Smoked pheasant

[Ryan D.]

Wondering if anyone has ever tryed smoking pheasant breasts or any form of it? I'm currently in the process of preparing some for this weekend. What I did was:
Wash and clean 10 pheasant breasts. Pounded them out to flaten them with some seasoning already of them. Then laid some black forest ham over the breast and placed some cut up green peppers, diced up mushrooms and chunks of horse radish cheese together. Then folded up the ham to enclose the fillings and wrapped the pheasant breast back over the ham. Then wrapped some hickory bacon around the pheasant breat and tooth-picked it shut so the fillings would not fall out.

With a few extra breastsI then flaten them the same way and spread onion & chive cream cheese over entire breast. Then placed a few cut up green peppers and mushrooms in with them also. Then rolled the breast back into a roll and cut into bite size pieces and wrapped with bacon and tooth-picked them also.

Planning on smoking these at 225F for about 1.5-2 hours (or until bacon looks to be finished)
Wondering if anyone else has tried anything like this? If so how did it turn out? Any pointers? Thanks

[mow_delon]

Wow, that sounds like a winner!  I have never done anything like that, but have brined the breasts whole and smoked like a chicken a few times and it turns out wonderfull.

[devo]

Here is another way of doing them.

This recipe is not for smoked pheasant under glass...it's for pheasant under chicken skin! Don't laugh. It's true! Use the skins from chicken leg quarters to protect the delicate wild pheasant breasts from the drying effect of the smoker. The fatty chicken skin helps the smoking pheasant retain moisture and adds a bit of flavor to boot.


The pheasant is soaked in a weak brine overnight, seasoned, wrapped in the chicken skin, and smoked.


Smoked Pheasant

2 whole
3 pieces
1 quart
3 Tbs
1 Tsp
1 Tsp
1 Tsp
1/2 Tsp
1/2 Tsp
pheasant breasts, skinned
skin from leg quarters
cold water
Kosher salt
onion powder
garlic powder
dried parsley
white pepper
paprika





Dissolve the salt in the cold water to make the brine. Soak the pheasant in the brine overnight, but no more than eight hours. When the birds are finished brining, rinse them and dry them off with paper towels.

Mix up the spices and season the breasts lightly on all surfaces. Wrap the chicken skin over the pheasant so it's covered completely on top. You may have to play with the positioning a little. Use one whole piece and one half piece of the leg quarter skins on each breast. When the skin is in place, secure it with toothpicks. Dust a little more of the spice mix onto the skin.

Use alder and apple for smoke...these will give the pheasant a light smoky flavor.

Smoke for four to six hours at 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the temperature of the smoked pheasant reaches 165 degrees.

[MrRaven]

That sounds awesome! I have never actually cooked pheasant.

[Quarlow]

Holy cripes Ryan that sounds awesome. How did they turn out?

[grnhs]

Now I'm hungry again!

[Ryan D.]

sorry for taking so long to get back to this. The pheasant turned out great! I will try to get some pictures of before/after up soon! Highly recommend this if you happen to get ahold of a few extra pheasants this fall!

[Quarlow]

I don't get any time for hunting anymore, but pheasant is something I would like to do.

[manxman]

Perfect timing for posting pheasant recipes , just bartered some crab and lobster for a pile of rib eye's, T bones and half a dozen pheasant and was looking for new ways to do the latter.  :)

Thanks Ryan D and devo!