Ep. 726 - Duck Camp Cooking Made Easy w/ the BBQ Ninja
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm doctor Jared Henson. I'm your host today. We've got a great episode for you.
Jerad Henson:Weather's cooling off. It's football season. It's hunting season. We got a lot of time now spent at duck camp, and we wanna take today to really talk about some awesome approachable recipes. I think it's gonna be great.
Jerad Henson:Well, we've got the smoke already rolling. Y'all stay tuned and see what's in store.
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VO:I'm your host, doctor Mike Brazier. I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'm your host, doctor Jared Henson. And I'm your host, Matt Harrison.
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Jerad Henson:Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm doctor Jared Henson. I'm your host today. We've got a great episode for you.
Jerad Henson:Weather's cooling off. It's football season. It's hunting season. We got a lot of time now spent at duck camp, and we wanna take today to really talk about some awesome approachable recipes. And so to do that, I've got a cohost with me.
Jerad Henson:I got mister John Gordon.
John Gordon: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.
John Gordon:We got a really special guest today, you know, with us who's gonna really show us how to cook some easy simple recipes.
Jerad Henson:I'm excited about that. We have Craig Verhaga with Royal Oak aka the barbecue ninja.
Craig Verhage:Man, appreciate the intro and really appreciate the invite here. I tell you guys, you know, coming to the grounds of of Ducks Unlimited is is a bucket list of mine. And really to come here and to share my passion of barbecue and hunting and cooking at the hunting camp and and, you know, sharing fellowship with the family and easy recipes, very approachable recipes because I tell you, it doesn't have to be that hard. No. These days, there's very affordable options at the grocery store, and having duck as the protein, the primary protein, which is really, I say, is really like steak.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. And and to use that and to substitute that into easy recipes, I'm looking forward to getting this on.
Jerad Henson:I think it's gonna be great. Well, we've got the smoke already rolling, and y'all stay tuned to see what's in store. Craig, one of the recipes I'm most excited about you doing today is a taco. Man, it's the e one of the easiest ways and most versatile ways to make anything delicious, so I'm excited about it. Go ahead and take us into what you got going.
Craig Verhage:I tell you, it's like you said, man, you can taco almost anything. You just have to have the basic ingredients, and I do this green sauce, which you'll be able to get the ingredients in the link below. And I do a fresh slaw and, of course, the protein. And when you put those together Simple, easy
Jerad Henson:Right. And amazing. That's the important part.
Craig Verhage:Other than, you know, the it's a little involved getting that sauce right, but I'm gonna tell you, once you get that sauce right, it's good on the shoe.
Jerad Henson:I was about to say, it's it it looks really versatile, so that's a pretty cool thing to to do.
Craig Verhage: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 in there that that kinda cuts down on a little bit of the heat, and and then that duck comes in there and that's that protein that that hits and it marries up great.
Jerad Henson:I'm ready for it. So let's jump into it.
Craig Verhage:Well, I tell you what, it's it it's gonna be quick. It's gonna be easy. Gonna dump one bag of slaw. I'm gonna use the the juice of three limes. And the the main thing is is do this right before.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. You that You don't want soggy slaw. Right. Exactly. And that Yeah.
Craig Verhage:That happens, and it's gonna happen if you do it too far ahead of time. And I tell you, it's just the these these flavors really marry up together good because you got the acid of the lime, you've got the the sweet of the pineapple, and then in this this sauce, this sauce is just fantastic. I mean, it hits a lot of notes on the tongue. That's the lime. We're use about half a can of this pineapple.
Jerad Henson:And that's just crushed pineapple.
Craig Verhage:That's just crushed pineapple. And I like I like it to be simple, but I also like for it to keep that crunch, keep
Jerad Henson:that
Craig Verhage:texture because, you know, a lot of food is is texture. Right. You you
Jerad Henson:eat That's the an important thing with a taco.
Craig Verhage:Right. A lot of times, people, they like something because of texture or they don't like it because of texture. That's right. They may like flavor.
Jerad Henson:My kids especially.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So really and I tell you, you can't let's just put a touch of this in here. You know why?
Craig Verhage:Because you can.
Jerad Henson:Because you can,
Craig Verhage:and it's good. There you go.
Jerad Henson:Sauce made up.
Craig Verhage: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 back and we're gonna build the final product, which is that taco you're gonna eat.
Jerad Henson:I'm looking forward to it.
Craig Verhage:Alright, Jared. One last thing we gotta do before we go to the grill and sear off these these duck breasts. As you can see, these are some good awesome teal breasts that were killed in early season, and I'm gonna put a light coat of some Twisted Oliver all purpose rub. I was
Jerad Henson:gonna ask, what's your favorite what's your go to rub on here? Just an AP This is type rub, all purpose rub? This is salt, pepper, garlicky type.
Craig Verhage:Exactly. Okay. I mean, that's what it is, and and it puts a a a great flavor on there as far as I love garlic. Of course, who you know, if you don't like garlic, you gotta kinda wonder about a person that don't like garlic.
Jerad Henson:It goes well, those that plays well with duck
Craig Verhage:It does.
Jerad Henson:Because it's a red meat, so
Craig Verhage:And the other one I like to use, this is a it's called Fade to Black by LC Barbecue out of Texas, and this is a charcoal activated rub.
Jerad Henson:That's
Craig Verhage:cool. So it is a black rub, but it is man, it it just explodes with flavor, and this is what I use on steaks. Like you said, the
Jerad Henson:Yeah.
Craig Verhage:The red meat, It it it There. It's what it's for. Okay. So we'll do a little bit of a layer of this, and then we'll hit the grill.
Jerad Henson:That sounds good. I'm ready to hear sizzles. It's looking pretty. Everything's starting to seasoning, starting to stick on there. Like, it's time to go.
Jerad Henson:I'm looking forward to this. What are you looking to try and do, like cooking wise? You're looking for a medium on the inside
Craig Verhage:or I'm looking for a medium rare. Medium rare. We're gonna we're gonna hit these things just, man, a minute, two minutes on each side. Uh-huh. Just kinda watch it, get that good sizzle, get that good char, turn it one time, another minute, minute and a half, two minutes.
Jerad Henson:It's done. It'll be done. Alright. Alright.
Craig Verhage:Here we go. See that sizzle?
Jerad Henson:It's doing it.
Craig Verhage:And you know, when you cook these to the point where you start to see, you know, yeah, some of the juices coming out of the top, you know, it's starting to
Jerad Henson:See that color come up from the bottom a little Yeah. Bit
Craig Verhage:That's when you know.
Jerad Henson:That's when you know. Big thing is just don't overcook duck.
Craig Verhage:That is it, yeah.
Jerad Henson:Everybody talks about, oh, ducks gamey, ducks strong, because you probably overcooked it.
Craig Verhage:Right, right. And it goes back to, you know, duck is a migrating bird. It's not like a a chicken or a turkey that is farm raised that don't fly.
Jerad Henson:Right. Right.
Craig Verhage:That's where your white meat in the breast comes because they don't fly. They got no blood pumping through the breast. Yep. A migrating bird, like a duck, a dove, a goose, it's gonna be red meat. You're gonna cook it to what you would a steak, not 165 plus like you would a white meat chicken or turkey.
Jerad Henson:That's something that I, you know, I'm kind of a nerd, yeah, it's that red meat's got 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 with blood, right, it's gonna make gamey flavor. Right. And so being careful with that not overcooking it is important.
Craig Verhage:And you're a doctor, so you can say myoglobin.
Jerad Henson:I can. I taught I spent a while in the classroom. I didn't talk
Craig Verhage:about that stuff. I I'm not educated enough to pronounce to say that word, much less pronounce it right, much less spell it. So, all right, we're turning these. I mean, look at the color. You can see the dark in the rub, that's that charcoal rub, but also, you know, the sear
Jerad Henson:that You the things are can smell that starting to really kick off
Craig Verhage:too. Oh yeah. I think it's time to get these dudes off. What do you think?
Jerad Henson:I think so. They're smelling good. Are you gonna let them rest for a little bit? Yeah.
Craig Verhage:We'll let them rest, you know, like you would a steak. I mean, we we keep talking about how these these red meat, just like steak, five minutes, let it rest.
Jerad Henson:Let them rest. Let those juices kinda re spread back out. Let's get these to
Craig Verhage:the table and let's
John Gordon:get you
Craig Verhage:eating tacos. Cut up.
Jerad Henson:Yep. Sounds good.
Craig Verhage:Hey. We're here to the prep of the tacos. We've got the slaw done. We've got the green sauce done. We've got the duck done.
Craig Verhage:We've got the the taco shells done.
Jerad Henson:Threw them on the grill real quick, toasted them up. You always wanna warm your the tortillas a little bit, no matter if it's corn or a sausage tortilla.
Craig Verhage:That's it. And, you know, what I'm gonna do is is I'm gonna slice this duck real thin.
Jerad Henson:Still got a nice pink on the inside. That's what you're going for?
Craig Verhage:Yeah. And and and I tell you, you know, it's it's one of those that let's say it again. Don't overcook your dough. So we're gonna go that's gonna be one taco.
Jerad Henson:These are you said these are some teal breasts, so these are small. If you did a mallard or something like that, you'd make a lot more tacos with a mallard breast.
Craig Verhage:Definitely. For mallard breasts, you could probably make all four of these tacos. Yeah. But I I tell you, you go back to the spice and the grill flavor of this duck breast to the sweet and the acidity in the slaw to the the guacamole, jalapeno, a little bit of spice in this green sauce. And I tell you, man, it all comes together.
Jerad Henson:All comes together, and you've got a little bit of tajin here too?
Craig Verhage:Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna put a little bit of that tajin over the at the very end.
Jerad Henson:Top it off.
Craig Verhage:And I tell you, can't wait for you to take that bite because it will be an absolute flavor explosion. So here we are. And a lot of that texture too in that slaw has a lot to do with it. Little green sauce.
Jerad Henson:Green sauce. Mister John Gordon has impeccable timing. He had to run away, but he's gonna fly back in now because Wouldn't
Craig Verhage:you know? He timed it just right. The food is in. Just in
John Gordon:time, guys. You know, I was I had to put out some fires for the new women's outdoor shoes, DUSN on YouTube. Be sure to check that out. So I'm back, and Craig, I can't wait for this taco, This is gonna be unbelievable.
Craig Verhage:Here's a napkin if you need it.
Jerad Henson:I'm gonna make a mess probably. Hey.
Craig Verhage:That's why we're out here and we're over grass and and Cheers. Cheers. Here we go. Duck tacos coming at you.
Jerad Henson: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, that comes together perfectly.
Craig Verhage:And then that protein of that duck rolls right in there. All balanced. It's a perfect bite.
Jerad Henson: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 kinda with taco and something easy on the grill.
Jerad Henson:On this one, we're using the grill for this, but you don't have to have a grill for this recipe. So take us through what this next recipe is,
Craig Verhage:and it's Yeah. Yeah. It is easy. I mean, what I did was was I got, you know, one of the box spaghettis, rice you know, rice a roni, whatever. Actually what they call it, and you can get all kinds of different flavors.
Craig Verhage:It takes all of about fifteen minutes to cook the pasta, get it ready to go. And now with the duck, I'm a hammer it flat, and then I'm a egg wash, panko, then we're gonna get a little bit of olive oil in in the iron skillet, put it over the coals, get it hot. A little shallow fry on Yeah. A little shallow fry on it. We're lay it over the the pasta, put a little bit of Parmesan over the top of that.
Craig Verhage:Now, when you look at this, there's all kinds of different Ways you can do it. Ways you can do it. Now, you walk down the aisle with the pasta and there's all kinds of sauces. Mhmm. You know, just like you walk down Yeah.
Craig Verhage:And there's all kinds of gravies and and things like that, but they're premade already.
Jerad Henson:Right.
Craig Verhage:All you do is warm it up, put it over the top, and you got, you know, Alfredo, duck Alfredo. So just You
Jerad Henson: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 do like a duck Parmesan type thing as well.
Craig Verhage:Exactly. With
Jerad Henson:a little red sauce and Yeah. Marinara over It'd be pretty good too.
Craig Verhage:Duck is so versatile and you can you can do that. Just just go to the grocery store, walk down the aisle, see what you can do with it, know that it's a red protein, and have fun.
Jerad Henson:Yeah. Oh, wow. This is gonna be a good one.
Craig Verhage:So next we're gonna do is we're gonna pound out this duck. Now, the the the pounding process, what it does is is it breaks that fiber up in the duck and and it makes it tender.
Jerad Henson:And it's easiest to do this in a ziplock. Otherwise, you're gonna make a big mess. You will.
Craig Verhage: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, different things that that like to pound flat and break those fibers up in there to
Jerad Henson:You did it with deer as well?
John Gordon:Yeah.
Craig Verhage:Exactly. There you go. We'll egg wash this.
Jerad Henson:And you got one of the the panko the seasoned panko mixes. I did. You know? So
Craig Verhage:Right. Right.
Jerad Henson: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. So I really like that side of it.
Craig Verhage:So And and you know, the thing about it is is bread crumbs is just like the pasta. It's just like rice. It's Whatever's
Jerad Henson:been on it.
Craig Verhage:Seasoning. Yeah. You you can do different things, but
Jerad Henson:but You're going twice in here.
Craig Verhage:You're doubling, double I'm gonna double up on it, and it's ready to go.
Jerad Henson:We're gonna get that thing in the grease.
Craig Verhage:And you can see yeah. It's it's double pankoed. We'll get the olive oil over on the grill ready to go, and then a quick sear on each side, and it'll be ready to go.
Jerad Henson:And we're going to a shallow fry now. Right?
Craig Verhage:That is. We've got the iron skillet on the over the coals, and you got a little bit of olive oil in there. But, you know, this is something that you can have already in the pantry at the at hunting camp. You can already have some noodles in there. You got butter.
Craig Verhage:You got garlic. Sometimes you don't have to use panko. You can just use flour. Yep. So very versatile.
Craig Verhage:And but now this this grease is ready, we're gonna go in the skillet. Oh, yeah. We'll get it browned up real good on each side. I like to, you know, kinda do it quick just like that's the theme of cooking duck. Right.
Craig Verhage:It quick.
Jerad Henson:You're either doing it real quick or you're gonna cook it to death, one or two.
Craig Verhage:Right. And and that's when that gamey part comes which we're gonna avoid that. We've been on here about five minutes now and I took a little bit of a peek and that other side is golden brown. It is. It is.
Craig Verhage:It is.
Jerad Henson:It's looking right.
Craig Verhage:I feel
Jerad Henson:I can also see it starting to creep, that color change starting to creep on the edge.
Craig Verhage:Look at that golden brown.
Jerad Henson:Amazing. That's what you This side won't take quite as long probably either. No.
Craig Verhage:Three to four minutes. And you got
Jerad Henson:the pasta out. We had pre made some the pasta roni that you'd already made. Sure. It's a
Craig Verhage:great way to just heat it up. Heat that up. This is I mean, this is getting close. You can already see how it's starting to lift a little bit. Mhmm.
Craig Verhage:So we won't go too much longer on that at all. Another minute.
Jerad Henson:You got a really nice even heat Yeah. Right now too, which I've noticed with a cook today. Like, it's been it's not super hot, but it's hot enough to get it done quick. Been impressed with that with that fire management.
Craig Verhage:Well, after doing it for thirty plus years I figured. We figured out a couple of things. We got
John Gordon:a pro.
Craig Verhage:But this and, you know, iron skillet, you know, anytime you're cooking, you know, over over coals and Evening it out. It evens it out and and does a really good job. But I tell you what, Jared, this looks beautiful. Let's take this to the table, and let's get it plated up and have a biter, two or 10 or 20. How about that?
Jerad Henson:For all of it.
Craig Verhage:It smells amazing, so let's get smooth.
Jerad Henson: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.
Craig Verhage:I tell you, I'm excited about this one. That duck turned out absolutely fantastic, browned up. So what we're gonna do is here, Jared and John, we're going to make a little bed of this pasta.
Jerad Henson:And that's a garlic and parm pasta? Is that what you?
Craig Verhage:It's a garlic and olive oil. Garlic and olive oil. The the the panko is Parmesan panko.
Jerad Henson:Okay.
Craig Verhage:And we're gonna actually add a little bit more Parmesan at the end with this it's a five cheese Italian style, so Yeah. It's it's definitely some different stuff. So here we go. Right over the top. We'll add a little bit of this.
Craig Verhage:Alright, guys. Cheers. Here's this again. Mhmm. Duck and pasta.
Craig Verhage:I tell you what, that's fantastic.
Jerad Henson: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 the pasta, like Yeah. That one's a I'm gonna be cooking that for my kids because they're gonna crush that.
Craig Verhage:That that's a great bite. I mean, that like you said, the texture of of the crunch of the of that panko on the outside and the softness of the pasta, and then you got garlic in there. I mean
John Gordon:And people think about ducks a lot of times being being a tougher texture of meat. Mhmm. I mean, that's just like butter.
Craig Verhage:I tell you, the next recipe we're gonna do is is a spin off of a southern classic of shrimp and grits, but we're gonna do a ducking grits. And I've heard around that you're kind of fond of a grit. What all do you do?
Jerad Henson:I do like grits. I like them a lot, and we use them really versatile around our house and and where you would use, like, mashed potatoes or something like that in our dinners. So we'll do a cheese grits. My kids love them, which is awesome. So anything that you've got, any kind of protein, a little bit of, a gravy type thing, man, they're good.
Craig Verhage:Awesome. Awesome. Well, this is very simple again. That's been the whole point of what we're doing is easy Easy. Economical, and something that that if you're just around hunting camp, you can look in the cabinet and you got grits.
Jerad Henson:You can probably fold yeah. Pull this stuff up.
Craig Verhage:And then you can do this. And that's one thing we have here. We just have some instant grits. Half a cup Yep. Of water, warm water
Jerad Henson:to a pack. We use the same thing when I cook.
Craig Verhage:It's Yeah. So And then, you know, the duck breast, we're gonna we're gonna spice it up with a little bit of Bayou blend by Little Malcolm stuff. Little Malcolm Reed there. And this gives that Cajun kick, that little bit of flare, that little bit of heat in there, and we're gonna spice it up with that. We'll hit it with both sides.
Craig Verhage:And these are these are teal breasts. These will man, teal are just good. They really are.
John Gordon:They really are.
Craig Verhage:They're small, they cook fast, they're versatile, and and You
Jerad Henson:gotta be careful not to overcook them.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Exactly. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna top it off with some bacon and I mean bacon. Bacon. Bacon.
Jerad Henson:I would say you could use leftover bacon from breakfast or something, but there's no such thing as leftover Right. A matter
Craig Verhage:of fact Breakfast. This bacon right here, I cooked this morning, and I had to hide it from my wife because I would not have had it
Jerad Henson:to I would have had to hide it for myself. Well, But you can get, like, the little packets of precooked bacon. That works well for this type of stuff.
Craig Verhage:You can. Exactly. Exactly. And then after we get done, at the very end, you'll see I'll top it off with a little Parmesan cheese. Mhmm.
Craig Verhage:You I mean, you can do a garlic butter or anything like that to to put over the top, green onion, you know, a lot of ways you can go with it.
Jerad Henson:I really like when I do my shrimp and grits, one of the things that I love to do or just with any kind of duck, I like to bring some sage into that too, a little sage in there. Like, sage plays well with duck.
Craig Verhage:Noted. I'll have to work on that. Hey. Let's get this duck going. Let's get to the grill and fire it up.
Jerad Henson:You got these duck breast seasoned up, so what's our plan here?
Craig Verhage:Man, you know, another quick sear on the grill, you know, going medium rare. We use a little bit of Bayou blend, killer hogs on here. And other other than that, we're gonna go with just a traditional shrimp and grits kind of flavors, have
Jerad Henson:some
Craig Verhage:garlic in there, have some bacon in there, you know, and there's other ways you can go with it with butter, green onion, different things like that, but we're just gonna hit this with a quick sear. And there again, don't overcook your duck.
Jerad Henson:We're gonna say that a lot on here, and and that's like that's the golden rule. Yeah. It really is. It is. And I think most people know that now, but no.
Craig Verhage:More one twenty five, one thirty.
Jerad Henson:If you're pinning, yeah, that one twenty five, one thirty, don't go over one thirty five.
Craig Verhage:Right. Right.
Jerad Henson:That's kind of my go to, so
Craig Verhage:And know it's gonna carry over a little bit. It will. Right. You know, that one twenty, one twenty five, stick in that range because it will run over, you know, somewhere from four to five degrees after you take it off too, so be careful there.
Jerad Henson:If you want if you want a little more forgiveness in that, I do this a lot, I'll brine my ducks. Mhmm. It gives them a little bit more forgiveness on that doneness and not drying them out too much, things like that. Right. It is an extra step.
Jerad Henson:Generally, I generally do it overnight, and so it's not necessary, but it's something you can do to give yourself a little more forgiveness cooking duck.
Craig Verhage:Well, you know, you speak of that, and it makes me think of when I put duck up in the freezer, after I clean them, I like to soak my duck for four to six days in salt water.
Jerad Henson:Okay.
Craig Verhage:And I usually change it out every other day. So and I do this with all of my wild game, but when I take that duck out and I thaw it out, I wanna have it grill ready.
Jerad Henson:Right.
Craig Verhage:I want it to be You want it go quick? Yeah. Same thing with deer, same thing, you know, I
Jerad Henson:But you've already got a little bit of that brine effect by doing that. Yeah.
Craig Verhage:That that was what made me think of Right. Of of that part, but even alligator, I hunt alligator. You know, I like to clean, I like to get the fat off, I like to get the tendons out, I like to get everything done so when it goes time to cook, it gets thawed out, it gets seasoned, it goes to grill, it's ready. I don't have to do a lot of prep work beforehand. Right.
Craig Verhage:Jared, the the coals got a little lashed over, they were getting a little bit of cool, so what I wanna do is hurry these things up. So tell everybody what we got going on here.
Jerad Henson:So we went caveman style. You went straight. You pulled them off the grates just to kinda finish so we could speed that heat up and that cook, and you went directly on the coals.
Craig Verhage:Directly on the coals. And using that all natural lump charcoal, you don't have any binders, any fillers, or anything in there to worry about only. It's just all natural.
Jerad Henson:And most of that that charcoal is gonna come off when you pull it up. Right.
Craig Verhage:Let's go make some I'm ready. Dunking grits. That's it. Alright. Let's go.
Craig Verhage:And then the grits are just simple. I mean, they're instant grits. I did an original, and you saw what what was the other I did?
Jerad Henson:It was a country bacon blend.
Craig Verhage:Country bacon blend.
Jerad Henson:Kinda pull some bacon theme through that.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Exactly. And I'm gonna finish it off. I'm gonna cut it up thin, put it in the grits, and then I'm gonna put a little bit of the all purpose garlic, the twisted all over it, a little bit more of the bayou blend over it, and then finish it with a little bit of Parmesan. Parmesan?
Craig Verhage:Slicing it thin, and you can see the red in there. Still medium rare. This is cooked bacon. We're gonna sprinkle a little cooked bacon in there, crumbled up, and you know it's all going in there. I mean, it's everybody in the pool.
Craig Verhage:Then we're gonna sprinkle a little bit of this all purpose garlic, a little more of the bayou blend, killer hogs. Then we're gonna finish it off with a little of this five cheese blend, and that'll give it a little bit of
Jerad Henson:grits up a little bit?
Craig Verhage:Cheese and grits. I mean, you know, it's kinda like peanut and butter. It goes together. It does. We're gonna have a
Jerad Henson:little salsa. Give us a try.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Cheers. Here's to some duck and grits, ninja style.
Jerad Henson:Easy. It works so well together. It's phenomenal. Like, I kinda wanna take that as a snack out in the duck blind.
John Gordon:I mean, really. I mean, on the deer stand
Jerad Henson:Can just package it like that and I carry
Craig Verhage:it with
Jerad Henson:me with
Craig Verhage:a spoon?
John Gordon:At the tailgate? Yeah. Wherever you wanna go.
Craig Verhage:Put it in a ziplock bag, throw it in your pocket with a spoon, and just pull it out. Good. Snack on a little bit here
Jerad Henson:and there. So easy. It's delicious. Well, gentlemen, this has been a lot of fun. The food was amazing.
Jerad Henson:Those tacos were fire. The grits were amazing, and you throw that in there with some of that duck and pasta. All that was awesome. We're gonna wrap up this outdoor part. I think we're gonna all jump over into the podcast studio and do a little bit of a quick discussion kind of on how you could take these up a notch or manipulate them a little bit and just kinda tips and advice on how to actually pull this off at duck camp.
Jerad Henson:Hopefully, y'all enjoyed the cooking part outdoors. We've had fantastic weather. So we'll see y'all in the podcast studio.
VO:Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.
Jerad Henson:Hey, everybody. Welcome back. We're back in the studio now. We just wrapped up a a great cooking episode. Got back in the studio with me.
Jerad Henson:I've got John Gordon, cohost over here for today.
John Gordon:Great to be here again, Jared. I mean, was it was fantastic. You know, Craig, his talent with creating really simple and great tasting duck dishes is is really outstanding.
Jerad Henson:That's it. And, Craig, we're so glad. So we got Craig Verhaga again, barbecue ninja from Royal Oak. Again, really glad to have you in here to really talk about some really easy but delicious duck dishes you can do at duck camp, your backyard, wherever. So, Craig, so so glad you were were here for this.
Craig Verhage:You know, it it doesn't have to be hard. Right. You know? It's one of those things, and and my cooking philosophy is when you put good I I use kind of a different word, but when you put good stuff with good stuff, you get good stuff.
Jerad Henson:Right.
Craig Verhage:And and and there again, like I said, it doesn't have to be overcomplicated. So many things in the store these days that are premade or or just you just add one ingredient or two ingredients and
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:You know, there it is. And and, you know, duck being as versatile it is as it is, you know, red meat, it it can go into a lot of different dishes.
Jerad Henson:That's it. That's it. And so we're gonna kinda go dish by dish through some of these, just kinda talking again, and I'm gonna start with the star of the show for me because that duck taco was phenomenal. It was pretty simple. That slaw though, like, I've never had a slaw made like that, and it was perfect.
Jerad Henson:Add that perfect texture to it, and then that that green sauce.
John Gordon:Man, that green sauce is unbelievable.
Jerad Henson:You know, we were
John Gordon:we were, you know, down in Texas filming DU Nation back in during till season and and on Spread Oaks Ranch, you know, that's where Craig made that green sauce from start to finish. So, you know, when that episode comes out, everybody will see how to make it, but it's it's it sets that taco off, and we did it with an alligator, so you can really use it with anything.
Jerad Henson:Yeah. Yeah. No.
Craig Verhage:And it's one of those things too that as I go out, because I mean my job is I I travel the nation and, you know, I do marketing for Royal Oak Charcoal, and and I get to see all these different people from different areas of the nation that have different recipes. And and that green just a little history of the green sauce. I was out in Oregon, and and I've been looking for a second recipe for alligator. I've had the the I call it, a redneck lobster roll where you do the boudin cream cheese, ranch dressing stuffing. Well, I'd been developing this taco and I knew I had the the the the slaw down.
Craig Verhage:Yep. You know, it's the lime, cilantro, pineapple slaw, and and I had the the the alligator with the chorizo down. And when I came across that green sauce, it was a team that I sponsor was out there, and they were making tacos as vending. And, you know, I hit that green sauce, and I was like, oh, that that's That's it. That that's gonna seal the deal right there.
Craig Verhage:That's the that's the that's the game changer. So so, yeah, it goes it pairs well with it and It does. You know, you you grill the you grill the duck medium rare
Jerad Henson:Yep.
Craig Verhage: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 the It's good. You know, onion pie. Yeah.
Craig Verhage:It's just got a lot of of good stuff that's that's really good on on red meat. And, you know, sliced it thin, you know, the the lime, cilantro, pineapple slaw, and then that green sauce, which is a guacamole jalapeno. But that green sauce, yeah, it gives it that vinegar pop and
Jerad Henson:It brings some brightness to it. Yeah.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. So, yeah, that that it's one of those you could you could put chicken on it. And matter of fact, I was at camp this weekend and I had some smoked turkey Yeah. And I made the taco same way with smoked turkey,
Jerad Henson:and
Craig Verhage:and it's just so versatile. It really is.
Jerad Henson:Well, I mean and the cool thing about that whole dish is, and any kind of taco is, like, you can put a little of your own spin on it. So if you're listening to this and that sounds good, but maybe you don't want it so spicy, you don't want the jalapenos, you could probably throw some poblanos in there or you could do a tamed jalapeno or something. You could take that down a lot. If you do want the heat, you can take the heat up too.
Craig Verhage:That's what I find more and more that people want it hotter, you know. And and of course, you could slice fresh jalapeno
Jerad Henson:Yep.
Craig Verhage:And put on there, leave the seeds, get it, get that heat level really really up there. So but but it's just hot. Like you said, where you wanna go with it. That's it.
Jerad Henson:You could change the slaw a little if you wanted to. You could add a little bit of, you know, cheese, maybe some queso fresco, something like that on there. But it didn't need any of that, just so y'all know. Give it a try. That thing was was good.
Craig Verhage:The only way you really could mess it up is not eat
Jerad Henson:it. That's true. Yeah. That's true. That's a fact.
Jerad Henson:Anything else on that dish that y'all wanna kinda talk to that?
Craig Verhage:We did a street taco
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:Which which, you know, you you can do a regular sized taco. Right. You can, you know, or you can wrap that dude up and burrito it. Yeah. Make a burrito.
Craig Verhage:That's it. Throw some beans in there.
Jerad Henson:Yeah. You could do a little chopped fine chopped up cilantro and white onion, yellow onion, just chop it up and sprinkle all that on there and that'd be really good too. That goes good with duck. Duck's rich.
Craig Verhage:Yeah.
Jerad Henson:Right? And so that some of anything like that that brings that brightness and freshness 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 really good and really and it was it it took you like three minutes to get that thing like ready to go in the pan. You pounded that that 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.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. That, it just, you know, to to get that good coverage of that panko so you get, you know, good crunch, you bite. And, yeah, as you saw and as you'll see on the video, was very easy. Walking through the store, you know, you got Pasta Roni. Yeah.
Craig Verhage:And that Pasta Roni, all you do is add water.
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:And so how easy, you know, can it be? And and so, yeah. And and to have that texture of the pasta, a little softer with the crunch of the the duck panko, and and, you know, I knew it was good, but I was a little surprised it was that good.
Jerad Henson:It was real good. Really good. The pasta roni you got was a pretty simple. It was olive oil and garlic or something like that. Yeah.
Jerad Henson:Mean It's garlic and
Craig Verhage:olive oil.
Jerad Henson:So it you didn't didn't take that recipe too crazy with flavors, but it went really well.
Craig Verhage: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 would be great. Can just Yeah.
Craig Verhage:You know, do rice, serve it over rice, serve it over pasta, and put it in microwave for sixty seconds or ninety seconds or something, and you got, you know, you got a meal
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:With the rice or pasta. So very easy.
John Gordon:Yeah. Very easy, man. And it really had a very, you know, with that panko crust and everything, it's very Italian flavoring to that. Right? It just, you know, really that crunch mixture with the pasta is outstanding.
Craig Verhage:And It's there again, it's versatile.
Jerad Henson:It screamed, like, tasting it, was like, oh, I wanna do like a a a duck parm Yeah. With this.
Craig Verhage:That's it.
Jerad Henson: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 in the shallow fry if you're gonna Yeah. Melt something over the top of it. So just to to be aware of your your temperature and how long you're cooking.
Craig Verhage:And versatility there again, I mean, you can pound out a chicken breast, you can pound out a pork loin, you can pound out
Jerad Henson:Deer steak.
Craig Verhage:Deer steak, you know, but I think the best way is with duck.
Jerad Henson: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.
Craig Verhage:It was.
Jerad Henson:Breadcrumbs and those were pretty good.
Craig Verhage:They are?
Jerad Henson:Just to let you know. And that's Pretty easy to find.
Craig Verhage:Right. And there again, they have different flavors of breadcrumbs, so you could go some different routes with that or just get regular breadcrumbs
Jerad Henson:and Yep. Season
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Very easy.
John Gordon:Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. And and the third one was what you would really think about is a southern inspired dish, right, with the grits. That's it.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. I mean, shrimp and grits is is southern as it gets, and, you know, this was just a spin off of that. Using the protein, the duck has protein and Mhmm. Medium rare again, you know, make sure you get that thing, you know, cooked right. And we, you know, spiced it with some, you know, good rubs.
Craig Verhage:I think we did the LC with with that also.
Jerad Henson:Yep. I think you did use a little Cajun on one of those too.
Craig Verhage:Did. Yeah. Used them out. I thank you for bringing that back to It's, you know, been a few minutes, but but, yeah, the King Craw
Jerad Henson:That was good.
Craig Verhage:Malcolm Reed. And so but, yeah, how hard is is getting a little bit of instant grits?
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:You know? Hot water grits? Yep. Boom. And then cut up the duck.
Jerad Henson:And it came together and you had you used, like, three packets of grits for that. Two of them were just regular plain grits or or butter and the other one was it was a bacon. Yeah. Yeah.
Craig Verhage:It was a country style bacon.
Jerad Henson:Country style bacon grits. Yeah. And that pulled all those flavors together really well. I mean, those are those are things that, like, we have at duck camp a lot of times. I'll have some grits around there for cooking for breakfast or something, instant grits, then you got duck and you definitely got Cajun seasoning.
Jerad Henson:I don't know a duck camp that doesn't have a can of of some form of Cajun seasoning.
Craig Verhage:Exactly. Know, it is fun a lot of times, you know, if if you do have the duck protein to go to the pantry, open it up, see what you got. I mean, you know, if you got just regular spaghetti noodles, well, chances are you got butter in the refrigerator, you got garlic in the refrigerator, and and, you know, you can you can make a form of that dish, you know, with that or
Jerad Henson:Right.
Craig Verhage:So, yeah, it's just I I don't know. I get I get a lot of fun out of
Jerad Henson:It was good.
Craig Verhage:You know, going and Iron chef and yeah. But I did chop grill mustards, you know. So I did the chop basket Yeah. One And that was a lot of fun until I had a vegan lobster in
Jerad Henson:my basket, you know. Was Yeah. Great. It's not
John Gordon:just bad. Vegan lobster.
Craig Verhage:So now I'm known for, you know, the vegan lobster in the chop basket. So but, you know, I'm from Mississippi. We don't have too many of those vegan lobsters around I hear you. Yeah. So it kind of stomped me a little bit, but
Jerad Henson: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 these recipes, they were simple, easy, you can find the ingredients easy. All of them you can actually elevate though too. Can take the basic things that we did and you showed us, and you can take them up a notch.
Craig Verhage:Well, that it doesn't have to be hard. We said that in
Jerad Henson:the in
Craig Verhage:the very beginning, and and there's so many things out there that are that make cooking at home easy.
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage: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 told me a great dish you got.
Jerad Henson:That's one of my favorite ways to eat leftover grilled duck is to actually go in because if you reheat grilled duck, it can get rubbery. Mhmm. Right? And that's one of the issues. Yep.
Jerad Henson:You that's not great. But if you make 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 not hard to do.
Jerad Henson:Add some fresh veggies or or even just frozen stir fry veggies to it, mix that in the broth, and then take that sliced duck, grilled duck, and just lay it across the top. Let that warm broth heat it up. It'll be perfect almost every time.
Craig Verhage:That sounds good.
John Gordon:It does sound good. You know?
Jerad Henson:You know, I was I was a broke college kid and grad student, you know, I was a wild as a wildlife student doing doing my work, and you found ways to make wild game and and stuff taste good off of a very, very thin budget. Ramen noodles was a way to do that.
Craig Verhage:I'd tell you, as expensive as grocery store proteins and meats are Everything. Now the taking advantage of what we harvest, be it duck, deer, or any other wild game pheasant or, you know, and turning that into food for our families and putting on the table, it becomes more and more important, you know,
Jerad Henson:and It does.
Craig Verhage:And knowing, you know, what's out there as far as recipes and and different ways of doing things, but easy way of doing things too. Don't be intimidated. That's it. Yeah.
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. And and that's another way another saying I've got. The I say the wrong way to cook is if you don't do it at all. Right. You know?
Craig Verhage:Gotta try and
Jerad Henson:You're mess it up every once in while. Yeah. It's okay.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. Exactly.
Jerad Henson:But you'll learn.
Craig Verhage:You will. You will. And and I tell you, you know, you guys in making the the effort to show the people out there the way there are different ways to cook stuff, and and, I mean, I appreciate what you guys do as far as, you know, the conservation part of Ducks Unlimited and and, you know, making sure that these birds are you know, have healthy habitat, you know, all the way from the prairie in Canada up to down all the way to here. And that way, when you do harvest that bird, you know it's been it's been, you know, well treated and it's been it's a healthy bird and Yeah. You know, therefore, it's good food for your family's table.
Jerad Henson: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, but you also when when you're eating wild game that you you harvested, you've got a different connection with that meal than you did with the, you know, the packaged chicken you bought Right. From the grocery store. Right?
Jerad Henson:A little more work went into it, but it also you know the backstory. You know from field to table, the whole processing and all that, you know, so I enjoy that and the way that you made those recipes so approachable, that's something that someone can cook any of those, serve it to a friend, have people over, and they're gonna like those dishes, That's something that they they taste amazing, they're not super complicated, it's a good way to get people started in cooking while game too. Or if you're just, you know, bacheloring it up at Duck Camp and want something easy that's delicious, that's another good thing for that.
Craig Verhage:You know, and I did some some other recipes that'll be out on DU Nation.
John Gordon:That's that's correct.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. At at the Spread Oaks Ranch, you wanna mention
Jerad Henson:Yeah.
John Gordon:All of that? One one that I really enjoyed, Craig, was the egg rolls Yeah. That you did. Right? And I mean, I think,
Craig Verhage:you know and
John Gordon:and duck lends itself well to Asian fusion.
Jerad Henson:It does. It does. Big time. Those flavors go well.
Craig Verhage:Yeah. And and that was another pretty easy one. I mean, you know, it gets a little involved rolling an egg roll, but Yeah. You know, I used a slaw, but all I did there's a it's called miso naughty. It's a miso Japanese barbecue sauce that Meat Mitch, a buddy of mine, makes and did a slaw with that miso and then had the the sliced duck and I egg rolled it, fried it, you know, dip it back in a little of that miso, and man, it turned out really good.
John Gordon:It did. It did. It's and once again, it's just it was real simple and it, you know, like it doesn't have to be complicated whatsoever.
Craig Verhage:No. No. The the It's like we said, I think sometimes that intimidation factor, 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 never cooked duck.
Craig Verhage:But you what you gotta think is is this is just a red Red meat. Protein,
Jerad Henson:you know. It's a super lean Yeah. Red meat protein. Yeah. So you gotta remember that.
Jerad Henson:So you gotta be careful on how you cook it sometimes. Right.
John Gordon:Yeah. I think a lot of people's bad experiences with a duck involve overcooking. I mean, to a person. Right? They had a bad first time and they then they just never ate it again.
Jerad Henson:Comes down to a duck popper generally, And once you get the bacon crisp on a duck popper It's overcooked. The the duck is generally a meteorite on the inside.
Craig Verhage:Right. Well, you know, if you get that good, really, really hot rolled oat lump charcoal and you get it good and screaming hot That's it. And you hit it and you let that
Jerad Henson:That's it.
Craig Verhage:Bacon sear really fast and get it off.
Jerad Henson:But you would you need a you need a hot hot grill. Most people, especially if you'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 gas grill. We use multiple cooking I don't know what do.
Jerad Henson:On it. Know you don't. But but you can get a charcoal, like, you get a green egg, even a Weber kettle, you can get those things screaming hot. Yeah. And that's that's where if you're wanting to sear something and get it quick, that's about the only way you can do it.
Craig Verhage:But like John said, they have had it and it's been overcooked and it gets that gamey in there and Yeah. And then but and you gotta give things more than one opportunity.
Jerad Henson:A lot
Craig Verhage:of times you you eat it that first time and it's like, you know, it wasn't that good. Give it you know, and that goes with anything, you know? Right. I'll give most everything a second chance or a third chance just to know that that may just been a bad experience or a bad, you know, cook or something and then try it again, but don't be intimidated by it.
Jerad Henson:No. And and kind of some of my rule of thumb on duck is if you're gonna do something more grilled and you're not gonna try and cook it to death, there's two ways to cook duck. You either cook it medium rare, not past medium, or you crock pot it basically.
Craig Verhage:Shred it.
Jerad Henson: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 that route, if you're trying to grill it or something like that, if you wanna give yourself a little forgiveness in the doneness, I brine mine. Just a basic turkey brine, you know, six hours, four hours to overnight, and he'll give you a little forgiveness on that doneness level and keep you from overcooking it a little bit. And it's just a trick that I do, and that's something I've I'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 that brine, little sweetness, and that pairs really well with duck.
Craig Verhage:I did watch that, and I did notice that. So
John Gordon: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 meat is I like to bring the blood out of it. Right? And you gotta really soak that in water Yeah. With a little salt or whatever for, you know, multiple days, really. Can do it.
John Gordon:Keep changing the water out, and that makes a massive difference in It can. In ducks and geese.
Jerad Henson:If you're adding salt to it, you're basically doing a little light brine over time. So Yeah. It'll help them actually hold moisture.
Craig Verhage:And I do that every time I put up Yeah. Or geese or something. I mean, I think we talked about it as far as, you know, putting up any wild game. I'm a do everything on the front. Right.
Craig Verhage:You know? I'm a have it trimmed. I'm a have it soaked. I'm a have so when it comes out of that freezer and it's thawed out
Jerad Henson:It's ready to go.
Craig Verhage:It's ready to go. Yeah. It's ready to cook.
Jerad Henson: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 it comes down to handling the birds after a hunt. You know, if you've a pile of 50 snow geese, it may take a little bit to get to the bottom of that pile, and sometimes things can get a little awry. So get your birds, clean them pretty quick, get them good and clean before you pack them up, and then there'll be much better table fare Yeah. If you spend a little time there. And then also, I like to pluck the breast on mine.
Jerad Henson:Mhmm. If it's a mallard or a speck or something like that, I'll pluck all the feathers off the breast and breast
John Gordon:will be the skin and fat.
Jerad Henson:You know
John Gordon:you love a spoon, too.
Jerad Henson:I do. I you know what I like most about a shoveler? Is they make me look like a really good shot. Oh, you know,
John Gordon:you aim for the beak, man. That's all
Jerad Henson:you need. That's it. Hey, it's blue it's a blue wing with some It is. With with a goofy beak.
Craig Verhage:That's right.
Jerad Henson:I don't get me wrong. I will not hold back if a lot of shovelers comes to the decoys.
Craig Verhage:I've seen this guy pop a blackjack or two.
John Gordon: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 the ringnecks were just eating up to pieces. And so we we had a blast.
John Gordon:And and and a ring neck is a really good table fare, you know. They're a little tougher to clean, but Yeah.
Jerad Henson:They are.
John Gordon:You get beyond that.
Craig Verhage:That's it.
John Gordon:Yeah. It's it's pretty good. Yep. Well, you say the same for wood ducks.
Jerad Henson:They are. Right? That's one of the reasons I actually will will pluck some of my ducks is because wood ducks are such a pain to to breast out Mhmm. To peel back because that skin will always stick. So I'll breast them out like that and then we use propane torch, that flame saber.
Craig Verhage:Yeah.
Jerad Henson:It's perfect for that. It's little propane torch. You can get all the little pin hairs off or pin feathers off, and make that a much more presentable dish. You know, if you've if you've got your little fill of plumes or or feathers sticking off the the duck, sometimes your guests aren't as big a fan of that.
Craig Verhage:I love and eat good eating wood duck. Me too.
John Gordon:Man.
Jerad Henson:I can get fatty and delicious. Yeah. Yeah. So there's lots of great ideas here. What other things would you say would be, you know, just might come to mind that things that you might be able to try at duck camp that that probably fall into this category?
Craig Verhage:Of course, you know, at our duck camp, we and I mentioned this on Malcolm's podcast, Buck Junkie, that that we have a Friday tradition there. This is not wild game, but we we have a pork steak Friday
John Gordon:Uh-huh.
Craig Verhage:Every Friday, And there's a stop and shop right in Hollandao, Mississippi that has fresh cut, probably quarter inch pork steaks
