Pheasant Fajitas

[Jim Neal]

I thought I'd share one of my favourite game recipes, Pheasant Fajitas.  Nothing fancy, but very tasty and super simple to do.  This is based upon a recipe from Norman Tebbit's (yes, him) book The Game Cook .  Fajitas are obviously done with chicken normally - I've only ever substituted the usual chicken for pheasant but I'm sure other game would lend itself to the recipe just as well.

You can do all the spice blending yourself if that's what floats your boat, but for speed and simplicity I buy one of the readily available meal kits.  Don't bother with Old El Paso or other brand names, the supermarkets' own brand kits are just as good and much cheaper.  If you add up the cost of buying all the bits separately, the kits are by far the best value for money in my opinion.

They do several options so if you don't like spicy you can use a BBQ kit instead, it's very tasty.

In addition to the meal kit you need:

• Approx 500g pheasant, diced (3 reasonable sized breasts usually)
• A bell or sweet pepper if you like them, don't bother if you don't.
• A decent sized onion, or much nicer the same equivalent amount of shallots.
• A pot of fresh soured cream (no smaller than 300ml)
• An iceberg lettuce, or a bag of salad leaves if you prefer different greenery
• Cheese of your choice, grated (I like a nice mature cheddar)

First, take a good 3 dessert spoons of your soured cream out of the pot and put it in a ramekin to go on the dining table.  Put your meat into a bowl and pour on the rest of the soured cream, then add the spice mix and stir it all together.

Put your grill on to warm up.  Finely chop your onion and pepper.  Lightly oil a roasting tin which will fit under your grill, or use the grill pan, up to you.  Spread out the onion and peppers in the tray:

If you like your onions & peppers to have a bit of crunch to them, go straight to the next step.  If you like them a bit softer give them 5 minutes under the grill before the next step.

Spread out your marinated meat on top of the onions & peppers:

Chuck it under the grill:

Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn - you'll have to mix it up and turn it over after a while, but it should need about 15 minutes in total.  Warm a sufficient amount of dinner plates and a serving dish to put the meat mixture in.

Whilst the meat is cooking, chop your lettuce and stick it in a bowl; grate your cheese; put your salsa in another ramekin, then chuck it all in the middle of the table.

Warm your tortillas a few minutes before serving by putting them on a dinner plate and covering with another plate on top.  Microwave them for a minute, turn the whole lot over and do another 30 seconds.  They need to be warm and moist to work well.  Watch out for the bottom one sticking to the plate, it's a good idea to swap them to another plate after heating.

You can test the meat is cooked by stabbing a bit with a fork and cutting it open.  After a couple of times doing this you'll be happy you're not going to give yourself the trots, it cooks very quickly.  Don't over-do it and turn it to rubber!

Chuck it all on the table and tuck in!

 

My hands aren't that fat in real life, I hate cameras.

[Farmboy91]

I've never made them by laying the meat on the onion etc, will have to give that a go 

Thanks for sharing 👍

[Jim Neal]

It's not as fatty/oily doing it under the grill like that compared to frying the ingredients.  Definitely try it out if you like fajitas!

[captainhastings]

Looks great another one try thank you