Most of us know about duck confit — where you salt duck legs, then slow cook them in duck fat until they are meltingly tender, then you crisp them up in a hot oven? Yeah, that’s confit. There’s a reason it’s all over restaurant menus, but check it: This process works great with pheasant and other upland game birds, too!
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Spanish Partridge, Pheasant or Quail Escabeche
An old Spanish recipe for partridges, you sear the birds then simmer them in a vinegary sauce and store in jars in a cool place, like a fridge. I like to take a couple partridges out and eat them at room temperature, while watching football…
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Pheasant Breast with Parsley Sauce
Seared pheasant breast with a refined parsley sauce I learned from the French Laundry’s cookbook. It’s an elegant way to sex up a simple seared piece of pheasant.
Pheasant with Apples
There is something about the combination of poultry and apples that just sings. This dish, Pheasant Normandy, is loaded with apple flavor and is larded with butter and cream. It requires no special technique or esoteric ingredients — it’s pure comfort food, and all it asks of you is a little time.
On Breasting Out Birds
I’ve seen a lot of hunters “breast out” a lot of birds this hunting season, leaving the legs and wings for the coyotes – or even just tossing them in the trash. It pains me to see this. It’s my hope, in my own small way, to convince those hunters who do that to change their minds.
Wiener Schnitzel
Wiener schnitzel goes by many names, but whatever you call it, this is a bedrock recipe you need to know as a cook, whether you work with wild game or not. It’s quick comfort food that can be made with an array of meats, ranging from pheasant and wild boar to veal, pork or chicken.
General Tso’s Pheasant
There are a few must-have dishes in Chinese-American cuisine. General Tso’s chicken is one of them. Eating a plate of this is like eating crack: You will find yourself doing whatever it takes to eat more. You have been warned…
Smoked Pheasant
Done right, smoked pheasant can be the finest expression of this bird at the table. Smokey, juicy and a little sweet from a maple glaze, it’s a lot like those smoked turkeys you can buy for the holidays — only with fewer leftovers. Here’s how to do it.