Ostrich Recipes Index

Ostrich: It doesn't taste like chicken!

I expected ostrich meat to be similar to chicken the first time I ordered it in a restaurant, and was delightfully surprised with the juicy, slightly pink slices of tender steak-like meat that appeared on a bed of gnocchi and stir fried vegetables. Ostrich is becoming known as the "healthy alternative red meat". If you're a steak lover, you'll be delighted with the flavors and texture produced with these ostrich recipes.

I've discovered that Elk Meat is another delicious and healthy red meat alternative. Try ostrich with one of
my elk recipes

After that first taste, I was thrilled to find that one of the butchers at my favourite market carried ostrich meat in vacuum packs of various cuts and sizes from an ostrich farm in southwestern Ontario. At prices not that much more expensive than for a good cut of steak, I had to try cooking it myself.

Cooking Ostrich: Tips

Cooking ostrich requires some adjustment to your usual methods for cooking other red meat, because it is much denser and leaner. I'm happy to share these general ostrich tips I've gathered through my trials and successes:

marinate ostrich for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight (recipes for marinades below)
shorten cooking times from what you would do for beef: do not cook ostrich past medium doneness or it will dry out!
start with a very high grilling temperature for the barbecue or a grill pan, and do not adjust the temperature (keep it steady at hotter than medium-high, but not all the way up)
let the first side cook thoroughly -- do not move or flip the meat until the first side has completely browned and you can see that the meat is cooked almost halfway up the thickness of the cut
once you flip the ostrich meat, cook the second side for about half the time that you did for the first side (provided you let it cook thoroughly on the first side!)
when you remove it from the barbecue, grill pan or the oven, do not cut into it! Cover with a tinfoil tent and let it rest for about 10 minutes to allow the juices 'find their way back home'
slice thick steaks or roasts thinly and serve fanned out over a bed of rice, noodles, gnocchi or couscous and fresh vegetables - a beautiful, healthy, scrumptious display!

Last but not least, I repeat: do not overcook ostrich, because there is no turning back. Cooking slightly more if you discover it is underdone is better than drying it out in the first round. I once had a dinner party and used a grill pan for a very thick, large cut (that I now realize I should have roasted in the oven). When I did slice into it, it was still very rare towards the middle. Since I was slicing to serve anyway, I just threw the under-done slices back on the grill for another minute on each side, and it could not have turned out better. Don't panic, just 'wingit'!

You'll find more recipe-specific tips in the blue boxes attached to each recipe in the Ostrich Recipes below.

Ostrich Recipes

Many of my ostrich recipes aren't ready for sharing here yet because I 'wingit' through most of my adventures with food and I save ostrich for a special treat, so I don't have many of the recipes written down.

The tips above should get you started with a good ostrich steak, and here's a new one I've just created - delicious!:
Crock Pot Ostrich -- a la Bourguignon!

Stay tuned for these recipes -- on the front burner to be served up soon!

Marinades

Vietnamese Lemon Grass and Nuoc Cham
Asian Ginger Marinade (a mix of ingredients from several Asian cuisines)

Vietnamese Grilled Ostrich
Barbecue Ostrich with Ginger
...and a couple that I have yet to create:

Ostrich Kebabs Mediterranean Style
Indonesian Ostrich Satay (with my special Indonesian Peanut Sauce, it's sure to be delicious!)

(If you're anxious to see these ostrich recipes as they're published, see your options below!)