Sunday, November 16, 2014

Roasted Pheasants with Honey, Lemon & Bourbon Glaze


Yes, Lolly cooked pheasants.  Now as we all know pheasants are NOT hanging around Alabama in the Fall.  I had never eaten pheasants, cooked pheasants or even MET a pheasant.  Was that going to stop me?  Nope!  The fact that one of the diners was a native Nebraskan who knows all about pheasants?  Well, yes, that gave me pause.  But, I went ahead with the plan.  I'm very glad I did.  

Thanks to McFarland Farms for helping me choose the right pheasants, super fast shipping and great customer service for this Alabama girl who needed all the help she could get.

2 - 2.5 lb. whole pheasants rinsed and patted dry
1 lemon, quartered
12 - 16 sprigs of thyme, divided
salt and pepper
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup honey bourbon
1 T. dried thyme

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a roasting pan with foil and place roasting rack in pan.  Put 2 quarters of lemon in the cavity of each pheasant along with half of the thyme in each bird.  Season with salt and pepper.

Now comes the time to "truss" the birds.  I will be the first to admit I need a knot typing class.  No, actually, I WANT a knot typing class.  Maybe soon I will have an entire blog post dedicated to "knot typing" a/k/a how to truss a bird correctly.  These little pheasants were tied up snug!



 
Place in oven breast side down for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.


Reduce heat to 350 degrees and turn pheasants so they are breast side up.  Return to oven for 30 minutes.  

While pheasants are roasting, in a medium bowl whisk together honey, lemon juice, bourbon and dried thyme.

At the end of the 30 minutes, remove from oven and baste pheasants with the glaze mixture.  Return to oven.  Repeat these steps every 10 minutes.  Continuing to roast and glaze until the internal temperature of the pheasants in the thickest portion of the breasts shows 170 degrees.  Remove from oven and tent with foil.  They will continue to cook to reach the correct temperature of 180 degrees by "carryover" cooking.  

Aren't they pretty?


For the rice, I used a wild rice blend from Uncle Ben's and tossed in some toasted pecan pieces for added taste and texture.  When it was cooked, I spread it onto the serving platter, placed the pheasants just so and then added the roasted vegetables.

Here's what I used for those:
1 russet potato, peeled and cubed
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1/2 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
dried thyme
salt
pepper

In a medium bowl, add all the vegetables along with a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Season with salt, pepper and thyme.  Give them a good tossing to make sure they are well coated and then place on parchment lined baking sheet.


Place in the oven during the last 30 minutes of pheasant roasting time. While the pheasants are resting for their 10 - 15 minutes, turn up the heat to 400 and let them roast and get a little browned color.  They will be extremely yummy.

No comments:

Post a Comment