Basic Pheasant Stock
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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!
Ingredients
Instructions
Step #1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Step #2 Roughly chop Carrots, Celery and Onions and place in the bottom of roasting pan.
Step #3 Add Pheasant carcasses and place in the oven to roast for 30-40 minutes.
Step #4 Remove from oven
Step #5 Place a large stock pot on the stove. Add Pheasant and all the vegetable from the bottom of the roasting pan. Add two bay leaves then fill with enough water to cover all the ingredients. Add Whole Peppercorns and Juniper Berries, and any other seasonings you might want to add.
Step #6 Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Let cook on the stove for 3-4 hours or longer. Skimming off any fat that forms on the top of the liquid.
Step #7 Place another large stock pot in the sink. Using a colander and / or cheesecloth, strain by pouring your stock mixture into the other stock pot. You can discard the pheasant and vegetables. You should be left with dark amber colored stock.
Step #8 Allow to cool. Use a measuring cup, fill each mason jar with about 3 cups of stock. Seal and place each in the refrigerator, where it should keep for about a week. Or consider canning and freezing to long term use.
Recipe Card
Basic Pheasant Stock
Ingredients
Instructions
About the Author
Jeff Davis
Visit authors websiteYou may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.
