If you’ve managed to secure a goose to cook this Christmas, this maple-glazed smoked goose recipe will wow your guests.
While many families opt for the traditional turkey over Thanksgiving and the holidays, alternative options are becoming increasingly popular. Roulades, three-bird rolled roasts, and geese are among other showstoppers to consider, and in this article, we will show you how to cook a beautiful bird with a maple glaze.
While deciding on how to cook my goose, I took inspiration from recipes posted by Grillgirl and the Idaho government’s Hunter recipe section. It resulted in a slightly sweet, juicy bird with a hint of the gamey taste you would expect from geese.
Ingredients and equipment:
- A pre-plucked goose
- Canadian maple syrup
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder
- Several citrus fruits
- Butcher’s twine or wood skewers
- Aluminum tray
- Baster
Step one: Prepare your goose
- If your goose is frozen, ensure that it is thoroughly defrosted and pat it dry.
- Clean and pluck your goose, removing any gizzards from the inside. You can use these (alongside with what will become the goose carcass) to make stock if you like.
- Now, stuff the cavity with fruits or vegetables of your choosing. I decided on oranges, although you can use anything you like: lemons, lime, onion, garlic – it’s up to you.
- You can use skewers to stitch up the cavity to prevent the insides from leaking out. Alternatively, if you have any, use butcher’s twine.
- As we will use maple syrup later, I recommend keeping your rub simple: a little oil, salt (preferably kosher/sea salt), pepper, and garlic. As we know, SPG is often king, and this won’t overpower or negatively impact the glaze.
To brine or not to brine? If you have the time, absolutely! Brining requires a tub with around a gallon of water, one cup of kosher salt, and around half a cup of brown sugar. You submerge your bird at least overnight, although preferably for between 24 and 48 hours. Brining adds additional moisture to poultry and reduces the risk of your bird drying out during the cooking process, leading to a more tender result. While brining is great if you have the time, you can still have excellent results without this step.
Step two: Get your smoker ready
- Fire up your smoker to pre-heat.
- While recommendations range from 160f to 350f, it depends on the size of your bird, the time you have, and your personal preference. We begin ours at 225f. The larger the bird, the more time you should give yourself for the cook.
- TIP: Your goose is going to leak fat and a large amount of it. Ensure you have a roasting pan, aluminum tray, or some other means to catch the fat underneath your bird. We enjoy parboiling potatoes for roasting and putting them in the tray to create some of the best roast potatoes you will ever have. Also, remember that you can save the goose fat for later, so have a jar ready!
- Choose your wood: Apple, cherry, pecan, oak, maple, or hickory are all recommended by BBQ enthusiasts. As we were using the Traeger Ironwood for this cook, we chose the Traeger Turkey Blend hardwood pellets.
Step three: Smoke
- Set the bird on a grate above your aluminum tray.
- Let your goose cook. Normally, the best option is set and forget in BBQ – as whenever the lid is open, you’re looking, not cooking – but considering the high fat content of geese, you might want to check in occasionally, especially if you have a smaller tray underneath. The last thing you need is grease covering your smoker and potentially setting alight.
- The safe internal temperature for a goose is 165f. At around 145f internal, we began applying a maple glaze by brushing a simple Candian maple syrup on our bird using a baster.
- There’s no hard and fast rule to glazing, but we like to apply a fresh layer every 20 minutes or so.
- Once you’ve hit close to 165f internal – or your desired temperature – in the thickest part of the bird, take it off the smoker and allow it to rest for a few minutes.
- Carve and serve!
