Pheasant Legs-butchering

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
Is there any easy way to do this? I learned the trick about making a cut by the spurs that pulls a lot of the tendons out(look up GH pheasant cleaning video). That being said when it comes to the legs and thighs I feel like I haven't really got it down that great. Is there any tips or templates to follow, or do you just go in there and see what you can do? I feel like I don't get all the meat off the legs. I know a lot of guys just breast them, but when it comes to me getting a rare MN rooster, I try to get everything I can from him!
 
I keep the legs. But really, the thighs are the only portion that I can eat. From the knee joint south, there's just too many tendons in there. Break the legs off at the pelvis joint. If you bend it backwards, that joint will become separated and you can cut right along the side of bird, separating the thigh from the body with ease.

The dark thigh meat is comparable to the dark meat on a chicken or turkey. I actually prefer it. Probably personal preference here.
 
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The thighs are not bad to cut off the bone as gimruis said and it is good meat. One thing you can try to remove tendons from drumstick is break the joint what feathers stop and scales begin, knee if you will. Once your hyperextend that joint and you can move the lower leg freely, then start to wrap the lower leg around the upper joint, this will start to pull all the tendons away from the meat. Tough to explain.
 
I keep the thighs, but only if the femurs are intact. If the femur is broken, there will be bone fragments in the meat. They work extremely well in Hank Shaw's recipe for turkey thigh carnitas. https://honest-food.net/turkey-carnitas/ I think this recipe is better with bone-in thighs than with boneless pheasant breast.

As for cleaning, as others have said, just hyper-extend the joint until it dislocates and then cut as close the hip bone as possible. Same for the knee. Most of the time there's a little ring of drumstick meat around the bottom, and it will be firmly attached to a bony/cartilage thing that I call a knee-cap. Need to find all those when you pull the meat off the bone.
 
You can cook a bunch of the legs or thighs in the crock pot and shred the meat. Mix with favorite sauce for barbecue sandwiches. I do this with pheasant legs and wild turkey legs. The thighs are definitely better. The lower legs don't have a lot of meat once you separate from all of the tendons.
 
AKP has the answer IMO.

My group crockpots the legs and thighs with celery/onion/carrot/salt/pepper. Set it on high till it gets bubbling and then low until the meat easily pulls away. Drain it, easily remove bones/tendons/shot/etc.

Use it in multiple ways. Makes great pheasant salad sandwiches. Add BBQ sauce for pheasant sliders. Pheasant tacos. Pheasant enchiladas. Anything you make with cooked shredded chicken you can do with this.
 
Great information from all! My routine: pull the skin off the breast and pull off from the thighs, down past the drum stick and to the back of the bird. Dislocate the thigh (just grab the body of the bird and the thigh and kind of push the thigh toward the back of the bird, (the direction it doesn't want to go), now run your knife along the body of the bird from the front to the dislocated joint. At the joint, you will need to come out toward the foot with the knife, just a bit, to get through the joint and then continue, keeping the knife close to the body of the bird to remove it. I then hold the leg by the foot and run the knife just under the thigh meat, starting at the knee and work toward the exposed joint where you separated it, against the femur bone, you will need to do this about 3-4 times to get a nice clean femur. Now hold the leg by the bare femur and with the meat hanging down, carve a bit farther, just down to the knee, watch for the "knee-cap" (front & back) you want to leave that, but get the meat you can and cut that free from the leg. (I leave the drumstick meat) You now have a nice, but strange looking piece of dark meat. You can run your thumb up between the different muscle groups to separate them. You will find a white cord (an artery I believe), in the meat, grab that in the middle and pull it out. It is tough, it will pull out whole, I have never had one of these break. There you go, cook as desired! Hope this is helpful.
 
If the femur is shattered, just improvise a bit, I don't find it to much work to locate and remove the bone fragments.

Matt:, "Knee-caps", or whatever they are, I am always thinking that too when I see those! That's funny!
 
With two grandsons and myself shooting a lot of preserve birds, I've started cutting the meat off to save room. With the bird on its back, I skin the breast and legs without pulling the skin off. I use a fillet knife to slice the meat from the breast. Then I pinch the muscle on the front of the thigh and slice it off. Then the same for the back thigh muscle. Soak in salt for a day or so, dry them and vacuum seal. I do not keep anything that's shot up whatsoever. I keep a lot of my dogfood bags. I drop the carcasses in them and put in the freezer. Put them in a trash bag and into the trash can on the pickup day. It doesn't get much easier than that. After eating wildlife for many decades now I've figured out that it's not the buckshot that gets you it's the bone fragments. I've broken teeth twice on them. Probably takes up less than a quarter of the space.
 
Cut the feet off above the heel joint for easy skinning of the legs. Then crock pot slow cook them in broth and wine (and your choice of veggies) along with the rest of the bird for six or more hours. The leg meat (and other meat) will "fall" off the bone and easily separate from the hard stuff running through the leg muscles. Moreover, it's good-eating meat.
 
BritChaser said:
Cut the feet off above the heel joint for easy skinning of the legs. Then crock pot slow cook them in broth and wine (and your choice of veggies) along with the rest of the bird for six or more hours. The leg meat (and other meat) will "fall" off the bone and easily separate from the hard stuff running through the leg muscles. Moreover, it's good-eating meat.
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I do that with a lot of wild game. Pull it off the bone and make salad/sandwich spread with it. I'll post my recipe on that thread.
 
I give my hunting buddy the business every time he mentions making any meat into a sandwich spread, particularly pheasant! I personally just don't eat any of that....I might eat one at a funeral lunch, if it is all the old gals made. I hope they won't serve them at mine!
 
remy3424 said:
I give my hunting buddy the business every time he mentions making any meat into a sandwich spread, particularly pheasant! I personally just don't eat any of that....I might eat one at a funeral lunch, if it is all the old gals made. I hope they won't serve them at mine!
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You probably won't care for this then! I saw a guy on another sight making pheasant burgers. 2/3 Pheasant and 1/3 bacon!
 
Personally, I love pheasant pate' whether it's with cub crackers or a sandwich spread. Not much different to me than the people that make it with cream of this, or that. My favorite way is deep fried as Chislic.
 
Here is the video Bob is talking about. Cleaning the bird starts at about 3:00 or so. One other tip I will give on the legs is to cut along the top of the thigh before bending the bone back, saves that broken pelvis piece sticking to the tip of the femur. Or have a game shears handy, that works, too.

 
Drumsticks should be slow cooked or used in stocks. I've eaten a ton of pheasant legs and it doesn't matter what you do, you're gonna look like a caveman trying to eat them. So, that's where most of my drumsticks go, but the thighs are my favorite. I usually cut the meat off the bone before cooking the thighs.
 
Anyone ever try pressure cooking the legs and thighs? I have good luck with the slow cooker - once you get the meat off of the tendons/bones you can do whatever you want with it, I’m just wondering if the pressure cooker would get you there faster.
 
I do it sometimes. It's fast and the water makes a good stock. I'll pull it off the bone and stick it in the fridge. Makes good sandwiches and Remy's favorite Pheasant salad!
 
I have saved the thighs and legs of all the pheasants that I processed this season.

I will purchase several pounds of pork. I will then grind the pheasant legs, mix with ground pork and mix with spices to make Italian sausage.

I can use this sausage for many purposes throughout the next year: sausage sandwiches, chili, lasagna, pizza, etc.
 
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