Smoking pheasants recipe??

[BLACKJACK]

Digging thru the freezer last night and found two pheasants left, thought I'd smoke them on Sunday. Does anyone have a good brine recipe besides the common salt/brown sugar mix? These pheasants are cut up, so I'll be working with pieces, how long should I soak them in the marinade? I don't want it to get too salty.... In the future, I want to do a turkey breast, about 8 pounds, do you soak that longer? I'm also doing some chicken breasts, might as well fill the grate and they'll be good leftovers. I'll be using hickory chips. Any ideas welcome.

I'll have to admit that even though I own two smokers, a charcoal one and an electric one, I haven't used them alot, they take a lot of time and babysitting all day long, but with the heat, I won't be too active this weekend. One problem I've noticed in the past is being able to get enought heat, thats another reason to do it this weekend. I don't like the charcoal one, its really sucks up the charcoal, you might as well kiss a 20 pound bag goodbye. The electric one alwasy pops the ground faults, so I'm going to try it on my new shed, hopefully the circuit can handle it. Thanks for any advice.

[ice_shack]

This is what I use and have been told by many "This is the best pheasant I have ever had!". So I have'nt tried anything else since.

Smoked Pheasant

For the Brine:

2 quarts apple juice

1 pound brown sugar

1 cup kosher salt

3 oranges, quartered

4 ounces fresh ginger, thinly sliced

15 whole cloves

6 bay leaves

6 large cloves garlic, crushed

Pheasants, as many as you can cover with brine.

In a large saucepan over high heat, bring the apple juice, brown sugar, and salt to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Cook for 1 minute, remove from the heat, and skim off the foam. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.

In a 5-gallon plastic bucket or other container large enough to easily hold the pheasant, combine 3 quarts of water, the oranges, ginger, cloves, bay leaves, and garlic. Add the apple juice mixture and stir. Wrap pheasant in cheese cloth and submerge in the brine. If necessary, top with a heavy weight to make sure it is completely immersed. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Smoke at 200 – 225 or approximately 4 hrs or until done. I prefer to use a fruit wood i.e.… apple or cherry.

[Ryan_V]

if it is already in pieces...my favorite way to prepare pheasant is to wrap a piece of meat, about an inch square in a half of a piece of bacon and put a toothpick through and grill it over charcoal for a few minutes at a time. I also season the meat with lowreys before wrapping it. melts in your mouth!!!!

[BLACKJACK]

Thanks iceshack! Just what I was looking for!! Went out at noon and picked up a few ingredient that I didn't have and will start the process tomorrow. Always looking for a good pheasant recipe.

[BLACKJACK]

ryan, I've done that with ducks but not pheasants and its good, except nowadays with my high cholesterol, I shy away from the bacon. Plus when I say pheasant parts, that means some have the bones in them. I fillet out the breasts but the legs have the bones in them yet. I know that the drumstick is kind of stringy but theres nothing better on pheasant than that thigh meat. Its a waste when people just take the breast out of a pheasant and throw the legs away. Thats like taking a deer and just cutting out the backstraps and the prime cuts on the hind quarters. If I have two or three pheasants, I'll even package the breast meat and legs seperately, then you can cook them appropriately, legs in the crockpot or roaster and breasts in a stir fry.

[BLACKJACK]

iceshack, tried your recipe over the weekend and its a keeper! Had problems with my smoker, ended up finishing it on the grill, but the pheasant that came off, especilly when it was still warm, was tasty and moist!! Not too salty, yet it had the salty sweet flavor. Was thinking it would be a good one to try on turkey jerky, and the turkey legs, get some turkey on sale, cut the breasts into strips, do the legs and thighs as is, it could be good. Thanks.

[ice_shack]

Glad you liked it. Try it on the turkey its good for that also. Actually any poultry works with it. I usually just do the breasts whole along with the legs. Or a whole turkey but there's not much more meat just bones.

[blue_healer_guy]

Blackjack, Had some of my buddies pheasant last weekend and what he did was wrap the pheasant breast's with halopena peppers sliced. They were very good and after eating a couple it would probaly lower your cholestrol. You could always just grill the legs separate. I was really impressed. Joe