A large and colorful pheasant is a wild game bird with a long tail. It is common in farmland and woodland throughout the UK. Furthermore, the males have an old croaking sound that can be heard throughout the wild game bird countryside. However, there are special tricks in cooking this bird. Do you know how to cook pheasant? It is a small bird that needs extra care while cooking time.

Pheasants are birds found in the British countryside but are native to Asia. Despite this fact, they breed easily and adapt to climate, making them a perfect game bird.

In contrast, 35 million pheasants are released in the wild every year. Whereas the wild pheasant meat taste when compared with chicken or guinea fowl, which varies in taste depending on season and the bird’s age.

1. How to Cook a Pheasant?

One must the open season for hunting pheasant is from October to February in the UK. It is best advised to choose a female pheasant in season, as they have plump bodies. Moreover, in order to tenderize the bird, it is hung for three to ten days with innards and feathers intact. In addition to it, the temperature should be around 10 Celsius. So that the birds have a gamey flavour with less tough meat.

Consequently, one whole pheasant game meat can feed two people. You should choose the amount of pheasant dish. As a result, this helps you choose your ingredients firmly. You should cook younger hens slightly so they are ready for pan-frying or roasting. Nonetheless wrapping and cooking the cooked bird in bacon or pancetta is the best way to keep the bird nice and juicy for roasting. However, you can season it with spices.

1.1 Classical Pheasant Recipe

Pheasants are lean and firm birds so they can easily dry. Therefore, it is good to cook them with casseroles or stews. Secondly, the big older brown bird bones can make stock which you can cook and use to braise your pheasant dish recipes.

Here is a simple recipe to cook pheasant to serve at least two people and a maximum of four.

1.1.1 Ingredients

• 2 Pheasants, hung, plucked, and oven-ready
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 Slices of bacon
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• salt
• 1 Onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 garlic gloves
• 1 celery stick chopped
• 100 ml of chicken stock, or water
• vegetable oil
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• freshly ground red pepper

1.1.2. Steps to Follow

1. Butcher string first
2. Preheat an oven up to 200 degree Celsius or gas to Mark 6.
3. Then further cover the pheasant with 2 slices of bacon and truss with the string while marinating with a pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Then roast the pheasant in heated vegetable oil till it turns brown from all sides.
5. Finally, arrange carrots, onion, celery, and herbs around the bird.
6. Add the stock.
7. Oven it for 20-25 minutes.

1.2. Roast Pheasant

Undoubtedly these roasted pheasant recipes rely on simple and special tricks. However, in order to make it part of a delicious dinner, you need an eight-hour brine maximum to give it good moisture.

Moreover, you can serve the roast pheasant with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, root vegetables, and onions.

1.2.1. Ingredients

• 2 Whole pheasants
• 8 Cup Water
• Kosher Salt – half a cup
• sugar – about two tablespoons
• Crushed juniper berries, – again optional
• Olive Oil or Softened butter – about two tablespoons
• Black pepper to taste

1.2.2. Steps to Follow

1. The best method is to boil everything and letting it cool down in the fridge for about 8 hours. Despite that, if you want something more crispier than you can just refrigerate it for more 16 hours.
2. Take the pheasant meat out of the fridge at least 30 mins before the cooking hour. Preheat the oven for 15 minutes and meanwhile oil up the bird with olive oil. And crack some black pepper over the pheasant.
3. Open up the pheasant breasts and stuff them with onion and fresh lemon. Do not pack the cavity to cook the Pheasant evenly.
4. You can baste the bird with butter or a combination of butter and maple syrup to form a good thick sauce after roasting it.
5. You should have the internal temperature of the thigh meat be about 155 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit so that the bird juices run clear.
6. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving, which is vital for juice redistribution and to stop overcooking.

1.3. Wild Pheasant Recipe

Wild pheasant with mushroom and wine sauce is a delicious main course cuisine with tender and moist meat. Indeed this recipe has good nutrition calories. Despite this fact, the recipe features mushrooms and wine.

Heather wine sauce creates undoubtedly a pleasant taste with moist meat. As she brings the frozen pheasant and turns it into delicious whole foods.

1.3.1. Ingredients

• 2 whole Skinless legs and skinless breasts of wild pheasant
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 4 Tablespoon of butter
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Whole pearl onion – about a cup
• 5 clove garlic, minced
• 1-pint Crimini mushroom, sliced
• Whole Shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup white wine (Sauvignon blanc)
• 1/3 cup freshly chopped Parsley
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup dried porcini Mushroom chopped (Add Mushrooms suitable to your taste)
• Water
• 1 tsp. Salt and 1 tsp. Pepper to rub on meat

1.3.2. Steps to Follow

1. Cut off the skin and remove the feathers. Rinse it and pat dry.
2. Furthermore, preheat the Dutch oven or your stove to medium heat.
3. Ensure to add salt and pepper according to your taste.
4. Add 2 Tablespoon of butter and stir it till melted, then further put the pheasant legs first and sear each side for two minutes. After one min add the pheasant’s breasts. Cook till it turns light brown.
5. Set aside the pheasant and add the remaining butter to the pan and add mushrooms to cook. Within minutes, add onion and garlic to partially cooked mushrooms.
6. It is now time to add wine and reduce this to half by cooking.
7. Add all the chicken items.
8. You can add cornstarch and keep it till the broth thickens.
9. Finally, add Fresh Parsley and serve.

This recipe will also work with the meat of chicken or rabbit as well. The nutritional information of the recipe:

• 449 Calories/serving
• Fat 38% 25g
• Carbs 7% 22g
• Protein 52% 26g

1.4 Pan-Fried Pheasant Breasts

An easy pan-fried pheasant breast recipe is a creamy white delicious recipe with sauce.

1.4.1. Ingredients

• Pheasant Breasts- Four Skinless Pheasant Breasts
• Butter
• Garlic finely chopped
• Chestnut Mushroom
• Olive oil
• Pancetta- Substitute of Smoked Bacon

1.4.2. Steps to Follow

1. The first step includes putting salt and pepper and pre-heating the pan for at least a couple of minutes.
2. Turn and cook the pheasant until golden brown. And then take it out for rest.
3. Now you have to add other ingredients to the frying pan and cook all of them for at least five minutes. The ingredients include garlic, pancetta, and mushrooms.
4. Stir the ingredients on relatively low heat for another couple of minutes.
5. Don’t forget to add the white wine.
6. Now that your dish is ready, cool the dish for two minutes before serving it.

Now serve the recipe with creamy mash, roast sweet potatoes, and sir fryer broccoli.

1.5. Pheasant Ballotine with Sage Bread Sauce

1.5.1. Ingredients

• 1 Pheasant, boned but with the skin left intact
• Butter – of about 200g
• Sage leaves
• 1 garlic Clove
• 50 g of Parsley, leaves picked
• rapeseed oil
• 50 g of thyme, leaves picked
• 1 tbsp of Chutney, gooseberry or cranberry work well
• Salt to taste

1.5.2 Bread Sauce

• 1 small Onion
• 10 Cloves
• 250 ml of Whole Milk
• 150 ml of double cream
• 1/4 nutmeg, grated
• 1 bunch of sage and onion stuffing mix, stalks, and leaves separated
• 150g of sourdough bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs
• 50 g of butter
• salt to taste.
• To serve, we need seasonal greens such as cabbage.

Equipment Required – Pestle and Mortar.

1.5.3. Steps to Follow

1. Start preparing a day in advance, and marinate the pheasant before night. Make stock from pheasant bones in advance
2. Apart from this, remove the bones and dice the meat to make a ballotine filling.
3. Now use the mortar and pestle to make herb paste with garlic, parsley and add a bit of oil
4. Divide the remaining herb paste in half again and rub half over the meat and marinate overnight
5. Make the bread sauce the day before. Firstly, peel the onion and stud it with cloves. Gently bring it to a simmer, then cool it down and leave to infuse overnight.
6. The next day, cut the rolled-out sheet of butter into 3, with two larger pieces and one small.
7. Place the pheasant skin-side down and season the meat well with salt and pepper, then lay the other larger sheet of butter on top of the meat.
8. Top with the marinated leg meat filling then roll up into a tight log, pulling the skin over to seal. Tie up with butcher’s string, then clingfilm tightly and leave to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

1.5.4. More Steps to Follow

1. While the pheasant chills, finish the bread sauce.
2. Whisk in the butter, season to taste then either keep warm or reheat before serving. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas Mark 7.
3. Remove the clingfilm and season the ballotine with salt and pepper. Lay the final, smaller sheet of butter over the ballotine and place a sheet of baking paper on top.
4. Finally, leave to rest in a warm place for 15 minutes before carving.

2. Conclusion

You can find a variety of dishes related to pheasant recipes that can add greatness to the taste of meat. However, the pheasants are like chickens that are developed as a vital part of our contemporary food culture. As a result, the meat of pheasant is delicate and can run dry. Therefore it is better to use sauces and oil while cooking it.

Last Updated on August 2, 2023 by Janhavi Ramesh Kowligi