Roasting a Pheasant

After a few years of living walking distance from awesome fresh eggs and assorted fowl, I decided to walk myself down to the Goffle Road Poultry Farm. Making the 1 mile walk a little more interesting was the first snow flakes of the 2012/2013 fall (winter?) season. I was on a mission to eat local, and eat pheasant. Why pheasant? I ate pheasant thighs last winter during a ski trip to Vermont, and I've been looking forward to cooking a bird on my own every since. Below is the recipe I used, and pictures of the results!

The bird.

Pheasant Recipe (from AllRecipes)

Ingredients:

• one whole pheasant (cleaned)
• one cup olive oil
• two sprigs rosemary leaves, stripped and chopped
• one tablespoon chopped, fresh thyme
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

The instructions couldn't be simpler. First, pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, rub down the bird with salt and pepper (inside AND out). Mix up the rosemary, thyme, and olive oil in a bowl, and then cover the bird liberally. I dumped the extra in the pan.

I also took out the giblets (neck, liver, and heart or gizzard - I couldn't tell) and cooked them a long side the bird.

Set your timer for one hour, and let the bird cook. At the one hour mark, cover the bird with aluminum foil, and put it back in to cook for one more hour. After two hours, check the thickest part of the bird with a meat thermometer to see that it is around 180 degrees. If it is, you're on the home stretch; take the bird out and let it rest for 10 minutes. AllRecipes says to baste the bird with its own juices every 10 minutes. I didn't baste it at all, which could possibly have made it more awesome. However, I thoroughly devoured it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it.

Deliciousness.

Before I sat down to eat it, I decided to eat the giblets in the kitchen, before my wife saw them. She's a vegetarian, and I knew this would freak her out. I enjoyed the liver and the mystery organ without her noticing, but she walked in just as I was trying to gnaw some meat off the neck. Let's just say that she let me know she was less then thrilled with my nutritional choice that evening. And I learned that necks are probably best left for the stew pot.

Of course, I couldn't enjoy such a fancy meal (fancy for me, anyway) without a fancy beer (again, fancy for me). I kept it local with a bottle of Cricket Hill Colonel Blides cask ale.

I don't know if it was all the great protein, the organ meat, or even just the beer, but I went to bed happy and fulfilled that night. And I slept like a baby! This was my first attempt at cooking a whole bird, and I consider it a great success. Next time, I'd like to experiment with some sort of paleo-friendly stuffing. Tips and/or links would be appreciated!