See how we Hunt, Clean and Cook Pheasant in todays video!
The last few weeks Pheasant Season has been open in CT. My Yellow Lab “Bones” and I have been out in the fields trying to get some pheasant on the table.
Pheasant hunting is one of my favorite kinds of hunting. You can be loud, go with your friends, dogs, even kids, and have a successful hunt.
This was one of the last days of the season, and Bones and I got our very first pheasant rooster!
I am not a great shot on flushed birds. I get very excited by the flush and seem to forget everything I ever learned about shooting a shotgun. In this video you will see how I miss and then just barely hit the pheasant we were chasing.
However what I lack in shooting prowess I make up for in determination and not giving up. Eventually we got this rooster, and brought him home for dinner!
Before cleaning the bird, I let him hang for 4 days.
Hanging pheasants is a tradition that goes back for centuries. I first hear about aging birds from an older hunter friend. John McDonald was his name, and he told me way back when I first started that proper pheasant (said in his finest english accent) started with aging the bird for at leas a few days.
John is no longer with us, but his advice stuck with me. So for my first roasted pheasant dinner I decided to age the bird properly.
For advice on ageing and cooking a roasted bird I found Hank Shaw’s website incredible helpful! Find out more about aging and cooking pheasant at his site – https://honest-food.net/wild-game/pheasant-quail-partridge-chukar-recipes/
We aged the pheasant 4 days, then put it in a saltwater brine for 8 hours. Finally we let it air dry in the fridge overnight. The next day we roasted it.
I was impressed with how much meat is on a pheasant! Our family of 6 was fed a delicious dinner, the best “chicken” we ever had! And there was enough for all of us.
Now that I know how delicious roasted pheasant is… I have to practice my shotgun aim!
Have some shooting tips for me? Leave them in the comments below!
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