If you’re looking for the best easy smoked goose breast recipe, then you’ve come to the right place. For this one, I used a Canada goose breast, but you can use any goose you have available.
If you’re a waterfowl lover, don’t miss my Duck Prosciutto, French Goose Stew, and Homemade Chinese Duck Sauce.
I started this one off with a quick cure of powdered sugar and fine sea salt (you can use any fine-grain salt that you like). And when I say quick cured, we’re only talking about between 1 and 2 hours. It’s nothing like my 2-week Canada goose breast recipe (aka goose prosciutto) that doesn’t involve any cooking. But not to worry, I’ll be taking you through my method.
Leaving the Skin on or Taking the Skin Off
With this recipe, you can smoke the goose breast with the skin on or skin off. If you’re planning to keep the skin on, I highly recommend crisping it in a pan over medium-low heat after the smoking process is finished. I’ll cover crisping a bit more down below. Once you’ve decided whether to leave the skin on, it’s time to rub the breast with the cure.
Quick Curing the Goose Breast
The main purpose of the quick cure is to add extra flavor and color to the meat. I use fine sea salt and powdered sugar in place of standard table sugar, since they absorb well and are much less likely to burn, in my experience. After I rub this salt-and-sugar mixture all over the meat, I let the breasts rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours.
You’ll notice right away that the cure pulls some surface moisture from the meat. But don’t worry, this is not going to dry out the delicious smoked meat that awaits you. Before smoking, gently pat the excess moisture dry with a clean paper towel, being sure that you don’t wipe off the cure.
Resting the Meat Before Smoking
Whether you decide to cure your breasts or not, it is a good idea to let the meat rest at room temperature before smoking. This will take some of the chill off of the meat and allow for more even cooking. This isn’t a make-or-break step, so if you’re pressed for time, you can skip it.
Temperatures for Smoking Goose Breasts
The best piece of advice that I can give for smoking a wild goose breast is to go low and slow. I smoke them between 170 degrees F and 180 degrees F. This lower temperature will give your meat more time in the smoke before it hits your desired internal temperature.
More time in your smoker means more smoky flavor. If you can’t get your smoker to those recommended temperatures, try keeping it at 200 degrees F or below.
Optional Step for Extra Flavor and Color
One of the best ways to elevate the flavor and looks of your smoked meats is to get a little char on them. With larger cuts of meat, you can simply throw them on a super-hot BBQ or under your oven’s broiler. But because goose breasts are so small, you can easily overcook them using the methods above. To avoid this, use a blowtorch to char the outside until it reaches the color you want, with very little chance of overcooking the goose. You can also use this technique with my smoked deer roast recipe.
Final Internal Cooking Temperatures and Relaxing the Meat
One of the most important factors in getting a juicy piece of goose meat on your plate is the internal temperature you cook it to. I like to remove the breasts from the smoker between 125 degrees and 130 degrees F internal temperature using an instant-read thermometer.
Anything above 135 degrees F starts to lean toward drying out. Once you’ve reached your desired internal temperature, let the meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. This gives the meat a chance to relax and keeps more juices from running onto your cutting board.
Crisping the Skin
If you leave the skin on your goose breast and want to crisp it, I recommend waiting until the end of the cooking process. And if you’re doing the blow torch method for charring the meat, this can be done before or after crisping the skin. Since the breast was smoked first, some of the fat has already started to render, which means it will take less time to achieve crispy skin. Place the breast skin side down in a pan over medium heat. Cook until the skin is a nice brown color and firm to the touch.
More Smoked & Serving Sauce Recipes
If you make this easy Smoked Goose Breast, be sure to leave a rating and a comment below! Also, tag me on Instagram with some of your creations. I thoroughly enjoy hearing feedback and checking out the photos of recipes that you’ve made.
Smoked Goose Breast
Equipment
- Blow torch (Optional)
Ingredients
- 2 to 4 Goose Breasts (Canada goose, snow goose, or domestic)
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons fine-grained salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix together the salt and powdered sugar. If you need more, simply make another batch. Any extra will keep well if stored in an air-tight container.
- Place the goose breasts onto a baking tray or large plate. Completely coat the breasts with the salt and sugar mixture.
- Let the meat rest at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours.
- Pat the excess moisture from the meat with paper towels while ensuring that you don’t remove the salt and sugar mixture from the meat.
- Heat your smoker between 170 degrees and 180 degrees F. If you can’t get your smoker that low, 200 degrees F will work.
- Smoke the breast until you reach your desired internal temperature. For waterfowl, I like to cook the breast to an internal temperature of around 128 degrees F. You can cook them to a higher temperature, but I recommend not going any higher than 135 degrees F. I also recommend removing the breasts from the smoker a few degrees shy of your final temperature if you plan on crisping the skin.
- To crisp the skin, cook the breasts skin side down over medium heat until nicely browned and firm.
- Optional Step: As mentioned in the notes section, you can use a blow torch to add a nice char to the meat without overcooking it. I don’t recommend using the torch on the skin because you run the risk of burning it.
- Let the meat rest at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. Slice and season with salt and black pepper.
NOTES
- Quick cure for flavor. Coat the goose breasts with the salt and sugar mixture and let them sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before smoking. This adds flavor and color without turning it into a long cure.
- Pat dry but keep the cure on. Gently dry off the surface moisture with paper towels before smoking, but leave the cure on the meat.
- Rest before smoking. Let the meat sit at room temperature long enough to take the chill off so it cooks more evenly.
- Smoke it low and slow. Keep the smoker between 170 and 180 F if you can, and stay under 200 F if your smoker runs hotter. Lower heat gives the breast more time to take on smoke before it reaches the final temperature.
- Do not overcook it. Pull the goose at about 125 to 130 F internal and avoid going past 135 F or it will start drying out.
- Crisp the skin last. If you leave the skin on, brown it in a pan over medium heat after smoking until the skin is crisp and firm.
- Rest before slicing. Let it rest 10 to 15 minutes before cutting so the juices stay in the meat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation. Nutrition is per serving.
2 thoughts on “Smoked Goose Breast”
So do you wipe the salt and sugar off or not. One part says not to and another says to
Sorry, that was a typo. The cure stays on the meat.
It was supposed to say gently pat and make sure you “aren’t” removing the cure.