Old Timber Outdoors
All recipes

Pheasant legs and thighs

Pheasant Leg and Wild Rice Soup

Pheasant legs simmered until tender, pulled, and returned to a creamy wild rice soup with carrot and celery.

Serves
6
Hands-on
40 min
Total
2 hr 50 min
Skill
Easy

Stove and oven · Lunch, Dinner

Ingredients

  • 2 lbPheasant legs and thighs, legs and thighs from 4 to 6 birds
  • 1Onions, diced
  • 2Carrots, diced
  • 2 tbspButter
  • ½ cupHeavy cream
  • 1½ tspSalt, kosher, plus more to taste
  • ½ tspBlack pepper, ground
  • 8 cups chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 celery ribs, diced
  • ¾ cup wild rice, rinsed
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tsp lemon juice, to finish

You'll need

Stovetop, Dutch oven, Instant-read thermometer.

Contains

Dairy.

Method

  1. Put the pheasant legs, stock, bay leaf and thyme in the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook gently, with only a few lazy bubbles, until the meat is tender and falls from the bones, about 1½ hours. Wild roosters can take longer.
  2. Lift out the legs. Pour the broth into a bowl. When the legs are cool enough to handle, pull the meat and discard the bones, skin and the thin, bony tendons.
  3. Melt the butter in the empty pot over medium heat. Cook the onion, carrot and celery with ½ tsp of the salt until the onion is soft, about 6 minutes.
  4. Pour the broth back in and add the wild rice. Simmer, partly covered, until the rice is tender and some grains have split open, 45 to 50 minutes.
  5. Return the meat and stir in the cream, the remaining salt and the pepper. Heat until the soup reads at least 165°F, without letting it boil hard.
  6. Remove the bay leaf, stir in the lemon juice, taste for salt (store stock varies a lot), and serve topped with the parsley.

When it's done: fork-tender

Game bird legs, thighs and other hard-working pieces are done when the meat slides off the bone or pulls apart with a fork. They pass the federal 165°F for poultry long before they turn tender, so keep cooking until they do; if the meat is still tight, it needs more time, not more heat.

If it goes wrong

Rice still hard
Wild rice varies a lot; keep simmering and add stock if the soup gets thick.
Bony bits in the soup
Pheasant legs have needle-like tendons. Pull the meat carefully by hand.
Leg meat tough or stringy
The broth boiled instead of simmering. Keep it at a gentle simmer and give it more time.
Soup too thick the next day
Wild rice keeps absorbing liquid. Thin it with stock when you reheat.

Leftovers. Divide into shallow containers so it cools quickly, and refrigerate within 2 hours. Reheat to 165°F.