Pheasant Cacciatore
Feb 4th, 2009 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Italian, Pheasant, Grouse, Quail, Recipe, Wild Game | Comments | 15 Comments |
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I do comfort food with big, flavorful, stew-y things loaded with tomatoes and herbs and some sort of meat. In this case the meat is pheasant, and what better dish to suit my comfort jones than pheasant cacciatore?
Hunter’s style. The French call it chasseur, the Spanish cazadores, the Italians cacciatore. This dish in its variations exists in all three countries. But it is usually done with chicken, which makes me wonder: Is this the meal the failed hunter gets from his wife when he returns empty-handed? “Oh, Enzo!” she cries. “I am so sad for you — I’ll go kill another chicken for dinner.” Is this a meal eaten in sullen reflection of missed shots, sore feet, or birds flushed just a little too far away?
Probably not. I do not know the actual history of hunter’s style chicken, but I am guessing it is an outgrowth of the 17th century — and was initially done with pheasants or partridges. If I am right, cacciatore is a fascinating amalgam — tomatoes imported from the New World, pheasants from China.
Another possibility is that this is what the housewife (or servant, more likely, given the European hunting tradition), stewed for several hours while the hunters were out chasing pheasants or deer, making this chicken stew a welcome-home meal. If anyone has any insight into the history of cacciatore, I’m all ears.
What makes chasseur or cacciatore or cazadores unique? As far as I can tell, it requires these things:
- A white meat, such as chicken, pheasant or rabbit
- White wine
- Tomatoes
- Mushrooms
- “Woodsy” herbs such as sage and rosemary
I made pheasant cacciatore a few weeks ago for Holly, Hellen and Lucrezia after their all-girl hunt (in which Lucrezia shot a snow goose, her first-ever bird!) They were all plucking furiously while I made this dish, and by the time they’d plucked their birds (plus a snow goose I’d shot earlier) dinner was ready. All told it took about an hour and 10 minutes.
This dish is so satisfying, the way only the combination of tomatoes, wine, mushrooms and meat can be. I’d used pheasant legs and wings from birds that had hung for three days, and they were tender and deeper-tasting than any pheasant I’d eaten before. So I can happily say my experiment with hanging pheasants has, thus far, been a success.
Could you use chicken here? You bet, but please do your best to locate a stewing hen; try a Mexican or Asian market. These older hens taste better and can stand up to stewing better than the fryers or roasters, which in my opinion are too young.
What sort of mushrooms? A variety. Buttons are fine, but bolster them with some good dried ones. What sort of wine? A dry white: Think Pinot Grigio rather than a buttery Chardonnay. Herbs? Definitely sage and rosemary, but you could play with thyme, savory, oregano and parsley, too.
Finally, you must — must — have good bread to eat with this. If you are really hungry, add a big dollop of polenta, too. Buon appetito!
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
pheasant cacciatore
This is my take on a classic: Chicken cacciatore, or cazadores, or chasseur — Italy, Spain and France all have versions of this dish. Only I am doing it with what the hunter was probably going out for: pheasant.
To get the best result from this recipe, use young pheasants; if you’ve shot some from a game club, they are perfect here. You can buy pheasant in good grocery stores, too, such as Raley’s in Sacramento where I live. Do not use an old bird here: By the time it is tender all the other flavors will cease to be distinct.
Serves 4, and can be doubled.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
- 2 pheasants, cut into serving pieces
- 1/4 pound pancetta, or 4 strips bacon
- 4 tablespoons olive oil (or pheasant or chicken fat)
- 1 chopped celery stalk
- 1 chopped carrot
- 5 cloves chopped garlic
- 1 onion, sliced into half-moons
- 1 quart crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups white wine
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon crushed juniper berries
- 4 bay leaves
- 1/2 ounce package dried porcini mushrooms (about a handful)
- 1/2 pound cremini or button mushrooms
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tablespoons minced parsley
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- If using, cut the pancetta into little batons about 1/4 inch thick. In a large braising pan or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil or pheasant or chicken fat over medium heat and cook the pancetta or bacon. Remove and reserve.
- Add the pheasant pieces and brown them well. Take your time and do it in batches. Remove the pheasant pieces as they brown.
- Add the carrot, celery, onions and the fresh mushrooms and turn the heat up to high. Saute them until the onions are wilted and are beginning to brown. Add more oil if needed. When they begin to brown, add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the herbs and the dried mushrooms and the white wine and turn up the heat to maximum. Stir well. Let the wine cook down by half. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Add some salt if needed. Add the bacon and the pheasant pieces, skin side up. Do not submerge the pheasant, just nestle the pieces into the sauce so the skin stays out of the liquid.
- Cover and cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Check to see of the meat is thinking about falling off the bone. Sometimes with a young pheasant all it takes is 45 minutes. An hour or more is typical. When the meat is as tender as you want, remove the cover from the pot and cook until the skin crisps, about 30-45 more minutes.
- Move the pheasant pieces to a plate. Add the parsley to the pot and mix to combine.
- To serve, ladle some of the sauce out, top with a pheasant piece and serve with either polenta or a good crusty bread. I like a dry rose or a light red like a Sangiovese for this dish.
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Poor Enzo! But I could eat this dish every night, pheasant or not. Dried porcini would give it a solid bass note, too.
Cheers,
Lang (Finspot)
I just realized recently that some regular groceries carry capons in the freezer section. If I were going to an Asian grocery I’d prolly just get some quails or a duck.
This is a gorgeous stew, Hank. If it weren’t threatening to become spring any day now, I’d whip one up tonight. Maybe it’ll get crummy again by the weekend.
It could be like Welsh rarebit (really, Welsh rabbit).
Hank, you can add Kokkoros Krassatos as the Greek answer to such a dish.
Your use of pheasant in this application, would love to have a hunter such as yourself nearby.
I’ll take a look at the recipe. Why is it that I can’t see your photos on your blog? Is it me? Oh, you had me curious about the history of the name. I looked it up: “The dish originated in the Renaissance period (1450-1600) when the only people who could afford to enjoy poultry and the sport of hunting were the well-to-do.” So there you have it
This looks better then my rabbit version! Looks great!:)
As much as I enjoy the mental image of your first scenario, I suspect the second is more accurate.
Then again, it’s possible that the name actually has nothing to do with real hunters. Chicken scarpiello, for example, is chicken “cobbler’s style,” and it’s called that because the chicken is cut into small pieces on the bone, and the act of eating the pieces is reminiscent of the way the cobbler holds nails in his mouth.
What Hank didn’t mention is how we three huntresses shamelessly devoured seconds and thirds the night he made this. It was deeply satisfying, and far more delicious than pheasant usually tastes to me.
Good stuff! I fired up some pheasant cacciatore a few weeks back. But the I used skinless breasts so it was lacking a bit.
Lang: Great minds and all that — I do indeed use dried porcini in my recipe!
Heather: Not sure about capons, as they remain really tender despite their size…side effect of the whole castration thing. And have no fear, you live in the Pacific Northwest — it will be cummy again in no time!
Peter: Kokkoros Krassatos, eh? I’ll add that to the list. Thanks!
Karen: Dunno about the images. As for the history, yeah, I’ve read that, too, but I am pretty skeptical about the anecdotes that supposedly spawned dishes. For now it’ll have to do though.
Adele: Interesting point. Maybe the figurative “Hunter’s Style:” is shorthand for the use of “woodsy” herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage, plus forest mushrooms…
Hank, indeed; maybe I should read the recipe *before* posting a comment…
Anyway, you inspired me. We had a bunch of stuff getting old in the fridge just waiting to be turned into a version of the hunter’s dinner. I might make a post out of it…if I can salvage pics…we got a little into our cups in the process…You know, Wednesday night and all!
Hank
Thanks for the inspiration. Returned from the Dakotas and Montana with a bunch of pheasants. I will pull a couple out of the freezer.
The Porcini mushrooms (good idea) and a stock from a carcass would add even more richness. Thanks!
Some additional speculation:
http://almostitalian.com/chicken-alla-cacciatora/
Thanks for the inspiration. Unlike most of California, there is plenty of winter left in Michigan. This past Saturday afternoon I saw your recipe and decided to pull a couple of Montana roosters from the deep freeze to make for Sunday dinner.
I followed your recipe to the letter, other than I didn’t have any juniper berries handy so I added a half shot of gin when I put in the wine. I wished that I still had dried morels left, but they’re long gone so I had to make due with dried Porcinis from the store.
The birds I used were mislabeled and I ended up with couple of long-spurred brutes rather than the young-of-the-year that I intended. I just extended the cook time to ninety minutes and everything was good. They never quite got to the falling off the bone stage, but they were quite tender, even the legs.
I served it with some fresh made French bread and oven roasted butternut squash with butter and a touch of cinnamon. We had guests for dinner who’d never had wild pheasant before and I got one convert for sure.
I’m looking forward to test driving some of your duck recipes on the plucked and waxed late season mallards currently resting in the deep freeze. To date, my standard treatment for all waterfowl is a brine bath followed by a trip to the smoker. I’ve had fellow hunters and anglers nearly come to blows fighting over the last smoked Canada goose thigh, slippery with cold goose fat.
I didn’t break out the camera while I was cooking, but here’s a few shots of the roosters before plucking.
http://picasaweb.google.com/brbrenton/Montana2008#
Had a couple of birds from South Dakota and was looking for a new way to cook them when google sent me to this recipe. It was absolutely to die for ! the sauce could work for a lot of different birds thanks