You’ve probably got Christmas dinner handled, from the ham to the green bean casserole to the red velvet cake. But if you’re serving a nice Christmas breakfast or hosting a Christmas Eve brunch for family and friends before the main event, we’ve found some wild game recipes that are sure to impress and show off your love of hunting. What better way to introduce loved ones to organic, free-range wild game?
Overnight Breakfast Strata With Antelope
I am all about recipes you can prep the day before and bake the day of, and this overnight strata from Peak to Plate fills that bill nicely. It includes a simple recipe for making your own antelope (or venison) sausage using ground meat, then dives into the steps of making the strata. It looks and sounds fancier than it is: It’s mostly eggs, brioche rolls, cheese, and sausage, refrigerated overnight to let the bread soak up the eggs. Then you bake it in the morning—maybe pop it in the oven and let it bake while you open the Christmas presents. Simple, cheesy and delicious is my kind of breakfast.
Photo courtesy Peak to Plate
Fried Squirrel With Biscuits and Gravy
As a Southerner, I’m an absolute biscuits and gravy junkie, and this Practical Self Reliance recipe for fried squirrel with biscuits and gravy hits all the right notes. It calls for marinating the squirrel legs in buttermilk, which I’d recommend you do the night before. Then you simply flour and fry them, which takes only a couple of minutes, and whip up a simple milk gravy with the leftover flour from breading the squirrel pieces. Of course, this is begging for homemade biscuits, but we won’t judge if you opt to just bust open a can of Pillsbury dough.
Photo from Practical Self Reliance
Avocado Toast with Eggs and Deer Bacon
I’m Gen X, but I have to admit that millennials nailed it when they popularized avocado toast. It’s delicious! Jeff Benda’s Wild Game and Fish recipe for avocado toast with eggs and deer bacon is full of good stuff: a quality bread (I’m going with sourdough), ripe avocado, scrambled eggs that are neither runny nor browned, and deer bacon. He even gives you detailed instructions on scrambling eggs just the right way as well as a link to a recipe for deer bacon using a combination of ground venison and ground pork. The bacon needs to be smoked, so plan ahead if you want to serve this modern classic for Christmas Eve brunch.
Photo from Wild Game and Fish
Venison, Spinach and Mushroom Frittata
If the strata above is a little too bready for you, this low-carber-friendly venison frittata from Harvesting Nature might be an ideal egg dish that’s a step up from a fussy omelette. It calls for plain ground venison, but certainly venison sausage would be good if you had it, as well as spinach and sliced mushrooms—bonus points if you forage your own wild mushrooms, but again, no judgement. The recipe is as simple as browning the meat, wilting the spinach and combining it with the eggs and seasonings, then baking. Be sure to remove it from the oven when the center is still just a little jiggly, or you’ll overcook it.
Photo from Harvesting Nature
Corned Rabbit Hash
Hash is versatile and tasty, and this corned rabbit version from Outdoor Edge is sure to please. It includes instructions for corning a rabbit, which takes several days, so plan ahead if you’re going to serve this for Christmas breakfast. Once that’s done, the rest of the hash comes together pretty quickly; you’ll be frying bacon, hashbrowns and vegetables in a pan and topping it with the shredded corned rabbit. The recipe calls for topping that with a poached egg, but who has time to individually poach eggs on Christmas morning? I’d fry a few over-easy and call it delicious.
Photo from Outdoor Edge
Fried Pheasant and Waffles
For a real show-stopper, try this MeatEater recipe for fried pheasant and waffles. I won’t lie to you—it’s a bit of work, with homemade waffles using yeast and bread flour, but it sure looks like it’d be worth the effort. You’ll have to work the waffle maker and the deep fryer or skillet at the same time, and both the waffles and the pheasant are best served fresh and piping hot, so this might be a made-to-order situation. Figure one pheasant breast per person unless you have lots of other dishes, and you can scale the recipe accordingly. And splurge on real maple syrup for your topping!
Photo from MeatEater
