Pheasant is an abundant game bird that is found wild throughout the Midwest and also farmed. Midwestern pheasant meat is light in color with streaks of yellow fat. Its flavor is mild and its texture is prone to cooking up dry, if not cooked with great care.
This first photo is from the field. My family’s neighbor Bill shot these birds.
from field
Here, the feathers are removed by simply pulling them out. This is a tedious and messy job, best done outdoors but well worth the effort. Many hunters will remove the feathers and the skin simultaneously because it is an easy way of removing the feathers. The only problem with this is the skin is a golden layer of protection that helps the meat from drying out during cooking.
removing the feathers
roadkill pheasant with the feathers and skin removed
After removing the feathers, the bird needs to be eviscerated, or gutted. This is the trickiest part of the cleaning. Great care needs to be used when removing the viscera from the vent so that the knife does not penetrate the organs. There are a number of videos online that will guide you through this process.
de-feathered and eviscerated
Part butchery and part scientific dissection, cutting open the stomach of the pheasant reveals the bird’s local diet of corn and grain.
cross-section of stomach
I like to cook the cleaned pheasant by seasoning it and searing it whole in a pan, and then roasting it until nearly done in the oven. I allow the bird to rest until it reaches room temperature, and then remove the quarters and separate the leg and thigh. This method allows you to better control the final cooking of the pheasant and makes it easy to inspect the meat for buckshot, which is often found in the meat. Some very traditional French restaurants have been known to offer a glass of champagne to a diner who finds a “lucky” buckshot in his pheasant. The roasted neck is reserved, along with the rest of the carcass, for stock.
roasted pheasant quarters
buckshot
The pheasant pieces also can be cooked to temperature in a pan with butter and fresh herbs. Or, you can incorporate the meat into any other recipe that calls for pheasant.
finishing the pheasant
A whole-roasted and carved pheasant with natural pan juices: the breast is sliced, the drumsticks are whole, and the thigh meat has been deboned.
whole-roasted and carved pheasant
From field to fork, this is a plated roast pheasant with lingonberries and sage. (This is the roadkill pheasant that had the skin removed.) Here, sage leaves were placed underneath bacon that was wrapped around the bird to help it from drying out. The bacon was removed after roasting.
to fork
[...] Pheasant [...]