This is our family’s all time favorite pheasant recipe. (I think you could use it for any game bird, but it is particularly delicious with pheasant.)

Grilled Teriyaki Pheasant

1 cup oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 TBSP Garlic Salt
1 TBSP Horse Raddish
1 can sprite (or Mt. Dew)
2 pheasants, quartered

Mix the marinade ingredients and soda, add the pheasant pieces and marinate in refrigerator for 12 to 36 hours, stirring every so often. Grill on BBQ or in oven just until the inside barely starts to loose the pink color. Note that the different pieces (breasts vs leg/thighs) will cook at different rates. The key is not to over cook. Serve hot over mixed wild rice. The grilled pieces are also excellent cold the next day. 

We obtained this recipe from a friend and long-time hunting buddy, Damon Swenson, some 20 years ago and have been enjoying it ever since.

4 pheasant breasts (Boneless, skinless)
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1 can pineapple slices
bacon
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate pheasant in teriyaki sauce overnight in the refrigerator. Place a slice of pineapple between 2 breast halves and wrap in bacon. Hold together with tooth picks. Salt and pepper to taste. Grill on low heat, basting with marinade, rotating frequently for 20 min. or until cooked through. Serve over wild rice and garnish with left over pineapple.

The key to cooking pheasant, as with most game meat, is not to over cook it. Grill it until the center barely looses the pink color, but is still moist.

Now that our sage-grouse season is over what are you going to do with your birds? My favorite thing to do with them is to make them into fajitas. The strong, flavorful meat is really good with the diverse mix of seasonings in fajitas. The recipe below came to me from Bruce Bonebrake, a good friend and excellent bird hunter. One secret I learned just this year was to use World Harbor Fajita mix. It is a bottled sauce rather than a dry mix. Wow, does it ever make a difference.

       1 sage-grouse
       1 onion
       1 green bell pepper
       1 clove garlic
       1 tomato
       Olive oil
       World Harbor Fajita Sauce
       Flour tortillas
       Green or red salsa
       Sour cream
       Grated cheese
       Cilantro

Debone the grouse and cut the meat into strips ~1/2” wide and 2” long. Slice onion and pepper into thin strips. Dice garlic. Cut tomato into quarters or eighths (depending on size of tomato). Sauté onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil and set aside. Brown grouse strips in hot oil. Once browned on all sides, add the fajita sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add vegetables, then add tomatoes simmer until tomatoes are lightly cooked. Steam away as much liquid as possible. Warm tortillas 15-20 seconds in microwave & serve. Serve hot from the skillet. Top with salsa, sour cream, cheese and sliced cilantro.

It’s a month past the end of chukar season and I’m already deep in withdrawal. This evening Julie made a chukar dish that was so good, I had to write about it. Legs, wings and wing-butts are typically some of the last of to be eaten, but with this recipe they were gobbled right up. It was delicious with chukar, but I’m sure it would be good with pheasant, forest grouse, or sage-grouse. It will certainly become a new family favorite.
      Teriyaki Chukar
            3 quartered chukars
            1 cup sugar
            ½ cup plus 2 tbsp white vinegar
            ½ tsp salt
            6 tbsp soy sauce
            4 tbsp water
            3 tsp ground ginger
            ¼ cup honey
            2 eggs
            ½ cup flour
Beat eggs with 3 tbsp water. Dip chukar pieces in egg mixture and coat with flour, seasoned with salt and pepper. Fry in skillet with oil until meat is just browned on both sides, then, place in casserole dish. In a sauce pan, mix sugar, vinegar, salt, soy sauce, water, ground ginger and honey. Bring to a boil on medium heat, then pour over meat and bake uncovered at 350F for 50 minutes, or until meat is cooked.           Serves ~4.