The rich and creamy pheasant dish is sure to become a fast favorite for the entire family. (Photo By: Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley)
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My cousin-in-laws Keith and Jo Ann Brown are the epitome of the old-school, American home cooks. Although in their 80s, they still host the extended family on major holidays, whipping out classics they could do in their sleep. For a long time, before my husband, Rick, and I moved from Southern California to Nebraska, Rick always stayed at the Browns’ whenever he flew out to hunt. I got to come along during those last couple years, and I look back on those days fondly. So many years later and I think Keith and Jo Ann’s cooking was just as memorable as the hunting up there and shooting my first Nebraska deer. Favorites included chicken and homemade noodles, mulberry pie, fried walleye, the best broccoli casserole ever—and man, oh, man, they knew how to make a proper turkey gravy. Needless to say, I never left the Browns’ hungry—no one left the Browns’ hungry.
As warm and welcoming as Keith and Jo Ann have always been to me, sharing their cooking was the ultimate act of Nebraska hospitality. Here’s a recipe inspired by one of those visits: pheasant with homemade egg noodles. The gravy is to die for, and if you’re a true Midwesterner, you’d eat this over mashed potatoes—because starch on starch is just how people roll out here.
Pheasant and Egg Noodles Recipe Yield: 4 servings Prep Time: 1 hour Cook Time: 2 hours
Main Ingredients:
4 to 6 pheasant breasts (and wings, optional) Sea salt, to taste 4 pats salted butter 1 tsp. fresh sage, minced ¼ tsp. dried thyme ¼ tsp. dried rosemary ¼ tsp. white pepper ¼ tsp. paprika 2 cups low-sodium chicken/game stock Half an onion 1 carrot, quartered 1 rib of celery, quartered 1 tbs. chopped parsley Cream of Chicken Ingredients:
4 tbs. salted butter ½ cup all-purpose flour 2 cups low-sodium chicken/game stock 3 tsp. Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base ¼ heaping tsp. celery seed ¼ heaping tsp. onion salt ¼ heaping tsp. garlic powder 1 cup whole milk, warmed Egg Noodles Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra 1 tsp. sea salt (not coarse) 2 eggs 2 egg yolks only ¼ cup whole milk If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can make the dough by hand. (Photo By: Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley) Egg Noodle Directions:
To make the dough, combine 1 tsp. of salt and 2 cups of flour in a stand mixer. Then make a well in the middle and add the 2 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs. With the hook attachment, turn the mixer on low to incorporate. Then, slowly add the milk and knead until the dough comes together into a ball, about 3 minutes. It should be slightly sticky; if needed, add more flour or milk a little bit at a time. Next, turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it’s no longer sticky, about a minute. Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. You should end up with about 1 pound of dough. Cream of Chicken Directions:
In a medium-large saucepan over medium heat, melt 4 tbs. of butter and allow to foam for a few seconds. Then add ½ cup of flour and whisk for 2 minutes; it will look dry and pebbly. Next, slowly add chicken or game stock, whisking constantly, to form a smooth roux. Then stir in remaining ingredients, adding the warmed milk slowly while whisking. Bring to a simmer and cook until you get a thick, smooth sauce, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Adjust heat accordingly to prevent scorching the bottom. Take off heat.
Cooking Directions:
Preheat oven to 300° Fahrenheit. Move oven rack to the lower third. In a medium-size Dutch oven, add pheasant in one layer and sprinkle with salt. Pour the cream of chicken over the pheasant, along with 4 pats of butter, sage, thyme, rosemary, white pepper, and paprika. Then stir in 2 cups of stock, carrot, celery and onion. Bring to a simmer. Close the lid and transfer the pot to a preheated oven, and cook for 1-2 hours, or until pheasant is tender. Thirty minutes into cooking the pheasant, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Wrap one piece while you work with the other dusting the rolling pin with flour and rolling out dough thinly, about ¼ inch. Use a pizza cutter to slice dough into 3-inch-long noodles. You can cut your noodles as thinly or thickly as you like; they will expand when cooked. Dust with flour to prevent sticking. To prevent the noodles from clumping together, quickly add each noodle separately into the boiling water rather than dumping them in all at once. Stir and cook for three minutes. Take Dutch oven off the oven. With a skimmer, scoop out the cooked noodles from the boiling water, allowing excess water to drain, and stir noodles into the pheasant and gravy. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Return the Dutch oven back into oven and continue cooking until pheasant is tender. When done, cut pheasant into bite size pieces, and then return it to the pot. Discard onion, carrot, and celery. Stir in chopped parsley and season to taste. Serve by itself or over hot mashed potatoes.