Roast Goose Legs with Grape and Red Wine Sauce

Roast Goose with Grapes

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I remember that geese were cooked every which way for the holidays. Most often it was roast goose, or goose braised in gravy, or baked in the oven. A home tradition familiar since childhood is the Christmas goose. It is perhaps a classic.

I was just about to write that geese (Anser) are waterfowl, close relatives of ducks, and so on. But suddenly I remembered my childhood, my grandmother’s village, a huge meadow beside a shallow little river. And huge herds, not flocks but herds, of domestic geese.

If anyone tells you that goose is difficult, fatty and has little meat, don’t believe it, you are being misled. You have to know how to cook it. Although, I admit, cooking a whole goose is the highest level of skill.

These days we mostly don’t cook a whole goose. First, buying a goose is rather hard, and supermarket broilers don’t count. Second, a small family can hardly eat a whole goose. So we buy separate pieces, usually legs, drumsticks and thighs. And the goose is cooked in a sauce of grapes and red wine.

The recipe for goose with sauce, goose legs with grape sauce, is not difficult. It is a festive dish, and the process of making it is as enjoyable as eating it.

Ingredients

2 servings

For the goose

  • Goose legs 2
  • Butter 25 g (half)
  • Salt, ground black pepper to taste

For the grape sauce

  • Pink grapes 200 g (and a few large berries for serving)
  • Butter 25 g (the other half)
  • Dry red wine 100 ml
  • Sugar or honey 1 tsp (if the wine is dry) (5 g)
  • Nutmeg, ground black pepper a knife tip and a pinch

Step-by-step recipe

Frying the goose legs

It is best if the goose legs have not been frozen.

  1. Prepare the legs: be sure to remove any remaining feathers and down, or even singe them over a flame. Trim off the excess goose fat. Rub the meat with a mixture of salt and black pepper.

    Goose legs, pink grapes.

  1. Fry the legs until crisp. In a deep sauté pan, melt half of the butter, add the goose legs and fry them over medium heat, turning from side to side, until a nice golden-brown crust forms.

    Putting the goose legs in the hot pan.

  2. Fry covered for 30 mins. Turn the heat down to the minimum and keep frying the goose legs under a lid, turning them often. It is important that the heat is as low as possible so the meat does not burn. No liquid is needed either, the meat should fry, not stew.

    Turning the heat down to the minimum and frying the goose legs under a lid.

Making the grape sauce

While the goose is frying, make the grape sauce. Strictly speaking, any grapes will do. But it is better to take large pink or red seedless grapes. They are simply less hassle.

For the red wine in the sauce, semi-sweet or semi-dry is better. Caucasian wines such as Khvanchkara or Kindzmarauli work very well, or the Bulgarian wines that are familiar to us. If you use a dry wine, add a teaspoon of sugar (5 g) or honey to the sauce.

  1. Scald and peel the grapes. Pull the berries off the stem and put them in a deep bowl. Pour boiling water from a kettle over them for 1–1.5 minutes, no more. Cool the grapes under cold running water and immediately remove the skin with a sharp knife. Grapes scalded with boiling water peel very easily.

    Scalding and peeling the grapes.

    Set aside a few large peeled grapes whole for serving. Cut the rest in half with the same knife and remove the seeds, if there are any.

  2. Fry and simmer the grapes. Melt the other half of the butter in a skillet and fry the grape halves in it.

    Frying the peeled grapes.

    Add a knife tip of ground nutmeg and a pinch of black pepper. Simmer the grapes over low heat, covered, for 10 mins.

  1. Pour in the wine and reduce the sauce. Add the red wine and the sugar, if the wine is dry.

    Adding the red wine.

    Simmer the sauce for another 10 mins, then mash the grape halves with a fork to make a puree. Reduce the sauce over low heat, uncovered, until its volume is halved.

Braising the goose in the sauce

  1. Braise the legs in the sauce for 20 mins. Move the fried goose legs into the grape sauce, spoon the sauce over the meat and simmer over low heat for 10 mins. Then turn them over and simmer for another 10 mins.

    Moving the fried goose legs into the grape sauce.

  2. Fry the grapes for serving. While the poultry braises, fry the reserved large peeled grapes in the butter left in the sauté pan from frying the legs. Just 3–4 mins, stirring.

Serving

  1. Put the goose legs with the grape sauce on plates and add the fried grapes.

    Roast goose

    Goose with sauce is served very simply, and the dish is ready.

Calories and macros

340 kcal

Serving ≈ 90 g

  • Protein6 g8% of kcal
  • Fat33 g88% of kcal
  • Carbs4 g4% of kcal

100 g390 kcalProtein 7.4 gFat 38.5 gCarbs 4.2 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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