Everything about our feathered friends

I need some nice winter warming chicken recipes! I love casseroles but getting a bit fed up of coq au vin and chasseur.

Spicy chicken and bacon

Ingrediants

6 Chicken Thighs
6 Rashers of Bacon.

Juice of 1 lime.
5 Garlic Cloves.
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp Paprika.
1/2 Tsp Oregano.
1 Tsp Cumin.
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder.

Instructions.

Preheat oven to 190'c / gas 5

Mix the oil, juice, garlic, paprika, chilli, oregano and cumin in a bowl.

Wrap a rasher of bacon around each chicken thigh.

Place chicken thighs into a roasting dish and pour the mixture over the chicken.

Cook in the center of the oven for between 40 minutes and an hour depending on the size of the thighs.

Goes great with many things, rice, chips etc.

What about chestnut chicken stew?
It is just chestnuts, and chicken... :hihi:

Or chicken wings!
- Barbeque flavour.
- honey + soy sauce
- mustard + sour cream

I've roasted a chicken tonight and I checked it was cooked by spearing it in a few places and all seemed fine. We have had the breast meat, but I've come to cut off the legs and stuff to put it away for pack up and as I punctured the top of the leg, blood has come out of it. I've not known this before, does this mean it wasn't cooked after all?

Chicken breast wrapped in bacon, covered with mushroom soup, in the oven, and cover with cheese mmmmmmmmmmmmm

is anyone aware of a healthy or low fat chicken and mushroom pie / bake recipe ? i quite fancy rustling up something nice and chicken-y but all the recipes ive found seem to be quite calorific!!

Plucking pheasants -

Had to type that one carefully.

A stall at Castle Market were selling braces of pheasants for a fiver. Seems a great bargain and I'm a big fan of game.

How would you go about plucking one? What about storage, can you hang them for a while or would you store just as you would say, a chicken?

is anyone aware of a healthy or low fat chicken and mushroom pie / bake recipe ? i quite fancy rustling up something nice and chicken-y but all the recipes ive found seem to be quite calorific!!

It's not easy to make a low fat pie, the best you can hope for is a less calorific one.

You could do a pie top crust, rather than encase the filling in pastry. That's a 100 cals gone.

When you're making your roux, I suppose you could use margarine. Cook your mushrooms off in olive oil.

If you serve with green veg as opposed to potatoes, I can't see why this would be such a heavy calorific meal, to be honest.

Pheasants have really thin skin thats easy to tear so they need scalding first by taking the tail feathers out then holding it under the water for about a minute.
Hold it by the feet.

Take it out and drain it then do it again and do that three or four times altogether.

Pluck the bugger while its still warm and be gentle- wings and back first then breast last.

That made my gob water, I havent had pheasant for years.

Pheasants have really thin skin thats easy to tear so they need scalding first by taking the tail feathers out then holding it under the water for about a minute.
Hold it by the feet.

Take it out and drain it then do it again and do that three or four times altogether.

Pluck the bugger while its still warm and be gentle- wings and back first then breast last.

That made my gob water, I havent had pheasant for years.

Cheers Jabbers, obviously you're ducking the bird in near boiling/ very hot water?

Cheers Jabbers, obviously you're ducking the bird in near boiling/ very hot water?

Not boiling but... you know... steaming... just about a minute from coming to the boil.... as soon as you see the steam switch the heat off and get dunkin`! :D

Plucking pheasants -

Had to type that one carefully.

A stall at Castle Market were selling braces of pheasants for a fiver. Seems a great bargain and I'm a big fan of game.

How would you go about plucking one? What about storage, can you hang them for a while or would you store just as you would say, a chicken?

Hanging wise, with pheasants I might hang up to 7 days in my shed depending on how cool it was and size of bird. I only hang game in my shed during the colder months. You could use a cellar if it's cool and not damp but you want air to circulate around them and I personally wouldn't want it to be above 12 degrees down there. Hang them guts in feathers on.
Some people don't hang at all and some will go beyond 7 days but it depends on how gamey you want it. You also have to take into account how fresh they were when you bought them, ask the seller as they might have had some hang time already. Hanging is not normally treated like an exact science, you will hear lots of contradicting thoughts if you look into it enough. I recommend the River Cottage forum for various opinions on it all.

As for prep, when I pluck them I don't bother with water. I simply used thumb and forefinger to pluck small pinches of feathers away (Trying to grab big bunches of feathers in one go will tear the skin). I do the same for all game birds.

Once plucked you can freeze if you like or keep in the fridge as you would a chicken.

Hanging wise, with pheasants I might hang up to 7 days in my shed depending on how cool it was and size of bird. I only hang game in my shed during the colder months. You could use a cellar if it's cool and not damp but you want air to circulate around them and I personally wouldn't want it to be above 12 degrees down there. Hang them guts in feathers on.
Some people don't hang at all and some will go beyond 7 days but it depends on how gamey you want it. You also have to take into account how fresh they were when you bought them, ask the seller as they might have had some hang time already. Hanging is not normally treated like an exact science, you will hear lots of contradicting thoughts if you look into it enough. I recommend the River Cottage forum for various opinions on it all.

As for prep, when I pluck them I don't bother with water. I simply used thumb and forefinger to pluck small pinches of feathers away (Trying to grab big bunches of feathers in one go will tear the skin). I do the same for all game birds.

Once plucked you can freeze if you like or keep in the fridge as you would a chicken.

Cheers GQ.

I bought a brace today from Baldock's (sp?) for £6. They also had a mallard and hare that tempted me, but one step at a time. ;)

I've checked our cellar and I doubt it's cool enough, I don't feel comfortable hanging them there. They were shot on Friday so it seems I have a few days left, but I've stored them in the fridge and I'm planning on roasting them tomorrow . . . I'll check out cooking times but I'm going for the simple option, plenty of butter and seasoning inside and out. I'd prefer the birds slightly pinkish. Is that okay with pheasant?

I'm looking forward to the kidney, heart and liver . . . cooks treats. :thumbsup:

We're taking orders for our traditional free range chickens for Christmas and New Year. Any size up to approximately 4kg ( 8lb 8oz). These are really free range birds with a taste and texture of meat rarely found in chicken today. They're actually reared in S35 not bought in and sold as 'local'. Please PM us if you're interested. Thank you.

Cheers GQ.

I bought a brace today from Baldock's (sp?) for £6. They also had a mallard and hare that tempted me, but one step at a time. ;)

I've checked our cellar and I doubt it's cool enough, I don't feel comfortable hanging them there. They were shot on Friday so it seems I have a few days left, but I've stored them in the fridge and I'm planning on roasting them tomorrow . . . I'll check out cooking times but I'm going for the simple option, plenty of butter and seasoning inside and out. I'd prefer the birds slightly pinkish. Is that okay with pheasant?

I'm looking forward to the kidney, heart and liver . . . cooks treats. :thumbsup:

Some might serve Pheasant just pink but it is more usual to serve it fully cooked like partridge, that's the norm for pale game.
Hope they were good.

Mallard or any wild duck for that matter is very similar to farmed so if you are happy roasting farmed, wild should pose no problem. The slight differences are wild is leaner and can be tougher. If you are thinking of pan fried duck breasts served pink they will not be as tender as farmed due to the amount of work they do (I have made this mistake).
I like to roast wild duck whole and find it very tasty and once cooked it can go into lots of different dishes. The last time it went into an "Asian squash salad with crispy duck" from the Jamie at Home book and it was very very nice.

Be wary of the Hare! If not ready for the pot, the prep is like Rabbit but the smell is like nothing I have experienced. I have only done it once and did it outside on a work bench and even with the wind blowing up the drive the smell was pretty hardcore, and this Hare was supposed to be a day old with no hanging.
It's a good job I didn't hang it!