Early season pheasant breast in buttermilk marinade.

The marinade is from Nevin Maguire’s Christmas collection which he uses for Turkey, with some modifications 🙂

 

Pheasant is a lean meat but the early season birds even more  so, I find very little pickings on the legs and as such  tend to work with the breast. The remainder of the bird can be used to make stock base for soup.This an easy to prepare simple recipe that keeps moisture in the meat as much as possible.

Take one brace of pheasant  remove, wash and prepare the breasts, keep the skin if possible. Place in a bowl and prepare the marinade

For the marinade use 500mls of buttermilk or enough to completely cover 4 pheasant breasts.

Finely chop one orange, leaving the rind on.

3 cloves of garlic, peeled but not chopped.

season generously with salt and pepper and I also add a good scattering of thai 5 spice.

Pour the marinade over the breasts, cover the bowl with cling-film and place in the fridge for at least 8 hours.

When ready for cooking remove from fridge and wipe off the buttermilk using paper towel.

In his turkey recipe Nevin uses harissa butter to coat the meat but I used some Blackberry chutney which I bought from a lady who had a stall at the Nevin Maguire cookery night.

Once covered in chutney, wrap each breast streaky bacon , pie dish and cover with tin foil.

Bake in a preheated oven about 180 celcius for about 25 minutes.