Never bone out shoulder again

Great idea. I can’t wait to give it a try. So far, the elk/deer steaks that I have done on smoker have dried out, but the idea of putting in the pan should help hold the moisture.
 
Finally made this with a tiny whitetail shoulder…. Holy crap that came out amazing. Tender, moist, flavorful!
 

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I tried this Thursday with a whitetail shoulder. It turned out good. Mine wasn't falling off the bone but wasn't tough either. Kinda reminded me of brisket. Had tacos with the family first. Had bbq today with some of the meat. Still quite a bit of meat left. Thinking about quesadillas next.
 

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Tried a new recipe today and it turned out amazing. Take a whole deer or antelope shoulder and season however you’d like. Throw it on smoker at 200 degrees for 2.5-3 hours. Put it in an aluminum foil pan. Add a few sliced peppers and onions. Dump a can of chilis in sauce on top of the shoulder. Dump in a bottle of coke and cover the pan in tin foil and put back on the smoker at 300 degrees for another 3 hours. Pull off and the meat will fall off the bone. Shred it and put it on taco shells. I will never bone out another shoulder on a deer or antelope again.
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Looks great, thanks for sharing
 
So I finally had success! Been cleaning out the freezers and found a couple of shoulders, one must have been from a big buck and one was from a spike.
I cooked the big one. Seasoned and seared what I could in a 13” cast iron, then into a roasting pan with some stock and whatever other seasonings I grabbed at the time along with some garlic and onion. Wrapped tight in foil and into the oven at 225 for about two hours, then added potatoes and carrots for another few hours.
The bone pulled right off the meat. So very tender and moist. We ate on it for a couple of days and I vacuum sealed three meals for deer camp later.

I want to do a more zesty Mexican style next. I think where I failed before was not adding enough moisture.
 
Shoulders and shanks for me are the bane of processing deer. Last week I tossed 6 shanks in a crockpot with some chicken stock, salt, pepper, and assorted seasonings, added a beer, and then draped a few slices of fatty bacon over the shanks. Cooked them for 9 hours on low. Meat slipped off the bone as I was removing them from the crockpot. Shredded it and tossed a little of the juice over it for the fridge.

The next day I fried up some onions and peppers until they softened. Added the meat back to it until it was hot and had a bit of crisped up edges, separated it into serving size piles in the pan, covered with a couple slices of Swiss cheese per pile, reduced heat and covered it until the cheese was thoroughly melted. Served it garlic buttered toasted buns for a Philly-kind of sandwich. Man they were good. My wife gets burned out on the same meals and leftovers often but we had them the next night too and she still bragged them up.

After that we made a meal of quick reheated meat and barbecue sauce on a toasted bun for lunch. Never again will I trim up a deer shoulder or shanks.
 
Because of this thread I now have two antelope shoulders and a whitetail shoulder vacuum packed in the freezer and ready to go. If threads can be pinned to the top, this one should be! Besides making processing SO MUCH EASIER, the recipes and photos make my mouth water. Looking forward to smoking and cooking one up soon. But probably not before I add a few more whole shoulders to the stack.
 
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Here we go, changed it up a little added a barbacoa seasoning mix with the coke and ro-tel. Also seasoned the shoulder with some Goya seasoning before it went into the smoker.
I did almost the same thing on opening day of our gun deer season. 6 hours on the smoke, foil pan, covered in onions, green peppers and pablano peppers and beef stock, wrapped in foil for another 6 hours and shredded it onto tortilla shells. Yummy!
 
@brockel you rifle whoring, shoulder smoking, coyote killin SOB! That was awesome! Whole family devoured it, my wife who hardly eats red meat and never eats wild game not only tried it she went back for seconds. That's saying something. Although the only thing I didn't different was cooked for a total of 12 hours instead of six which came out much better this time, not sure what that's all about. Maybe my step-sons 1.5 year old forky was really a tough #OLDWARRIOR.😉

Too busy eating to take a pic til it was almost gone
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Count me in for the "never bone out a front shoulder again" camp.

Smoker 2 1/2 hours at 200F, placed in a broiling pan nestled into onions, Anaheim peppers, celery, carrots and two bottles of Red's Apple Ale, covered with black bean/roasted corn/tomato salsa and into the oven covered at 300F for another 4+ hours to get to shredding amazingness.

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My eggs this morning were over easy with some melty cheese, shredded deer/roasted veggie topping.

Did I already state that I will never bone out a shoulder again??? And this doe was big enough that taking the flat irons (our go-to cut for beef grilling) was an option.

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