Turkey and dressing with lots of gravy is my traditional Thanksgiving main dish. Add sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, black eyed peas, green beans, sweet corn, fruit salad, buttered rolls, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, cherry pie, and you can pretty much imagine what’s on my table for Thanksgiving. But, over the years, I’ve managed to come up with some great alternatives. Here are five main dishes served to the family over the years.
I’m going to skip some common alternatives like ham, goose, duck, chicken, and move on to some more unusual main dishes.
Quail and dove. There was a time in my younger days when you could find me out in the bushes every day during hunting season. I was good at it and brought home plenty of game. This is a good thing because it helped feed six hungry kids who are now much larger than I am. The quail were lightly breaded and fried. The dove breasts were marinaded in a secret sauce (Worcestershire, mustard, ketchup, salt) with just a touch of jalapeno pepper and baked in the oven. Served with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, buttered rolls, and all the fine desserts. Put this in front of the kids and it disappeared quickly.
Deep fried shrimp. I grew up in New Mexico. The only seafood there came out of the frozen food department of the grocery store. Moving to Florida was an eye opener. Store bought frozen shrimp didn’t prepare me for the taste of fresh shrimp on the Gulf Coast. Huge, flavorful, lightly breaded, deep fried shrimp for Thanksgiving. Another plus with these shrimp is that I had dipped them up myself. Pumpkin pie goes great with shrimp!
Roasted pheasant. Living in Utah was pretty much like New Mexico. More snow in the winter. Good pheasant hunting. I was young, didn’t know anything about pheasant, went hunting just before a blizzard. I managed to bag three pheasant during an intermittent whiteout and still make it home. Kind of a miracle for an old desert boy. Since I didn’t know anything about pheasant, and it was before the internet where I could looked it up, I decided to pluck and roast them just like I did a turkey. I rubbed some seasoned butter all over the birds, dropped in a pan with some water, loosely covered with tin foil, and baked at 350 degrees. Turned out really good! Cranberry sauce on the side topped it off.
Deer roast and liver. Back in New Mexico I stalked a herd of deer moving along a ridge for half a day. We came to one saddle in the ridge where I though I could move fast enough to get ahead of them and wait. It worked great and I managed to take a really big six point buck. For Thanksgiving I cooked a big roast and fried the deer liver. The roast was tender with no gamey taste at all. If you’ve never eaten deer liver you are in for a treat. Very tender, delicate flavor. Not like cow liver at all.
Texas barbecue brisket and ribs. Fire up the barbecue pit. Marinade the briskets and rub the ribs with seasonings. Wait for four hours. I like to smoke the meat for a few hours before wrapping in tin foil. Then I cook overnight. In the morning I put all the cooked meat into a large ice chest and let sit till dinner. The meat will still be hot when you get ready to slice it. Serve with plenty of sauce on the side, baked beans, and potato salad. Have plenty of napkins on hand. I slather sauce from ear to ear.
There you go. Try it out. Let me know what you eat for Thanksgiving.