Smoked skinless pheasant


 
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A friend of mine has some skinned pheasants and is asking me to smoke them for him. I'm concerned that without the skin, the birds will dry out when cooked. If I brine and then wrap with bacon or something similar, will they finish up as if the skin were on? Also, will they still have a smoked flavor if I wrap them with the bacon?

Thanks for any advice...
 
I'm hoping your friend was a good shot.

I'd recommend making a slit along each side of the breast bone and slipping a piece of bacon, cut to fit, in each side. I'd skip the bacon wrap and use a baste containing oil instead. Baste thinly before putting the bird on. Make a rub and apply lightly over the baste. Put a little of the rub in the baste. Smoke, basting kind of frequently (yes, it will draw out the cook and mess with your temps).

Remember--pheasant spoils quickly. Don't let it sit out. Prep while still cold and get it right into the smoker.

Hope this helps. Welcome to the board.
 
James
Welcome.

I've cooked alot of pheasant. I've never seen skinned pheasant, but I have seen messed up skin from the plucking process.
As an alternative to Kevin's suggestion, the best pheasant I've ever cooked was done like this:
de-bone one chicken and one pheasant leaving skin intact (this is tricky and time consuming, and obviously the pheasant has no skin, so just debone it. Make a sausage stuffing of your choice and pre cook it. stuff the pheasant. put the pheasant in the chicken. (I filled the empty drumstick and thigh with extra stuffing)
and shaped into a chicken looking thing and cooked that low and slow until I got 155*F in the breast. The let it rest in a warm oven (power off) for 30 minutes while I made a port wine sauce. The chicken was a wee bit dry in the breast, but the pheasant was moist and tender.
My wife can't stand the gamey taste of pheasant but loved this one.

morgan
 
I have been considering skinless pheasant as well. One idea I had was to use a garlic/olive oil rub like I have used on lamb and perch them on my beer can racks with half-cans of beer, etc. With lamb I put sprigs of rosemary on the coals and rosemary should go well with pheasant. Could you tent the pheasants at the end of the cook to keep them from getting too dry? The beer cans would then feed moisture into the tent.

Any comments?

George
 
Yes, you can tent the pheasant. As you know. pheasant can overcook in a heartbeat so you'll have to keep an eye on things to figure out when to do that.

Alternatively, you could smoke for a while then wrap in foil (with or without a moisture addition) and finish in the foil.
 
Thankyou for the responses. The suggestions help a lot.

Morgan, butchers here in south Louisiana make something similar to what you made. It's called a turducken. It's a boneless turkey stuffed with a boneless duck, that's stuffed with a boneless chicken, all of which are stuffed with sausage or cornbread dressing. They taste incredible. I've never tried one on the smoker though.

Kruger, I was not aware that pheasant would spoil so quickly. Thanks for the heads up. Your cooking method sounds perfect.

James
 
Tony Coloma said:
In the spirit of completeness. No post goes unanswered.
Click to expand...
HA!! I HAVE HUNDREDS OF POSTS HERE WITH NO!!!!! ANSWERS

EXAMPLE:

I have posted 84 Chicken recipes -with 32 0 reply's
I have posted 60 Pork recipes - with 23 0 reply's
 
Here is a recipe I found online and have used for years to smoke skinless pheasant breasts and which I love. The key is the olive oil that keeps the breast from drying out. I have included the basic brine and rub for those newer to smoking, but go ahead and use your favorite brine and rub or adjust the portions of the spices. Not a fan of hot I use way less Cayenne pepper.

Skinless Smoked Pheasant

BRINE:
2 to 4 whole pheasants
1 gallon of water (or enough to completely submerge your pheasant)
2/3 cup sea salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup dry white wine (optional or put wine in water pan while smoking)



RUB:
2/3 cup olive oil
1.5 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder or 2 crushed garlic cloves

Other Needs:

1 bag of slow burning charcoal
1 bottle of lighter fluid
1 or 2 bags of wood chips of your choice (apple is best) Aluminum foil

Smoked Pheasant Directions:

1. It is recommended that you brine your pheasants prior to putting it on the smoker. This means that it adds about 8-10 hours to the overall recipe time.
To brine, heat your brine ingredients minus the pheasant to dissolve the salt and sugar. Let the brine liquid cool to room temperature and submerge your pheasant in the brine liquid. Next put your brine in the refrigerator and let it sit for 8-10 hours.

2. Next, soak wood chips in water for an hour to allow them to smolder and smoke instead of burn up quickly within the first few minutes of your smoking session. Another tip is to create 2 foil pouches with holes in the top to make your wood chips last longer. Place your 2nd foil pouch in the smoker about midway through the smoking process.

3. Allow pheasant to come up to room temp. You will want to light your charcoal smoker about 30 minutes before you want to start smoking your brined pheasants. You will know When the charcoal is ready when all of the coats turn to a glowing white hot color.

4. During your 30 minutes while you are waiting for your charcoal, mix all of the smoked pheasant rub recipe ingredients together in a bowl. Fully coat your pheasants inside and outside with the rub seasoning.

5. Place your seasoned pheasants on the smoker and adjust the smoker vent to about 3/4 the way open. If you are using a grill with an adjustable lid, make sure the vent is placed directly above your pheasant so the smoke is drawn across the center of the grill and your pheasants.

Smoke the pheasant for about 2 to 3 1/2 hours to reach a temperature of 155 degrees. Wait 20-25 minutes before cutting into your smoked pheasant or you will not let the internal juices redistribute throughout the meat. This will make your pheasants more tough, so this is a very important step in this recipe.

Pheasant Smoking Time:
Smoking pheasants is faster than most other whole poultry like chicken or turkey because they are significantly smaller birds. You still need about 2 1/2 hours smoking time to complete this recipe. Your internal pheasant breast temperature should reach 155 degrees Fahrenheit and the juices should run clear.

Rooster breast which are larger are much easier to smoke than hen breasts.
 

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Tony Coloma said:
In the spirit of completeness. No post goes unanswered.
Click to expand...
I re-did the skinless smoke pheasant recipe. There were some problems with it as I had converted it from a .pfd to a text file. I believe they are fixed now. Obviously you want to brine before coating the breasts.
 
I skin all my upland game birds, not a fan of plucking. I don't low temp smoke any feathered friends, nothing under 300 degrees. My go to is the rotisserie and for skinned birds, I spritzer them several times throughout the cook. The other method I use is indirect in my kettle, but again, the temp is 300, they get flipped every 10 minutes and spritzer. With Ducks, I'm willing to pluck them, the skin is worth it. Upland game birds....not so much
 
Spritzing is almost always good when smoking meat. If you are worried about temp, wrap the birds in tin foil and give them about ten or fifteen minutes in a 300 oven after smoking. I also do that when I make jerky along with using curing salt as it is more susceptible to Botulism.
As for smoking or rotisserie they are both good options yet a matter of preference, but the person was asking for a skinless pheasant smoking recipe.
 
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