Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide)

Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl means two guinea fowl, well spiced and stuffed with clementines, cooked by sous vide then blasted to crispy skin in a very hot oven. The perfect lip-smacking, finger-licking main course for any holiday meal!

N.B. This recipe must be started one day ahead of when you want to roast and serve your guinea fowl. 

One of the things I love about the holiday season is that unusual game birds sometimes turn up in the neighborhood grocery stores or butchers. I’ve found pheasant, guinea fowl, goose and even partridge on occasion and always leap at the opportunity to try something different. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that duck has been on our Christmas menu a couple of years as well. 

Guinea fowl are considered a game bird but, in fact, there has been a great increase in the number of farms that raise them. According the USDA, there are more than 14,500 guinea fowl farms in the Unites States. They are the fourth best selling poultry after chicken, turkey and duck. 

They are relatively small birds, weighing roughly 2-3 lbs or 900-1.4kg, with slightly darker meat than chicken and way more flavor. If you can't find guinea fowl, ask our local butcher to order some for you. Most will oblige.

Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide)

Some essential items for this recipe are 1. a sous vide machine aka immersion circulator 2. A vessel large enough to hold the two birds and water to circulate around them and 3. Two heavy bricks or tiles to hold the birds underwater in said vessel. Don’t worry, I provide a photo of the set up below.

Ingredients

2 whole guinea fowl (approx weight each 3 lbs or 1.4kg)

2 tablespoons dry salted spice rub (I used my dry java concoction) 

1/2 teaspoon same spice rub

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 small clementines

Method

Clean the guinea fowl, removing the top part of the tail and any stray feathers inspector 12 might have missed. (One of mine had what appeared to be one side of the bird’s head skin as well, connected to the neck skin, top feathers and all. Cooking meat is not for the faint-hearted and this is a reminder to me at least, to appreciate the living beast that I am cooking and eating.)

Spoon the dry rub inside the birds and all over the outside skin, making sure to get some between the legs and body, wings and body, and in the top cavity by the neck as well. If the guinea fowl arrive already trussed, just work your fingers between these bits. If your fowl are not already tied up, do this after seasoning. 

Mix that extra 1/2 teaspoon of dry rub with the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and sprinkle it on the top of the bird from a great height, so you get an even layer. According to Serious Eats, this helps the skin dry so it will super crispy when roasted. It does get moist again in the sous vide bag but I like to think that if the skin is really dry when we start, it will dry out again quickly with the application of intense heat.

Place your birds in a casserole dish, breast up, uncovered in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 

The following morning, stuff two whole clementines in each bird cavity.  This helps displace air and conduct heat through the birds as well as adding flavor. 

Place each guinea fowl in a gallon bag. Submerge them carefully in water to remove as much of the air inside as possible and seal tightly.

Because there is still some air inside of the birds, they tend to want to float. Cover a couple of bricks or tiles with plastic bags and lean them against the guinea fowl to keep them submerged but make sure water can still circulate around them. I also clothespin the guinea fowl bags to my cooking chopsticks to help center them in the water.

Sous vide at 150°F or 65°C for four hours.

When the timer goes off, remove the bags from the water bath. Carefully remove the guinea fowl from the bags, holding them legs down so liquid can drain out of them and back into the bags. Reserve any juice left behind to add to gravy later. 

Heat your oven to as high as it will go. Pat the birds dry with paper towels, being careful not to break the skin. 

Heat a large iron skillet on the stovetop and place both birds in it. Turn the oven temperature down to 450°F or 232°C convection, if it was higher than that to preheat. Roast the guinea fowl in your very hot oven for about 10 minutes to brown the skin, turning the pan around midway through to ensure even browning. 

Let rest for 10 minutes, cut into joints and serve.

Enjoy! 

Anybody tired of turkey and ham every holiday? It’s Sunday FunDay again and this week we are sharing main course recipes that are anything but ham and turkey! Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Beef Pasanday - Rajasthani Style With a Twist from Sneha’s Recipe
• Cornish Hens Marbella from Palatable Pastime
• Mughlai Egg Curry from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide) from Food Lust People Love
• Roasted New York Strip Loin from A Day in the Life on the Farm

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide)!

 .