More pheasant recipes
Pheasant breast fillets
Buttermilk Fried Pheasant Strips with Honey Mustard
Pheasant breast strips soaked in seasoned buttermilk, dredged and fried crisp, with a quick honey mustard for dipping.
- Serves
- 4
- Hands-on
- 35 min
- Total
- 4 hr 40 min
- Skill
- Some experience
Cooks on: Stovetop · Dinner, Snack
Ingredients
- 1½ lbPheasant breast fillets, about 4 breast halves, cut into ¾-inch strips
- 1½ cupsFlour
- 2 clovesGarlic, grated
- 2 tspSalt, divided
- 1 tspBlack pepper, ground
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 4 cups neutral oil, for frying
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp honey
You'll need
- Dutch oven
- Stovetop
- Instant-read thermometer
Helpful: sheet pan with wire rack.
Contains
Dairy, Gluten. Buttermilk is a dairy product. Hot sauce and Dijon mustard vary by brand. Check the labels.
Method
- Whisk the buttermilk, hot sauce, garlic and 1 tsp of the salt in a bowl. Add the pheasant strips, cover, and refrigerate 4 hours (up to 8).
- Mix the flour, paprika, ¾ tsp of the salt and the pepper in a shallow dish. Drizzle in 2 tbsp of the buttermilk from the bowl and rub it in with your fingers to make small craggy bits; they fry up extra crisp. Stir the mustard and honey together for the dipping sauce.
- Lift the strips from the buttermilk a few at a time, let them drip, and press them firmly into the flour to coat well. Set them on a rack or plate and let them sit 5 to 10 minutes so the coating hydrates and sticks. Discard the leftover buttermilk.
- Meanwhile heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat to 350°F, checking with the thermometer. Keep the oil no more than halfway up the pot.
- Fry in batches of 6 to 8 strips, turning once, until deep golden and an instant-read thermometer reads 165°F in the thickest strip, 3 to 5 minutes. Lift each strip out as it gets there. Let the oil come back to 350°F between batches.
- Drain on a rack (paper towels steam the bottoms soft), sprinkle with the last ¼ tsp salt while hot, and serve with the honey mustard.
When it's done: 165°F
The federal chart lists poultry at 165°F, and Kansas State University Extension says to fully cook game birds to at least 165°F. Check the thickest part with an instant-read thermometer.
If it goes wrong
- Greasy coating
- The oil dropped too low. Fry smaller batches and wait for it to recover.
- Dark outside before 165°F inside
- Lower the heat to keep the oil near 325°F to 350°F, and cut thick strips in half.
- Coating slides off
- The strips went into the oil straight from the flour. Let them rest 5 to 10 minutes after dredging.
- Dry, stringy strips
- They were cut too thin or fried well past 165°F. Keep them about ¾ inch thick and pull each one at temperature.
Leftovers. Soak the strips in the refrigerator, never at room temperature. Serve right away; refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and reheat to 165°F.