20+ Delicious Dove Recipes for Beginners

If it’s fall hunting season in your area, you might have a stock of dove waiting to be cooked.

Dove is a perfect source of lean and delicious meat. However, as it is not a very meaty bird, cooking it takes creativity. 

Done with the hunting but wondering what and how to cook delectable meals with your little birds? 

Outfit your kitchen with our tasteful Dove Recipes and impress your friends and family with your cooking skills! 

Whether you want a simple bacon-wrapped, searing, frying, or crockpot recipe that is fun to create, I’ve got you covered.

1. Cajun Grilled Doves

Love grilling? Here is a delicious Cajun Grilled Dove recipe that I like because it asks for only three ingredients. 

Doves are perfect for grilling. They are tender and have low fat. I grill my doves medium. Grill them rare, and they become chewy. 

Just marinate the doves in the Cajun spicy rub and grill on high heat until the skin is crispy and the meat is done. 

Remember to grill a lot of doves. Even as an appetizer, you will need to serve 4-6 doves per person to whet the appetite. 

2. Dove Nuggets 

Bored of chicken nuggets and want a gamey appetizer? Try dove nuggets and enjoy a different flavor altogether. 

Dove nuggets are a unique and delicious snack for a birthday party or a family dinner. They are also easy to make. 

As doves are not very meaty, you will need at least 20-25 dove breasts for a single batch of medium-sized nuggets. 

Serve them with a freshly tossed salad or green beans, and let everyone enjoy the taste of these chunky bites. 

Dips like honey mustard and buffalo sauce will also enhance the taste of Dove nuggets or hot shots. 

3. Grilled Doves with Blueberry BBQ Sauce 

Grilled doves are delicious, but they become more delectable when you cook them dripped in blueberry BBQ sauce. 

In most states, blueberries or Huckleberries come ripe when the dove hunting season starts. So, making a homemade blueberry BBQ sauce is like a custom.

Doves are not like steaks and ducks. They are very, very small and much low in fat. However, when it comes to grilling, they are the same. 

So, hunt safe, shoot straight, grill, serve your grilled dove with a blueberry BBQ sauce glazes and enjoy. 

Note: Remember to remove all the pellets from the doves carefully; otherwise, your dental bill will break your wallet. 

4. Dove Teriyaki Recipe 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/351562314671972255/

If you like teriyaki sauce, you must have been making chicken and fish using the traditional method of Japenese Teriyaki. 

Here I am following the same recipe using doves. Well, sue me! What can I do if it works superbly well?

I say if you don’t try different recipes with different ingredients, how would you come up with something fabulous of your own?

So, let’s try our hands at Dove Teriyaki, made in homemade teriyaki sauce. For the best result, let the doves sit in the marinade for 1 hour. Serve them with potato salad and steamed rice, and enjoy!

5. Sweet and Spicy Grilled Dove Breasts 

If you are looking for a unique recipe to grill Dove, here is another one of Dove’s recipes that is simply sweet and spicy. 

Made in hoisin sauce, this sweet and spicy grilled dove is delicious to the core. If you have kids, this dove recipe will be a treat for them. 

It’s an easy recipe that’s fantastic to add to your repertoire and keeps your wild game meals interesting.

Don’t forget to baste your doves again and again with the glaze while flipping the dove for about 5-7 minutes on each side. 

Garnish with the leftover glaze and serve with boiled rice. 

6. Butter Seared Dove Breast with Garlic & Fresh Herbs 

Do you know the classic way to prepare dove breast meat? The pan-searing in butter is the way you want to go with your doves. 

This butter-seared dove breast with garlic and herbs is the best recipe when it comes to deliciously tasty seared doves.

To make heavenly butter-seared doves, use European-styled butter because it has more fat and flavor. 

The next thing you must do to enhance the taste of seared dove is to apply the perfect seasoning. 

Garlic and herbs will do the rest! 

7. Fried Buffalo Dove Breasts from Duck Wild Adventures 

Five minutes to prep, six minutes to cook! That is all it takes to make a pan-fried dove recipe. 

For this delectable recipe, you need at most 5 ingredients. Isn’t that what we all want–fewer ingredients and more taste? 

Start with seasoning the meat with salt and pepper, coat with paprika almond flour mixture, and then pan-fry in a skillet until done.

Before serving, place the meat in an airtight bowl, pour your favorite wing sauce, and toss to coat.

Enjoy a quick but delicious lunch by serving the dove breasts with freshly tossed greens.

8. Dove Breasts with Radish Chimichurri 

There are many other ways to cook the doves than bacon-wrapped grilling–searing, pan, or deep-frying, to name a few.

One such unique recipe is dove breasts with radish chimichurri. 

In this recipe, we pair the succulent and soft meat of the dove with a spicy and savory chimichurri sauce and create a mouthwatering savory meal.

The tangy and spicy chimichurri sauce made with radishes and herbs nicely complements the gamey flavor of dove meat.  

This dish is a must-try for everyone who likes strong flavors and tasty food.

9. Bacon-Wrapped Dove Recipe

By bacon-wrapped dove, we mean jalapeno cream-cheese bacon-wrapped dove popper that we cannot celebrate our labor day without. 

Dove poppers or dove breasts wrapped in bacon are a perfect combo of bacon’s salty, smoky flavor and the rich, gamey flavor of dove meat.

Why bacon, though? Because, fellas, the bacon gives the dove meat a crunchy texture while keeping it moist and soft.

These poppers are best to enjoy while watching an exciting game or craving something light yet finger-licking good. 

10. Southern Tomato Gravy Recipe 

Southern tomato gravy is different from American tomato gravy, which, BTW, is somewhat of a tomato sauce. 

So, what is southern tomato gravy, and what do dove recipes have to do with it? 

A gravy with tomatoes, bacon, onions, sorghum syrup, black pepper, and a few optional ingredients is what we call a Southern Tomato Gravy. 

And we do not serve this Southern Tomato Gravy alone; we serve them over chicken pieces, pork, and steak. For this recipe, we will serve them over fried doves. 

For this recipe, use high-quality tomatoes to make a perfect gravy. I use fresh, fully ripe tomatoes. You can also use branded canned tomatoes.  

11. Doves with Prickly Pear BBQ Sauce 

Get your hands on a prickly pear syrup or juice and make a prickly pear BBQ sauce. Then paint your doves with it, grill, and repeat. 

It is such an easy and fun-to-make recipe that my husband always opts to make it during the mourning dove season. 

The ingredients for the prickly pear barbecue sauce are lime juice, onion, chiltepin chilies, tequila, prickly pear syrup, and agave syrup.

Remember to keep some prickly pear BBQ sauce aside so that you can glaze the doves just before serving them. 

12. Traeger Grilled Dove Poppers 

Oh no, one more grilling recipe! Are you wondering why this list of dove recipes has so many grilling recipes? 

Actually, grilling is the best way to prepare doves without making them taste too much gamey and chewy. 

When we make Dove poppers on a deep Traeger grill, we get to mix the rich flavor of Dove meat with the charred smokey flavor of the grill. 

The cream cheese, jalapenos, and bacon are there for additional flavor. They give this combo a spicy and savory flavor and make everyone go wild with the taste. 

You’ll be hooked once you take your first bite since every bite is so flavorful.

13. Crispy, Crunchy Cream Cheese and Dove Wontons 

We all have eaten a wonton at least once in our lifetime. However, this crispy, crunchy, cream cheese dove wontons are another story. 

They are wontons, but their taste is totally different, and they have dove filing instead of regular chicken or pork. 

Super crispy wonton wrappers, super soft cream cheese, and super tasty dove meat are what you will taste when you make this recipe. 

The seasoning of the meat is the game-changer! It is a crucial step in this recipe as it gives an authentic flavor to the meat inside the wonton. 

So, choose a seasoning that really suits your taste and goes well with your dove meat.

14. Sliced Dove Breasts on Cornbread Crostini 

A dish that is appealing to look at while having a flavorful taste is the bonus you get when you make this three-layered meal. 

A sliced dove breast on cornbread crostini has a base of cornbread crostini, a covering of flat dove breasts, and a topping of green tomato marmalade. 

What else do you ask for a perfect side meal? 

The sweet flavor of marmalade will go well with the savory flavor of our gamey meat, making this recipe a mix of sweet and savory flavors. 

These beautifully scrumptious crostinis are ideal for serving as party finger food for everyone to enjoy.

15. A Recipe for Flaky Cheese and Pepper Dove Rolls 

It’s time to make rolls using the little morsels that we have from our last mourning dove hunting trip. 

So let us make rolls that are quick to prepare and demand only two ingredients, cheese and pepper, besides Sriracha Chili Garlic Sauce and diced pineapples. 

Slices of pineapple add a touch of tropical sweetness that blends beautifully with the dove meat to make a delicious finger meal!

Remember, these flaky cheese and pepper dove rolls taste more sweet than savory if you use Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. 

16. Chicken Fried Dove Breast

A chicken-fried dove is a crispy and savory delicacy common in many southern cuisines. 

This deep-fried dove is supposed to be juicy and soft from the inside with a delightful outer crunch.

We get that crispy bite after breading the doves in a crunchy coating and frying until golden brown.

Up your seasoning game for the perfect juicy and flavorful inside by selecting an umami-flavored seasoning for your flour. 

For a perfect crunchy exterior, go for the double dredge method–light coat →, wet bath →, heavy coat. 

17. Dove Schnitzel 

Traditional jägerschnitzel is a thin piece of meat served with mushroom gravy. Dove Schnitzel is dove served with mushroom gravy.

Dove schnitzel is the best version of jägerschnitzel. The combo of dove breast meat and mushroom gravy is a pair made in heaven. 

Chanterelles are the best mushrooms for this recipe. However, if you can’t find them, use any mushroom you can get your hands on.

A garlic bread and full-bodied red wine will taste perfect with this recipe. What say? 

18. Jalapeno Dove Poppers 

Jalapeno Dove poppers, or as my mother calls them, field-to-tv table poppers, are the best snack to serve during the big game. 

As soon as they reach the table, they disappear. All there is left behind is the demand for more. 

These jalapeno Dove poppers taste fantabulous when you marinate them in Moore’s or Teriyaki’s marinade overnight. 

Fill them up in jalapenos with cream cheese, wrap up in half a piece of bacon, covering the meat completely. 

Grill or air fry them and keep them aside for snack time. 

19. Pan Fried Dove Appetizer 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/144889313002065933/

Serve these pan-fried Dove appetizers at a party and see how quickly they disappear! They are so delectable and appetizing that one could eat 6-7 in a go. 

The pan-fried dove appetizer is also quite famous at my house. I make them whenever my kind neighbors feel like sharing their hunting spoils with us. 

I also make 2-3 different sauces whenever I make Dove appetizers because the sauces help to make them taste a little less gamey. 

Sweet chili sauce, dijon mustard, sour cream, tomato sauce, and honey bbq sauce are all suitable options. 

20. Smoked Guajillo Doves 

After grilling, searing, and frying, it is time to smoke doves. Let me share one of the brilliant Dove recipes that are unbelievably delicious.

Smoked Guajillo Doves are a treat for your tastebuds, and how can they not be? After all, they are made in Guajillo sauce, a Mexican condiment made using Guajillo chiles. 

For this recipe, you cure the doves using any curing salt, submerge in brine, smoke them using any wood, and then bathe them in the Guajillo sauce. 

At last, enjoy smoky doves covered in a delicious sauce!

21. Baked Duck Poppers with Brown Sugar Glaze 

This recipe is similar to jalapeno, cream cheese, and bacon-wrapped dove poppers. 

However, in this one, we are using a brown sugar glaze to boost the flavor of the baked ducks.

Also, unlike other bacon-wrapped dove recipes, we will use a McCormick Smokehouse Maple to season the duck. 

To prevent cream cheese leakage while baking the ducks, I cover the popper completely with bacon. 

You should do the same to avoid sticky and messy baked duck poppers! 

22. Doves with Brandy, Mushrooms, and Orange 

If you are into wild game meat, you must also be into wild cooking! So, are you ready to try something thrilling?

Pouring brandy into a hot pan takes guts, man. Oh, yes! That is what we have to do when we make doves with brandy. 

But it all pays you in the end. The taste of doves, when we cook them with brandy, mushrooms, and oranges, will make you salivate. 

Serve them on a bed of rice, mashed potatoes, or pinto beans, and you get a palate that no one can say no to. 

23. Doves in the Crockpot 

Before saying goodbye, let’s take dove recipes up a notch with this slow-cooking recipe. A recipe that takes hours to be served but tastes incredible. 

If you don’t mind long hours of cooking, try your hand at this crockpot dove recipe that needs only 5 ingredients. 

First, soak your birdies in water overnight, adding kosher salt. The next day rinse and place the doves in a crockpot.

Then add the dry ingredients, tomato juice, water, and butter to the crockpot, and cook straight for 8 hours.

Enjoy the soft and juicy doves that taste divine!