Here's a good Pheasant Curry Recipe, and easy too!

Bob Peters

Well-known member
I really like a good Curry, and so one of the joys of bringing home some delicious beautiful rooster pheasants is that they work perfectly for many different curry recipes. A curry in Asia is essentially like a "chili" in north america, there are many different variations. Thick and thin, beef, chicken, fish, red, white, yellow, the varieties are many. That being said this is my basic curry recipe, so I figured I'd share. I've made it many times with both chicken and pheasant, and both turn out excellent in my humble opinion. Here's a list of ingredients.

1.5 pounds of pheasant meat
1.5 tablespoons curry powder
3 tablespoons of oil (olive, canola, peanut, etc. whatever you have or like)
1 Large onion finely chopped
1 or 2 green chilis
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (you can just use 3-4 cloves garlic and an equal size piece of ginger and mince this works fine. If you don't have ginger just mince garlic)
1 can crushed tomatoes, 14 or 15 ounces (if you have diced, chunked etc. that is fine but the curry might not be as smooth. You can always use a blender).
1/2 cup yogurt. Plain yogurt with fat in it is best. Greek yogurt etc. Also you can sub heavy cream or sour cream they work good too.
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt, and while cooking add more to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in deep pan or pot
2. Add chopped onions, sauté until onions turn golden (8-10 min)
3. Add garlic, ginger, and chiles, sautee a minute or two
4. Add tomatoes and salt. Cook until tomatoes are soft
5. Turn down heat for a minute, then add yogurt or heavy cream or sour cream
6. Add curry powder and stir, cooking on low heat for a few minutes
7. Add cubed pheasant and stir, then simmer for as long as you want.

If you want more gravy or the mixture is too thick slowly add some chicken broth or stock. If the gravy is too runny for your liking, add a little corn starch and stir it in.
There really isn't a wrong way to cook curry. It's basically tomatoes, onion, meat and dairy all cooked up into a heavy stew. You'll want some rice to pour it over. I always go basmati but any will do. If you like to cook pheasant thighs, this is a great use for them. If I get some that the bone is intact then I simply throw the entire thigh in. I figure this adds some flavor, almost like making a stock. Then I simply cut the meat off the bone as I eat the curry.

Green chilis are those small chilis about the diameter of your finger. There are many varieties and you can use whatever you find. I've used jalapenos before. Either way the chilis are what give this recipe its heat level. So if you want it really hot throw in a bunch. If you don't want any heat leave them out. It's all your choice. If you can't find fresh chilis at the grocery store you can always find a small 4 oz. can of diced chilis and use those. The pic is a batch I made this summer, I used chicken from the store and tomatoes from the garden. That said using wild pheasants and canned tomatoes is still absolutely delicious to me. I guess it all depends on if you like the spice palate of Indian curry.

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This is very close to how i do it, but I marinate the meat with the dry spices and quite a bit of chopped garlic for a few hours or overnight.

Brown onions well in ghee (clarified butter) or veg oil. Add chilis if desired but I use hot curry powder or add ground hot chili to spice mix.

Add meat and brown but do not burn. Add yogurt (I skip tomato entirely if using yogurt) and simmer 30 minutes or so. Serve over basmati rice or with naan or chapati.

You can also substitute water for yogurt (add tomato) or coconut milk for yogurt (S. India style)

I also do Thai curries with pheasant. You can buy good premade curry mixes in lots of grocery stores. I prefer green curries but you need to find some Thai basil to finish it. Makes all the difference.
 
This is very close to how i do it, but I marinate the meat with the dry spices and quite a bit of chopped garlic for a few hours or overnight.

Brown onions well in ghee (clarified butter) or veg oil. Add chilis if desired but I use hot curry powder or add ground hot chili to spice mix.

Add meat and brown but do not burn. Add yogurt (I skip tomato entirely if using yogurt) and simmer 30 minutes or so. Serve over basmati rice or with naan or chapati.

You can also substitute water for yogurt (add tomato) or coconut milk for yogurt (S. India style)

I also do Thai curries with pheasant. You can buy good premade curry mixes in lots of grocery stores. I prefer green curries but you need to find some Thai basil to finish it. Makes all the difference.
No tomatoes? That's blasphemy!
 
Some curries call for it and others do not. Many different ones and most do not have tomato. But I generally like them but not with yogurt. The acid in them tends to curdle the yogurt.
I've been ok mixing the two. I turn the heat down on the pot to low for a few minutes before adding the yogurt and it tends not to split or curdle. So many curries to try, that's the beauty of it. I'm sure one day I'll try one sans tomato.
 
Wow...guess I'm making curry this weekend!! Thanks guys!
Yeah, making curry is all about if you like this essential Indian spices. Turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, chili powder, etc. I never ate it growing up, but man do I love it. And the nice thing is you can tweak the recipe however you want.
 
I prefer Thai style if I have the right herbs. Indiana style is so diverse it's hard to pin down. I had a Peshawari style yesterday that is based on pistachios. had it for our 'Christmas' Dinner with my kids from a local place. One lives in Seattle one in LA neither of them had ever heard of it. delicious!
And there are hundreds more at least.
 
Yeah I made it again, no problem with tomatoes curdling the dairy(yogurt) in my case. The natives of the Indian subcontinent have been mixing tomatoes with yogurt for almost 200 years, just make turn heat down before adding, and it doesn't hurt to scoop out yogurt, sour cream, etc. and let it get closer to room temp before adding in the pot, really good! I just want to make it hotter. I'll have to buy some extra hot chili powder next time I hit the Indian market.
 
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