Pheasant Casserole with Bacon and Cider

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large ovenproof casserole dish with a lid, cast iron or heavy enamelled, big enough to hold everything without stacking
• •Wooden spoon
• •Sharp knife for jointing if the butcher hasn't done it for you

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the pheasant

   Season the pheasant pieces generously with salt and pepper. Heat the butter and oil together in a large casserole dish over a medium-high heat. When the butter foams and the foaming subsides, lay the pheasant pieces in, skin side down. Don't crowd the pan. Work in batches if you need to. You want the skin to go properly golden and crisp, which takes four or five minutes a side. Listen for the sizzle. If it's quiet, the pan isn't hot enough. Set the browned pieces aside on a plate.

   Ask your butcher to joint the pheasants for you. Most will do it gladly, and some sell them ready-jointed. You want two legs and two breasts from each bird. Keep the carcasses for stock if you've the freezer space.
2. 2

   Cook the bacon and vegetables

   In the same pan, with all the sticky brown bits still on the bottom, add the bacon lardons. Let them cook until the fat renders and the edges go golden and slightly crisp. It should smell like a good morning. Add the onions and celery, turn the heat down, and let everything soften together for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then. The onions should be translucent and sweet, the celery tender. Sprinkle over the flour and stir it through for a minute so it loses its raw, chalky taste.

3. 3

   Build the braise

   Pour in the cider. It will hiss and bubble and fill the kitchen with something sharp and appley. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to lift all those caramelised bits into the liquid. Let it bubble for a minute or two, then add the stock, the thyme sprigs, and the bay leaves. Nestle the pheasant legs into the liquid first. They need the most time, so they go in now. Bring everything to a gentle simmer, just a few lazy bubbles breaking the surface.

   Use a proper dry cider, the kind you'd drink on its own. Something from Somerset or Herefordshire if you can find it. Sweet cider will make the sauce cloying. You want that sharp, clean bite that proper cider has.
4. 4

   Braise slowly in the oven

   Put the lid on and transfer the casserole to an oven set to 160C/140C fan. After an hour, add the pheasant breasts to the pot, tucking them into the liquid alongside the legs. The breasts dry out faster, so they need less time. This isn't fussiness. It's the difference between meat that yields and meat that's chalky and sad. Return the lid and cook for another forty-five minutes to an hour, until the leg meat pulls away from the bone without resistance.

5. 5

   Add the apples

   Quarter and core the apples but leave the skin on. It holds them together. Twenty minutes before the casserole is ready, tuck the apple quarters into the sauce around the pheasant. They need just enough time to soften through while keeping their shape. A collapsed apple is no use here. You want something you can press a spoon through, but that still looks like an apple.

6. 6

   Finish and serve

   Lift the lid. The sauce should have reduced to something rich and glossy, somewhere between a broth and a gravy, with a colour like dark honey. If it's too thin, set the casserole on the hob and let it bubble gently, uncovered, for a few minutes. Season and taste. Then taste again. Scatter the parsley over the top and bring the whole pot to the table. Serve with mashed potato or good bread, something that will soak up every last bit of sauce, because the sauce is the point.

   If you have a splash of cream or crème fraîche in the fridge, stir it through the sauce right at the end. It rounds the cider's acidity and turns the whole thing silky. Not essential, but on a cold night, very welcome.

Chef Tips

• •Pheasant breast dries out faster than the leg. Adding it to the pot an hour after the legs is the difference between meat that's tender and succulent and meat that turns to string. It's worth the extra thought.
• •If you can't get pheasant, this works honestly well with chicken thighs on the bone. The flavour is less gamey, more familiar, but the method holds and the sauce is just as good. No apologies needed.
• •The casserole improves overnight. If you're cooking for a dinner party, make it the day before. The flavours settle and deepen in a way that an extra hour in the oven never achieves. Reheat gently with the lid on.
• •A glass of the same dry cider you cooked with is the right thing to drink alongside. The flavours answer each other across the table, and there's a quiet rightness to it that wine sometimes misses.

Advance Preparation

• •The casserole can be made a full day ahead and refrigerated overnight. The flavour deepens with sitting. Reheat gently in the oven at 150C for thirty minutes with the lid on, adding the apples fresh during reheating if you prefer them firmer.
• •The pheasants can be jointed, seasoned, and refrigerated the morning of. Bring them to room temperature for twenty minutes before browning so they take colour evenly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 340g)