that time someone gave me a pheasant

At work last week, I was gifted a pheasant. One of the attorneys in my building had received it from a client of his. Of course, the attorney's freezer was already full of pheasants and other wild game (being an avid hunter himself) so he brought birds in to share with the rest of us. I think I was the only one keen to make use of my pheasant present.

Luckily for me, the bird was already plucked, gutted, and generally cleaned. The hard part was deciding (or even finding, really) a good recipe to prepare it with. I got the idea to pan-roast the pheasant with carrots, leeks, and bacon. The recipe was modified somewhat, because I had read that pheasant dries out easily. To fix that, and since I didn't have time to brine the bird prior to cooking, I draped (uncooked) bacon over the top of the bird. As a nice complement to the meal, Sydney made some quinoa with sauteed carrots, garlic, and onions. She ran the vegetables through the food processor until they were sufficiently diced and added them to the quinoa as it cooked down.

Pheasant with Carrots, Leeks and Bacon

-1 whole pheasant
-3-4 large carrots, chopped
-1 leek, chopped
-2 or 3 strips bacon, plus 5 strips to drape over the bird
-2 garlic cloves, crushed
-1/2 cup chicken stock
-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-olive oil
-salt and fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse pheasant thoroughly and pat dry (The pheasant I received was still a lot bloody). Rub seasonings over entire bird, including in the cavity. Heat up a large, thick, oven-safe saucepan with olive oil. Brown all sides of the pheasant, about 2-3 minutes per side, on medium-high heat. Remove pheasant and set aside.

Cook bacon over medium-high heat in remaining olive oil for 1-2 minutes. Remove and chop up (be careful not to touch the bacon with your fingers as it is probably hot). Put bacon back in saucepan along with carrots, leeks, and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir for another minute. Add the stock and cover for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Clear out an aisle down the center of the pan to make room for the main attraction. Place the pheasant breast-side up in the center of the saucepan. Roast for some minutes. (This is where I lost track of time, because the recipe I was following had two problems: 1. the heat was not hot enough; and 2. the time was not long enough). Let's say 50 minutes. Keep an eye on it. When the juices run clear, it is done. Or if you have a food thermometer, when the internal temperature of the thigh read 135 degrees.



My pheasant had some dark coloring on its skin. But the meat underneath was mostly fine. Except one of the thighs was kind of bloody (I think this was perhaps where it was shot or suffered trauma from the dogs).

My plate. As you can see, I am not a very good poultry carver. Of course, I ate the accompanying bacon as well. The pheasant tasted a lot like chicken except it had more depth and a meatier flavor (gamey, is how it has been described, which is not very helpful if you never really eat game). Bacon never hurts a dish. It was a very satisfying meal, especially considering that it was 15 degrees outside.

Sydney is very resourceful, so she suggested we make pheasant stock with the remaining carcass. Chicken stock is good to have on hand for making soups. So I can only imagine that pheasant stock is equally useful (and undoubtedly more flavorful). She threw in some onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, mushrooms, cloves, whole peppercorns, and parsley. It should simmer for about three hours.