Pheasant - tastes a bit like chicken?

[Nial]

Does pheasant taste like chicken?

 

I cooked my first one last night and if you'd put it on a plate and told me it was

chicken I'd have believed you.

 

I wasn't sure if it was young or old and didn't want it to dry out so sat it on an

onion that had been 1/8 th'd in a small baking tray then added some chicken stock/

red wine and rum (there wasn't much red wine left so I threw in some rum).

 

I placed some smoked bacon over the breast and a piece over each leg lengthwise

then covered the whole thing with tin-foil and put it in a medium/low oven for

~2 hours. I took the foil and bacon off for 15 mins at the end to brown the meat a

bit. I was going for a roast/steam combination of cooking.

 

It was nicely succulent and initially I thought there was a defineable flavour to the

breast meat. Then I realised it was the same flavour you get from the bacon if

you do the same thing with chicken.

 

I only left the bird over-night in the garage before preparing it. If I hand it a

bit longer I presume thered be a stronger flavour?

 

I removed the other breast and boild up the carcass with the roasting juices,

an onion and a couple of carrots for another couple of hours. At the end the

leg meat was falling off and the stock smelled brilliant so I'm looking forward

to pheasant & vegetable soup tonight.

 

BTW, I found preparing it easy enough, epsecially after doing a few pigeons.

 

 

Nial

[Billy.]

You must have a severe lack of tastebuds if you think pheasant tastes like chicken...! :hmm:

[Nial]

You must have a severe lack of tastebuds if you think pheasant tastes like chicken...! :hmm:

 

 

I've got a pretty good sense of taste and smell, and this certainly didn't taste a lot

different than chicken!

 

 

Would a young bird that wasn't hung taste a lot milder than normal?

 

 

Nial.

[Mrs Sweepy]

I have never had one that taste like chicken.

Might of been something to do with what the bird was feeding on?

Did you notice when you plucked it if the skin was a bit yellow

xxxSuzy

[WGD]

Nial, you are correct.

 

If it only hung overnight it would not have much flavour at all, not unlike chicken especially when heavily flavoured by the other ingredients you cooked it with.

 

Next time, leave it 2-3 days if mild, a week if a bit cooler and up to a couple of weeks in mid-winter... much more flavour then!

[Nial]

I have never had one that taste like chicken.

Might of been something to do with what the bird was feeding on?

Did you notice when you plucked it if the skin was a bit yellow

xxxSuzy

 

 

I skinned it and the flesh was a good heathy pink colour.

 

The yellow fat was a bit disconcerting, especially when it was cooked.

 

 

Nial

[Delbert]

You must have a severe lack of tastebuds if you think pheasant tastes like chicken...! :yes:

 

 

Not necessarily just a very good chicken supplier. The roast chickens I remember of my youth

free range killed on the farm were almost exactly the same flavour as young pheasant, the

shot older pheasant is indeed a lot gamier but since most commercial shoots supply young birds

fed on grain it is to be expected. The question is where to buy a good chicken the yellow fatty

corn fed are pretty good (sainsbugs) but find a farmer who sells direct and you have the bird

I remember not the supermarket reared in sheds with a thousand of its mates taste- ask

Hugh Furry-whatsisname.

[Beardo]

i tried to get the wife to eat Pheasant last night (by not telling her it was, and doing a Chinese stir-fry).

she eat half of it, then asked me if it was pheasant.

i said yes, then she blew a gasket and refused to eat any more, despite having eat half of it already quite happily.

i'm now in the dog-house big style.

oops.

[Stealth Stalker]

i tried to get the wife to eat Pheasant last night (by not telling her it was, and doing a Chinese stir-fry).

she eat half of it, then asked me if it was pheasant.

i said yes, then she blew a gasket and refused to eat any more, despite having eat half of it already quite happily.

i'm now in the dog-house big style.

oops.

Hahaha

 

I'll get Deb to work on her, she was exactly the same

 

She would rather eat pheasant than chicken now :blink:

 

SS

[mattslaptop247]

Might be something to do with the chicken stock you used! :blink:

[beretta]

everytime i have cooked pheasant with onions present it does tend to lose flavour and end up a bit chickeny, without onion its back to pheasant taste. put it down to the onion. :blink: