New Years Dinner?

 

Pheasant Marsala

Are you looking for a good, but healthy meal for New Year's Day dinner?

How about making Pheasant Marsala?

Sounds hard?  Nope.  Does it take lots of time? Nope.

This meal is a variation of the classic Veal Marsala.

I'm not one to buy veal due to the inhumane way calves are treated for creating veal.

I have created this recipe numerous times and I have found it to be good.

The recipe I will share is a variation of the original recipe shared in "Family Circle", 2/1/1980 edition. 

I have tweaked it to suit my family's likes.

 

I like to serve this with a side dish of Egg noodles coated in Olive oil/butter/Parmesan cheese and a vegetable that sounds good to me at the time.

Pheasant Marsala 

Serves 3-6, depending on how much you want to eat/portion.  1/2 breast/person to get 6 servings or 1 whole breast/person to get 3 servings.

(Note, if you don't have Pheasant, try Grouse/Partridge.  And if you don't have wild or tame birds to use, try chicken.)

3 Pheasant breasts.  (Note, I use wild ones.)  Each breast, place in a freezer zip-lock and flatten with a       kitchen meat hammer.

1-2 eggs placed in a dinner plate.  Add 2-4 tablespoons of water.  Beat until mixed well.

1/2-1 cup of white wheat flour placed on a wax paper.

1-2 cups of plain Panko breadcrumbs.  Place on a wax paper or on a dinner plate.

3 tablespoons of olive oil (I always use Extra Virgin Olive oil whether to sauté, cook, or bake.)

3 tablespoons of butter

Salt

Pepper

 

Sauce:

1 small green pepper.  (Can substitute red pepper instead with slightly different flavor.)  Cut up in 1 inch x 1/2-inch slices.

1 small onion, chopped. (1/4 cup)

8 oz of mushrooms cleaned and sliced.

1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped.

1 cup of Marsala wine.  (I used the sweet Marsala.  Can be found at many liquor stores where they sell the more inexpensive wines.)

1 cup of chicken broth or stock. (I used unsalted stock.  I just added back the amount of salt I wanted.)

Salt

Pepper

 

To make-

Warm up a large sautéing pan with the olive oil and butter in it.

Line up your panko crumbs, flour, and egg.  I work from right to left with my stove on the left.

And so, I place my flour to the very right.  Next is the egg mixture, next are the crumbs.

Flatten your pheasant like I mentioned above.  I flatten it until it's about 1/8 inch thick.

(Note, if you want to have 2 servings per breast, try cutting the breast in half before coating and frying.)

Take one breast and place in flour.  Coat both sides of breast.

Next, place breast in egg mixture on both sides.  The whole breast on both sides will be wet with egg.

Next, place the egged breast in the panko crumbs.  Coat on both sides.

Put this breast to the side and finish up with the rest of breasts.

 

At this point, your sauteing pan and oil/butter probably is ready to be used.

Add as many breasts as possible in the pan that you can fit without having the breasts touching each other.

(If the breasts touch, they may stay soggy.)

 

Fry each one until rich, golden brown on each side.  Test for 165 f or higher on an instant digital meat thermometer.

Place all breasts on a cooling rack placed on top a metal cookie sheet.  Place these in a warm oven to keep warm. (170 f.)

Meanwhile, make the sauce.

Sauté the vegetables- mushrooms, onions, garlic, and pepper strips in the olive oil/butter left in the pan from the pheasant breasts.  If you need to add more, go ahead and do so.

Sauté until tender.

Place vegetables in a bowl in the warm oven.

Next, in hot sauté pan, add the chicken broth/stock and Marsala.  Use a spatula to help bring up any brown that had been left on the pan from the breasts and vegetables.

Bring this to a simmer and allow to simmer without any cover for maybe 10-30 minutes.  You want to reduce the liquid to about 1/2. (Or about 3/4 cup-1 cup)

Time to add back the breasts and vegetables in to the Marsal/broth mixture.

Allow everything to thoroughly heat up.

Serve each breast with the sautéed vegetables on top and a lemon slice or wedge on top of that.

The lemon slice can be used to help brighten the pheasant flavor.

 

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.  Buon appetito!

By Cynthia Bergsbaken, December 30, 2021.

 ***All original content is copyrighted by Cynthia Bergsbaken, Perceptive Blogger & Reiki in the Prairie LLC.

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April 11, 2020

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