After a successful day out hunting you and your friends got lucky and a bagged a few birds while out pheasant hunting. Pheasant breasts are light in color with a mild flavor similar to chicken but with a slight gamy taste and the meat cooks well in the oven, on the stove top, on the grill or even in a slow cooker. Wild Pheasants just like wild turkey have quite a bit of sinew in their legs unlike pen raised birds due in part to the abundance of activity required to forage for food and to elude prey. For this reason, I prefer to cook the breast only but many swear the legs are the best part.
After breasting out your pheasants place them in a brine mixture of water and kosher salt in covered bowl and refrigerate overnight. If you wish, you can replace some of the water after a few hours with a fruit juice this will give the meat a sweeter flavor. Most any flavorful juice will work like Orange juice or Apple juice or cider work very good for this. After brining lightly rinse the breasts in cold water to remove excess brine and pat dry.
Place your meat in a slow cooker and cover the bottom with your seasoning mix, cover and cook on low throughout the day for a tender meal at dinner time. Cook until the internal tempter of the meat is 165 degrees or higher, check with a meat thermometer at the thickest point of the meat.
Items You’ll Need
- Bowl with lid
- Measuring cups
- Spoon
- Kosher salt
- Cinnamon
- ground cloves
- (optional) frozen orange juice concentrate
- (optional) Apple cider or juice
- Butter (optional)
- Basting brush
- Slow cooker
- Meat thermometer
Seasoning Mix
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- (optional) 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate
- or 1 can frozen Apple juice or cider
After removing from cooker allow the meat to rest before serving. Serve with wild rice and vegetables and savor the game you had gotten while out hunting pheasants with your friends.
