Three must try Wild Game Appetizers in 2025

By: Jack Hennessy

Photos Credit: Jack Hennessy

Description:

A March Madness party is only as good as its appetizer spread. The performance of one’s alma mater or even one’s perfect-for-the-time-being bracket is moot if the eats are subpar.

Here are three very easy recipes for fur, feather, and fin appetizers. For the sliders, you can use any venison (whitetail, mule deer, elk, caribou, etc.). With the Buffalo Pheasant, you can indeed substitute any upland bird (even waterfowl, I suppose) and incorporate this somewhat homemade buffalo sauce. For the bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers, you guessed it—you can use any fish, from saltwater to freshwater to scuzzy pond water fare (e.g., catfish).

There are directions here for sous vide cooking your tougher upland bird cuts in an effort to tenderize them prior to frying. Simply frying legs, thighs, and wings from wild birds will result in super tough meat. If you plan on using a spring gobbler for this recipe, double the time on the sous vide or parboil, which is an alternative to sous vide cooking.

The burgers are not smash burgers, as I believe venison is best served medium-rare (the directions below help make this happen). Smashing your ground venison into a hot skillet makes it harder to serve them medium-rare, and that is my main criticism against the trendy concept of wild-game smash burgers.

Lastly, a word on food safety: There is little issue with letting sliders and fried pheasant sit out for a few hours at room temp, but make sure to put any leftover fish poppers in the fridge within a half hour of serving (then reheat, if necessary, before serving again). Fish can go bad quicker than big game or birds, so we don’t want to get anyone sick.

Ingredients:

Venison sliders:

King’s Hawaiian Slider Buns (9 pack)
18 to 27 ounces ground venison (2 to 3 ounces per patty)
9 slices American cheese
One medium yellow onion, thinly sliced into rings
Olive oil
Cooking oil spray
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Dill pickle chips
Ketchup and mustard

Buffalo Pheasant:

One rooster, cut into wings, thighs, legs, and breasts diced
1-2 quarts chicken stock (necessary if parboiling, but not if sous vide cooking)
1 pint buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon each of kosher salt and ground black pepper
Peanut oil for frying
2 cups Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
2 teaspoons freshly minced garlic
8 tablespoons salted butter (1 stick)
Sliced scallions for garnish (optional)
Ranch (or other dressing) for dipping (optional)

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Fish Sliders:

12 large jalapeños, halved, seeded, and smoked
8 to 10 ounces quality hard cheese (I used Rustic Aged Red Cheddar)
16 to 24 ounces of any fish you have sitting in the freezer
1 pound bacon (not thick-cut)
Freshly cracked black pepper
Private Selection Fig Glaze for drizzle (optional)
Toothpicks

Cooking Instructions:

To make the venison sliders, form your ground venison into 2- to 3-ounce patties, ideally a size that is a little bigger than the width of a bun (the patties will shrink slightly while cooking). Thinly slice an onion into rings (super thin rings, maybe 1mm thick at most, ideally). Lightly salt and pepper topside of the patties and allow them to sit out at room temp for a half hour prior to cooking. To cook, heat a skillet or flat top to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Spay the venison patty with cooking oil and cook each side 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. In a separate skillet heated on medium-high, add a bit of olive oil along with sliced onions. When flipping a burger, add some grilled onions atop and top with cheese (again don’t cook the bottom side for more than 1-1/2 minutes). Remove burgers and allow to rest for a few minutes before adding to a bun (feel welcome to toast the bun). Top with pickles and whatever other toppings you want to use, or place the ketchup and mustard on the side.

To make Buffalo Pheasant, sous vide the legs, thighs, and wings at 170 for 7-8 hours prior to adding to a buttermilk soak (or you can parboil these cuts, which is a lower simmer, in chicken stock for 2 hours, until tender). Upon removing tougher cuts from sous vide or parboil, dice the breasts and add all pheasant cuts to a bowl and cover with buttermilk. Add to the fridge and allow to soak for 1-2 hours. To fry, heat several inches of peanut oil to 375 in a Dutch oven, pot, or deep fryer. Mix the flour and cornstarch together, along with salt and pepper. In a medium saucepan heated on medium-low, add Frank’s, freshly minced garlic, and a stick of butter. Stir often to melt the butter and mix sauce. Remove the pheasant cuts from the buttermilk soak, a little bit at a time so not to crowd pot or fryer, and throw through flour-and-cornstarch dredge then add to hot oil. Remove once the pheasant is golden brown and set aside in a clean mixing bowl. Once all the whole pheasant is fried, add the buffalo sauce, toss in sauce, and thoroughly coat.

To make the jalapeño poppers, cut all peppers in half and remove the seeds and pulp. Smoke the halved peppers at 160 for 1-1/2 hours, until slightly soft. Set in smoked pepper halves in the fridge for a half hour before adding a strip of cheese and fish to each half. Wrap with bacon and insert a toothpick on the tag end of bacon. Insert the toothpick at an angle so that the toothpick goes down length of the pepper. Crack some fresh black pepper overtop the jalapeño poppers. Pre-heat your oven to 375. In a large (preferably cast-iron skillet), be careful not to crowd the pan as you add poppers topside down (so side with the fish touches the skillet) and sear until the bacon is slightly brown and crisp. Remove and set aside until all poppers are seared and slightly crisp on top. Add the poppers back to the skillet and place the skillet in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the bacon and fish are cooked thoroughly and the cheese is melted. Feel welcome to drizzle some Fig Glaze overtop upon removing the skillet from the oven.

Enjoy! Reach out to me on Instagram (@WildGameJack) with any questions or comments.

Get Cooking:

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Jack Hennessy @WildGameJack

Jack Hennessy grew up south of Chicago, started hunting at the age of 26 when attending graduate school in Spokane, Washington. Since then he has combined his love of cooking with the outdoors. He lives in south-central Kansas where he hunts whitetails and chases roosters with his Wirehaired Vizsla, Dudley.