
in It can. In ducks and geese.

If you're adding salt to it, you're basically
doing a little light brine overtime. So Yeah. It'll help them
actually hold moisture.

And I do that every time I put up Yeah. Or
geese or something. I mean, Ithink we talked about it as far
as, you know, putting up anywild game. I'm a do everything
on the front. Right.
You know? I'm a have it trimmed.I'm a have it soaked. I'm a have
so when it comes out of thatfreezer and it's thawed out

It's ready to go.

It's ready to go. Yeah. It's ready to cook.

And one other thing on that too that I'll
bring up is, you know, like,snow geese get a bad rap and
stuff like that, but a lot of itcomes down to handling the birds
after a hunt. You know, ifyou've a pile of 50 snow geese,
it may take a little bit to getto the bottom of that pile, and
sometimes things can get alittle awry. So get your birds,
clean them pretty quick, getthem good and clean before you

(49:14):
pack them up, and then there'llbe much better table fare Yeah.
If you spend a little timethere. And then also, I like to
pluck the breast on mine.
Mhmm. If it's a mallard or aspeck or something like that,
I'll pluck all the feathers offthe breast and breast

will be the skin and fat.

You know

you love a spoon, too.

I do. I you know what I like most about a
shoveler? Is they make me looklike a really good shot. Oh, you
know,

you aim for the beak, man. That's all

you need. That's it. Hey, it's blue it's a blue
wing with some It is. With witha goofy beak.

That's right.

I don't get me wrong. I will not hold back if a
lot of shovelers comes to thedecoys.

I've seen this guy pop a blackjack or two.

Man, I'm a fan. You know? We had one season, Jared,
down there in the Delta that,particular lake we've got, Smith
Lake. Man, it was, the the theringnecks were just eating up to
pieces. And so we we had ablast.
And and and a ring neck is areally good table fare, you
know. They're a little tougherto clean, but Yeah.

They are.

You get beyond that.

That's it.

Yeah. It's it's pretty good. Yep. Well, you say
the same for wood ducks.

They are. Right? That's one of the reasons I
actually will will pluck some ofmy ducks is because wood ducks
are such a pain to to breast outMhmm. To peel back because that
skin will always stick. So I'llbreast them out like that and
then we use propane torch, thatflame saber.

Yeah.

It's perfect for that. It's little propane torch.
You can get all the little pinhairs off or pin feathers off,
and make that a much morepresentable dish. You know, if
you've if you've got your littlefill of plumes or or feathers
sticking off the the duck,sometimes your guests aren't as
big a fan of that.

I love and eat good eating wood duck. Me too.

Man.

I can get fatty and delicious. Yeah. Yeah. So
there's lots of great ideashere. What other things would
you say would be, you know, justmight come to mind that things
that you might be able to try atduck camp that that probably
fall into this category?

Of course, you know, at our duck camp, we and I
mentioned this on Malcolm'spodcast, Buck Junkie, that that
we have a Friday traditionthere. This is not wild game,
but we we have a pork steakFriday

Uh-huh.

Every Friday, And there's a stop and shop right in
Hollandao, Mississippi that hasfresh cut, probably quarter inch
pork steaks

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Ep. 726 - Duck Camp Cooking Made Easy w/ the BBQ Ninja

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 726 - Duck Camp Cooking Made Easy w/ the BBQ Ninja