Jalapeno Bacon Wrapped Doves

Dove Season - it is a National holiday in Texas. Well, any opening day of any season is a national holiday in Texas. Never plan a wedding or a party on the opening weekend of any hunting season. Only the women will show up. That is a fact.

Dove season means alarm clocks set for 3:30 or 4:00am. Coffee in a thermal cup and camouflage clothing. I have even seen women's nighties made from silky camouflage and baby clothes in soft cottons. What-a-Burger is open 24 hours so the #11 breakfast meal is the breakfast of choice. A two hour drive and a short walk and you are ready for the sun to come up.

It is important to be at the lease before the sun is up and the birds start flying. Once the limit of 11 birds per licensed hunter has been reach it is time to turn around and come home. Once home you pop the breast meat out of the bird. There is blood in the meat so you soak it in a bowl of heavily salted water. The salt draws the blood out of the meat. Change the salted water a few times. Hoby likes to freeze his doves in plastic baggies with water. This eliminates the chance for freezer burn. I think this season he has a total of 77 doves in the bottom of the freezer. We really need a game freezer for the garage since he is starting to talk about deer season.

To prepare the doves:

Hoby seasons the breast with anything he finds in the spice rack. This time he used salt, pepper, lemon pepper and Caribbean Jerk Seasoning. Then he sweated some jalapenos on the grill and seeded them. He place the jalapeno along the breast bone side of the dove and wrapped it in bacon secured with wooden toothpicks.


Hoby placed the doves in shallow plastic dishes and covered them with a bottled Italian salad dressing. This batch was marinated overnight and we took them to mom and dad's. Hoby grilled them with Jardines Orange Zest Sauce, which was one of the sauces we purchased for 50 cents. I looked at HEB last weekend and the sauce is on the shelf for over $4 a bottle.

All who at them were in love. They were great. There were two left over and my cousin Mike showed up and ate them. Guess we were saving him a few.

We didn't get any photos of the doves on the grill so next time we grill some dove we will shoot 'em again! This time with a camera.