Tandoori Roast Pheasant

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So much more flavour than chicken!

I love this time of year. I work at home so I usually take the dog out for a long walk and then return to build a fire before getting on with whatever I need to do that day. The crisp cold mornings are made even nicer when one of my neighbours leaves a box of pheasants outside my front door from the weekly game shoot in our village. Food doesn’t get any fresher than that.

So today I decided to skive a bit and spent an hour or so plucking four pheasants before whipping up a tandoori marinade. I rubbed the marinade into the pheasants and let them rest for eight hours.

I would normally recommend marinating the meat for at least 24 hours but I just couldn’t wait that long.

Around 3pm I fired up our wood-burning oven in the garden and waited the two hours it takes for the oven to come up to heat.

Then in went the birds and the last of our potatoes from the garden. Tandoori pheasant is a real favourite around our house. I hope you like this one too. It’s so easy to make in a conventional oven. Personally I think that tandoori pheasant is a lot better than chicken.

Pheasants ready for plucking. It’s a lot of work.

Tandoori pheasant in the oven

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Yield: 4 - 6

Tandoori Pheasant Roast

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Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 pheasants
• 300ml plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon citric acid (optional)
• 2 green chilli peppers
• Juice of two limes
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 x 2” piece of ginger – chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander

Instructions

1. Start by making your marinade.
2. Place all of the marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until you have a smooth and tasty paste.
3. Cover the pheasants, inside and out with the marinade and allow to marinate for eight to 24 hours.
4. When ready to cook, pre-heat your oven to 200c (400f) and roast the pheasants for about 30 minutes until the juice runs clear when you stick a knife in.
5. Let rest outside the oven for about ten minutes and then serve with a little more lime juice or your favourite raita.
6. You might like to double the marinade ingredients. The marinade is a delicious raita on its own.

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