Plucking a Pheasant

The last couple of Roosters we bagged I decided to pluck.  I was tired of wasting the skin, wings etc.  Its actually pretty easy, and If you are like me you like the skin on poultry.

Its soooo easy, and this is how you do it:

1. Heat up a big pot of water to just about boiling.  Maybe a trickle of air surfacing from the pot.
2. Grab the bird (whole and not gutted) by his feet and immerse and count to 30.  Pull out.  Repeat this 3 times to a total of 90 seconds.
3. Start plucking from the neck and work your way down.  Its important to do this while the birds feathers are still relatively warm from the water.  Most of his neck and back feathers will just slide right off.  Be careful not to tear the skin.  We want the skin in tact.  This may take a while.  
4.  Next, carefully pull the pin feathers out of the wings and tail. discard.
5.  Gut the bird.  Always gut the bird last in this process.

Now you are free to expand on the recipes you already have for Pheasant, and ethically using the most you can of our favorite bird..  Try stuffing bacon or carmelized garlic underneath the skin (use both!).  Maybe put some rosemary in there.  Sage is always good with poultry too.  ANYTHING tastes good if you plan ahead and marinade it over night.

I plan on saving these last few guys and smoking them on my grill once the weather turns nice.  Maybe stuffing one with toasted Focaccia and cranberries would be good.  Come by our place in the spring.  Ill save a rooster and a cold beer for you.  The conversation is usually pretty good and not too long.