Pheasant a l'orange

Recipe:    

4 wild pheasant breast (shot and dressed in Virginia, relatively buckshot free!)

1/2 a cup of red wine vinegar

3 cups of fresh orange juice

1 cup of chicken broth

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 of a large white onion, finely chopped

1tsp coriander 

3tbs of brown sugar

Old bay and salt for dusting the breasts before searing them

Olive oil

As much Grand Marnier as you'd like to taste!

All the fixins' for frying pheasant. 

Directions: first sear the pheasant breasts in olive oil at a high temp. after dusting them with old bay and a bit of salt.  You want to really sear them well to keep the juices in them as the danger with pheasant is that it gets dry pretty easy.  Remove the breasts after their seared, and add a bit more oil to the pan, along with your onion and garlic.  If you're not using a nonstick pan this will really deglaze the pan.  Turn the heat down and let the onions and garlic caramelize. Then add the sugar, mixing it quickly along with the orange juice, broth, and vinegar.

You then want to allow the sauce to simmer on a lower heat setting, adding Grand Marnier to your liking as it reduces.  Finally when your sauce has thickened to your liking (usually reduced by about half) move your sauce to another pan, place your pheasant breasts back into the sauce pan and cook them properly at a medium heat setting for around 9 minutes.  Around the 6 minute mark you can add the sauce back in, the danger with adding the sauce early being that it will burn and carbonized the meat (a little bit of this is tasty of course).  Once you've checked that he meat is medium to well done you're ready to eat!

Delicious pheasant a l'orange. Bon Appetit 

Of course, cooking birds ain't as fun as shooting em!

And you're bound to eat some buckshot!

Tom.