Smoking pheasant breasts

A friend of mine has pheasants smoked somewhere in North Minneapolis.

He gave me a sample: tastes like cooked/smoked ham. Can't say I enjoyed it!
 
I mix 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup salt in a gallon or two of water then soak the bird in the mixture of two to three days. Smoked with Mesquite after the soak.

Once in a while I'll add some ground clove to the mixture. Adds a nice flavor to the bird.:)
 
Smoking birds

I do about a dozen birds every year. I try and hand pick the really nice birds that have no shot in them, I also leave the legs attached and skin them whole. The local meat locker in Richmond does an awesome job and they are a big hit during the holiday season.
 
smoking pheasants

I started smoking pheasants the last couple of years. I smoke just the breast. I do brine them for 24 hours......multiple recipes for brines out there. I do wrap each breast in bacon and they are fabulous. It has almost become my favorite way to cook pheasant. Almost...:)
 
Do you only have breasts or do you have whole birds? If whole birds here's what I do:

1) Soak the birds in a salt water bath over night;
2) Take the birds out of the salt water bath and rinse them off;
3) Take the other ingredients of the brine mentioned above, but add a few more things that add some flavor -- I like to use either cloves, or black peppercorns with whole allspice and let them sit again overnight;
4) Take the birds out, pat them down with a paper towel and then put a light rub on them;
5) Stuff the cavity with apples or limes or lemons or something that will help keep them moist;
6) Put them on low and slow, like 200F degrees and smoke them for about an hour and 1/2. (make sure to put foil in your drip pan good enough that you can catch the juices);
7) Wrap the birds in commercial kitchen aluminum foil, but before closing them, put the juices in the birds (you can even make the juices go a little further with a little water) and then wrap them up as tight as possible; and smoke them for another 1.5 or 2.0 at 225F.
8) Pull the birds and let them cool before opening the foil.

For breasts, I'd just do the same and grill them medium rare on a hot grill rather than smoke them -- otherwise you'll dry them out.
 
Not pheasant, but did some chukar breast filets today.

Found a quick brine recipe on the net, 4 cups water, 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup brown sugar. I added a splash of worsterschire sauce, some red pepper, and something else, but it doesn't matter.

Covered the breast filets in the brine for a couple hours. Wrapped each filet with 1/2 slice of bacon.

Put on my uncle's new Traeger pellet smoker at 250 degrees. Basted twice with a mix of bbq, OJ, and some other stuff (again, don't think it matters). Cooked for about an hour and half. Never checked internal temp, just cut one in half and it was hot to the tip of my tongue.

This was my first experience with chukar, and it was great.
 
smoking

i smoke quite a few. you should use a brine, most call for some salt and brown sugar and or whatever other spice you may like. my preference is to smoke them at about 170 deg. for about an hour maybe hour and a half, remove them and micro wave them for about 40 sec. that finishes them off but still leaves them tender and juicy. be careful if you smoke them full time as they may turn out dry and tough and so smokey you can hardly eat them or they taste and smell like ham, for my turkey i do it for one pan of smoke for two hours and then finish in the oven, that give a nice smoke flavor but yet still lets you taste the turkey

cheers
 
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