Basic Pheasant Stock

In the Spicy Pheasant Shashuka recipe I posted last month, I had cut the breast meat out of two Pheasants to create that recipe. I didn't want to waste the rest of the bird, so I cut off as much of the meat as I could, but the carcasses still seemed to have plenty of meat left on them. I knew that the next recipe I wanted to do was a Cajun Style Gumbo and I knew that I needed stock to make it. I thought it'd be cool to do my own homemade Pheasant Stock, instead of buying some store-bought Chicken Broth. So, I used the two leftover bird carcasses to create this Pheasant Stock that I could use in a few upcoming recipes.

Besides the Gumbo, I have a few other recipes I wanted to do that would also call for stock. Because I had so many different things I want to do with this stock, I tried to keep the seasoning of this stock to a minimum. I mainly just wanted to capture the essence of the Pheasant, but you can easily add additional seasoning, such as Peppercorn, Juniper Berries and / or Cloves to give it an extra punch. I also didn't add any salt to this, that might seem like a sin, but I knew I was going to use this right away and just wanted more control of the salt and seasoning in the upcoming recipes I had planned, I mainly just wanted to amp up the Pheasant flavor.

We've made our own Chicken Stock here at the house on occasion, if you've never done it, you definitely need to give it a try. You can make it out of things that you'd normally just throw away. Left over chicken with bones, ends you've cut off carrots, celery tops, parts of onions that didn't get used. Just toss it all in a zip lock bag in the freezer instead of throwing into the trash. When you have enough leftover ingredients, just throw everything in a stock pot and simmer for a few hours. Not only is it going to be good for you, but the smell!! It will fill your house with a pleasant aroma that no candle can match.

To create this Pheasant Stock, I just roughly broke a few carrots and celery stalks with my hands and placed them in the bottom of a roasting pan. I then added 2 white onions I had chopped into quarters and 8 cloves of garlic. You can substitute or add other root vegetables if you like, like Parsnips or Ginger, and herbs like Rosemary and Thyme. The vegetables don't need to be chopped up into small pieces, leave them rather large because you'll want to strain everything out once it's done cooking. I placed the bird carcasses on top of all that and placed it in a 400-degree oven to roast for 30 to 40 minutes. As the bird roasted, the fat and juices ran down into the bottom of the pan, coating the vegetables. The longer you roast the pheasant, the more caramelized your vegetables will end up being, this will help make your stock a deeper, darker color. After roasting, I moved everything to a stock pot, covered everything with water to submerge everything, then tossed in a few bay leaves. I brought the whole thing to a boil, then reduced to a simmer, covered and let cook for 4 hours. After 4 hours, I strained everything into another pot and what I was left with was liquid gold!