I was asked by several members to tell how Brown Chachalaca are on the table since I took a couple 2 weeks ago. I made one of the birds for dinner tonight. I prepared it by slow roasting for about 30 min to get it going and then added a little water to the pan and tightly sealed the pan with foil to let it steam for about another 30 min. This is a trick I have used for other birds to keep them from drying out. I only used a little salt and pepper because I wanted to try to keep the bird's natural flavors. Accompanying the bird was acorn squash, roasted onion with butter, couscous with chilipetin peppers and pickled beets. Not the best photo, but this is how it plated up:


So, how did the bird taste? Pretty good. I'd put the flavor as something between a blue grouse and a pheasant which makes sense since the Brown Chachalaca is also known as the Mexican Tree Pheasant. Texture wise it was a little tougher than either the grouse or pheasant but not by much. The drumsticks had some small thin bones in them similar to a turkey drumstick but obviously they were much smaller. All in all a pretty good bird on the table.

I still have another bird I was going to fry but after eating this one I think frying would be a bad choice. So instead I am going to put it in the instapot and when done remove the meat from the bones and build a soup using the stock as a base. I think that will turn out really good. Hopefully I can get one more bird because I believe 2 birds will make a better soup. If you find yourself in deep south TX along the Rio Grande you should try and get one of these.

Looks very good Sir. Nicely done.


Side Note: I used to Quail hunt with Dad and ate plenty of Quail for many years. Had them on the grill, fried, and baked. Loved em.

Never had that before, and it looks very good. Nicely done.