This chef-favorite technique cooks pheasant breasts perfectly, resulting in juicy, tender, golden brown and incredibly flavorful meat.  If you have whole pheasants, you can separate the breasts from the rest of the bird using the instructions in How to Cut Up Poultry.

1. Optional: If using a skin-off pheasant breast, coat it with a very light layer of flour.

2. Season both sides of the breast liberally with salt & pepper.

3. Heat a sauté pan or skillet over medium high heat.  Add just enough canola, peanut, or grapeseed oil to coat.

4. When the oil just begins to smoke, carefully add the pheasant breast to the pan (skin side down if skin-on).

5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the breast for about 10 minutes (until the sides are about half opaque) without touching it.  Don’t move it around, flip, etc.  You want to develop a good golden-brown sear.

6. Flip the breast over and pour off the excess oil.  Add a tablespoon of butter to the pan.

7. Optional: for more flavor, add a few sprigs of fresh thyme to the pan along with the butter.

8. Reduce the heat further to medium-low and cook the other side of the pheasant breast.  Baste the breast with the melted butter every few minutes.

9. Once the breast has cooked through (10 minutes or so after flipping), remove it from the heat and let it rest (loosely covered) for roughly five minutes.

10. If desired, slice the breast to make it easier to eat and dust with your favorite finishing salt.

11. Serve!

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Drink Pairing: Poulsard from Jura or red Burgundy

Ingredients:             (Per Sandwich)
Leftover Roasted Chicken (we used Truffle Honey Glazed Chicken)
Roll of your choice
Lettuce
Mayonnaise of your choice (we recommend homemade mayonnaise)
Fresh Truffles (whatever you’ve got on hand, we used a blend of Bianchetti Truffles and Oregon Black Truffles)

Directions:
1. Toast your roll.

2. Spread on a heavy layer of mayonnaise.

3. Add lettuce & the chicken.

4. Top the filling with a heavy layer of fresh truffles. Devour.

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This technique is a great way to enjoy breasts cut from more flavorful heritage chickens.

1. Season the skin-on breast generously with salt & pepper.  If using a skin-off breast, lightly flour it before seasoning.

2. Put a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add grapeseed, peanut or canola oil to coat.

3. When oil begins to smoke, add the chicken breast skin side down.

4. Turn heat down to medium. Sear for about 10 minutes skin side down.

5. Flip the breast and discard excess oil.

6. Add a tablespoon of butter and a couple sprigs of fresh thyme.

7. Continue cooking on low-medium heat. Baste every couple minutes. Cook this way for another 10 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

9. Slice and dust with your favorite seasoning salt.

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Porcini mushrooms add incredible richness and body to chicken gravy.

Ingredients:
½ oz Dried Porcini Mushrooms
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp chopped Onion
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Flour
½ cup White Wine
1 skin-on Chicken Breast per person
2 Garlic Cloves, crushed with the skin on
4 sprigs of fresh Thyme

Directions: 
1.  Simmer the dried porcinis in 2 cups of water with the sugar, salt, and soy sauce for 20 minutes.  

2.  Pan roast the chicken with the garlic, thyme, and butter.  Remove the cooked breasts and let them rest, covered, while you make the gravy.

3.  Sauté the onions in the chicken pan.  Once they have browned, add the flour.

4.  Cook the flour, stirring frequently, for two minutes.

5.  Add the white wine, and simmer the mixture until you can just barely smell the alcohol (about 2 minutes).

6.  Add the mushroom liquid & mushrooms.  Simmer until thickened.

7.  Taste the gravy & season with salt & pepper as desired.  Serve with the chicken and mashed potatoes.

Truffle Honey Glazed Poulet Rouge
with Vanilla Celeriac Puree, Glazed Micro Veggies & Shaved White Truffles

Poulet rouge is a great two-serving chicken breed that is tender with a more pronounced chicken flavor.  The truffle honey glaze gives it earthiness and sweetness. The vanilla celeriac puree is almost sweet, but doesn’t conflict with the savory elements on the plate, particularly given the honey on the bird.  You can skip shaving white truffles on top at the end if you want, but doing so really takes this dish to the next level.

Drink Pairings: German Riesling or Chenin Blanc 

Ingredients:         (Makes 2 Servings)
1 Poulet Rouge Chicken    (you could substitute other top quality chickens or modify this recipe for cornish game hens)
1 Large Celeriac (aka Celery Root), peeled & large diced
½ cup Heavy Cream
½ cup Crème Fraiche
1 Bourbon Vanilla Bean (could substitute a Tahitian Vanilla Bean)
3 sprigs Fresh Thyme
3 sprigs Fresh Marjoram
3 sprigs Fresh Parsley
1 cup Chicken Stock
Poppy Seeds for garnish
1 Tbsp Butter
3 tbsp Truffle Honey Glaze
12 Blanched Micro Vegetables of your choice
Butcher’s Twine
Optional: Fresh White Truffles (we used Bianchetti Truffles, but you could substitute White Alba Truffles or Oregon White Truffles)

Directions:

1. Wash the poulet rouge and thoroughly pat it dry.  Place it in a bowl on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, uncovered, and let it sit overnight to dry the skin.

2. When you’re ready to prepare your chicken, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

3. Add the celeriac to a pot along with the heavy cream and enough water to cover.  Simmer over medium low heat until tender.

4. Strain the celeriac out of the cream mixture, reserving both.  Puree the celeriac in a food processor with a couple tablespoons of the liquid (adding more as necessary during the pureeing process to reach a mashed potatoes-like consistency).  Stir in the creme fraiche.

5.  Stuff the bird’s cavity with the herbs on the stem.

6. Fold the chicken’s wings under it.  Tie the chicken by starting with a tight loop around the “tail”, then bringing the twine forward under the chicken, up around the wings, back to the sides of the legs, then around each leg and tie a knot to draw the two legs together.  Cut off any excess twine (see photo for reference).

7. Season the chicken with sea salt.

8. Use a spoon to put an even coat of honey glaze all over the surface of the chicken (except the bottom).  Move the chicken to a small baking dish and into the oven.

9. After 15-20 minutes, when the chicken’s skin has begun to caramelize nicely, reduce the oven’s temperature to 325 degrees & continue to roast until the chicken has cooked through (about an additional 25 minutes).

10. Remove the chicken from the oven and cut off the twine.  Sprinkle the poppy seeds on top, then brush on some more of the glaze.

11. Just before serving the chicken, put the puree in a frying pan to reheat.  Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean (how to use vanilla beans), add the crème fraiche & stir over low heat.  Taste for seasoning and add salt as needed.

12. In a separate frying pan, pour in the chicken stock and simmer it to reduce the volume down to ¼ cup.  Add the butter and the blanched veggies.  Toss to coat, then season with a little sea salt.

13. Carve the chicken into portions.

14. Put down a base of the celeriac puree on the plate, then a portion of the chicken on top.  Arrange the micro vegetables to the side.  Top with shaved white truffles if desired.  Serve.

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Cutting up poultry into its various component cuts (called “fabricating” in the culinary industry) is a very good skill to develop.  Not only is it generally more economical to buy whole birds, but you are also left with the bones, which can be used to make stock. The most important thing to remember when fabbing whole poultry is to let the bird’s bone structure guide you.  The bird we are working with here is a whole blue poulet (or blue foot chicken).

Fabricating Poultry
Caveat: Sorry, but we didn’t catch every step with the camera…Bear with us as we go with the flow…

1.  Remove any giblets, livers, etc from cavity.  These can be cooked and eaten, used in gravies, or frozen for later use.

2.  If attached (as is traditional with whole blue foot chickens), remove the feet and head (at neck) using a meat cleaver or the heel of a chef’s knife blade with a forceful strike down.

3.  Find the center breast bone and slide your blade down between it and the breast meat with shallow slicing motions.  Follow down the rib cage, and angle out of the flesh above the leg. Repeat with other breast. Almost any longish knife can be used but a firm boning knife is best if you have it.

4.  Pop leg joint open with your hands and cut straight down through the resulting gap. You may have to crunch through some cartilage, but shouldn’t have to cut or break the bone. 

5.  Once the leg joint is split, follow the leg around to the bird’s back with your knife, being sure to cut out the soft lumps of flesh (called the oysters, these are considered the most tender meat on the bird) with the leg.  They are located just above where the leg connects with the back (although they are quite small on the blue poulet and may be impossible to find on smaller birds).  Separating the leg from the bird results in what is called a leg-thigh combo cut. The thigh joint can be popped and cut through to separate the two if you like.

6.  To remove the wings, cut the skin webbing, and pop the joint nearest to the body, cutting down through (may have to crunch through a little cartilage).

Prepping wings
Often people simply throw the wings away, as they contain little meat.  However, if you are a wing fan, they can be prepped and frozen until you have enough for a serving.  They can also be used to impart flavor to broths.

Cut off the end joint (the nubbin) and separate the two middle joints.  Each of these is one wing piece for the purposes of buffalo wings and similar recipes.

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Pan Roasted Pomegranate Glazed Quail with Faro and Pearl Onions

Drink Pairing: Red Burgundy or Chilean Syrah

The pomegranate glaze gives the slight game flavor of the quail breasts a complex, tangy, almost honeyed sweetness without being cloying.  The farro grain side dish is hearty, nutty and savory with strong thyme and dill flavors that accentuate the quail’s game flavor.

Ingredients: (Makes 4 Small Plate Servings)
2 Quail Airline Breasts
Pomegranate Glaze
10 Pearl Onions, peeled
2 Carrots, medium diced
2 cups Cooked Farro (follow the directions in this recipe, but omit the onion and use water instead of stock)
½ tbsp Fresh Dill Leaves, minced
½ tbsp Fresh Thyme Leaves, minced
¾ cup Chicken Stock, plus extra as needed

Directions:

1. Cook the farro & keep it warm on the stove top.

2. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

3. Simmer the pearl onions in the chicken stock until mostly tender, and then add the carrots.  Add more chicken stock as necessary to keep the pan from becoming dry.  Season with salt & pepper and continue simmering until both the carrots and the onions are tender. 

Note: If your onions are particularly large or you’re in a hurry, cut them in half first.

4. Split the quail airline breasts into individual breasts (in half).  Trim off any excess skin.

5. Stir the carrots, onions, and fresh herbs into the farro.

6. Salt the quail and lay it skin-side down into a hot pan with olive oil.

7. When the skin side of the quail has cooked, flip the breasts and brush them with the pomegranate glaze.  Move the pan to the oven and roast until the breasts are cooked.

8. Brush each plate with a few streaks of the glaze.  Put a pile of the farro to the side of the streak.  Add a quail breast & serve.

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Ingredients:      (Makes Enough for 1 Chicken or Duck)
1 tbsp Selezione Black Truffle Honey
2 tbsp Orange Blossom Honey

Note: You could substitute another brand of truffle honey, but you may need to adjust the honey proportions to balance the strength of the truffle flavor.

Directions:
1. Optional: For extra crispy skin, rinse and pat dry your poultry of choice.  Store it in a bowl on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, uncovered, overnight to dry the skin out.

2. Stir the two honeys together in a small bowl.

3. Set the bowl someplace warm, like the top of your stove near burners that are on (you could probably microwave it too) to heat it enough to soften into a more easily brushable glaze.

3. Brush your bird with the honey.  Roast it according to your recipe.

4. After the bird has come out of the oven, brush it with another layer of the honey, then continue to prepare as you normally would.

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Ducks carry a significant portion of their fat near the surface of their skin where it provides warmth and buoyancy. This means that in order to get a moist, flavorful, and not over-fatty result when pan-roasting duck breasts, you need to render that fat first.

Rendering duck fat is actually very easy, as long as you’re patient and use the right technique. A delightful side effect of the process is extra duck fat you can use in other dishes later (instead of butter or oil). Duck fat is almost universally considered to be one of the most flavorful cooking fats available, and is divine when used to roast heirloom potatoes!

Scoring Duck Breasts:

Scoring duck breast skin allows the fat to render out evenly, resulting in crisper skin, and moister meat.

1. If there are any sections of skin/surface fat that are significantly thicker than the rest, use a horizontal cut to trim them down.

2. Draw the blade of the knife across the skin, cutting just deep enough to reach the meat without piercing it.  Repeat across the surface of the breast every ½ inch or so.

3. Turn the breast and repeat, so you have a crosshatch pattern of 1/2 inch squares.

Rendering the Fat:

1. Get a thin layer of oil hot in a frying pan and lay the scored duck breasts in, skin side down.

2. Cook over low heat until most of the duck fat has rendered out (45mins to an hour). Periodically drain the excess fat collecting in the pan and save it for later dishes. 

Tip:  Weighing the breasts down, perhaps with a smaller frying pan, will help all parts of the breast have more even contact with the pan surface, rendering out more of the fat.

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Creamy, earthy, with a hint of game flavor, this is a very elegant dish that’s really easy if you use partially deboned quail.  We’ve paired the quail with a nutty, sweet, and sour walnut sauce.

Drink Pairings: Pinot Noir from Burgundy or Poulsard/Ploussard from Jura

Ingredients: (Makes 2-4 appetizer or 1-2 light entree servings)
4 Semi-Boneless Quail
1 Shallot, thinly sliced
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 cup Walnuts
¼ cup Chicken Stock
¼ cup Olive Oil
Aged Balsamic Vinegar to finish
Wooden Skewers

Plus: 4 tbsp Mushroom Duxelles, chilled (we recommend using porcini mushrooms)

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. Toast the walnuts on a baking sheet in the oven until slightly darker, crispy, and aromatic.

3. Remove the walnuts, let them cool and turn your oven temperature up to 350 degrees.

4. Sweat the shallot in a pan with a little oil until translucent, deglaze with the balsamic and briefly simmer to reduce to a syrup consistency. Then, blend the balsamic/shallot mixture, walnuts, chicken stock, and olive oil together until smooth.

5. Fill the central cavity of each quail with 1 tbsp of the duxelles and stitch closed with a wooden skewer.

6. Get a thin layer of oil hot in a cast iron skillet on medium and lay the quail in on their backs, until they develop a well seared crust.  Then turn them and continue to sear as much of their surface as you can.

7. When the quail have been completely seared, move them (in the skillet) to the oven to roast for about 20 minutes.

8. Once the quail has finished cooking, spread a smear of the walnut sauce on a plate, and put the quail down on top of it.  Finish the plate with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. Serve.

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