Brad Prepares and Cooks Pheasant

What are we doin' here?

Who are you?

Where'd you come from?

Get out of my garden!

Hey, guys.

Today on It's Alive we're back here in Portland, Oregon.

Part one, maybe you saw,

we were out up there in the highlands

and in the desert there,

and we were doin' a little bit of pheasant chucker hunting.

The second part,

we're gonna show you how we dress the birds,

how we like to cook 'em,

some of the preparations that we do with 'em,

and then sharing it with friends.

And at the end of the day, that's kinda what it's all about.

We're gonna show you how we like to cook 'em,

so let's go see.

Let's go [bleep] see.

Who says that?

[upbeat music]

Speed. Speed.

Did you ever learn what that meant?

Nah, I have no idea.

It's better that way. Let's keep it that way.

Alright, so, Elias. Yup.

Huntin' was great.

We did super well.

[slow rock music]

I clicked the wrong trigger.

Super well, you know, but that's just half of the battle.

For most people, you go do that and then it's...

What are we doin' now?

Are we pluckin' feathers off?

What are we doin'?

We get these beautiful birds and what's next?

I mean, I've butchered a bunch of chickens,

I've even done a few, a bunch of wild birds,

but it's been a long time.

How do you feel about maybe givin' me a little

step-by-step here, you know? A tutorial

on how I would do it.

So, first off, if you've got young birds,

it's almost gonna be impossible to pluck.

An older bird, over a year, has to winter.

And at that wintertime,

they put on more fat and their skin gets more tough,

and so you're able to pluck the birds.

These young one-year-old birds

haven't had to go over a winter.

They haven't got a years worth of pluckable...

They just don't have that summer paper skin.

Somethin' like I like...

Take me for example. Right.

That little belly. Or me.

I mean, a little bit of warmth.

Yeah. They don't have that yet.

So, it's cut a little loop around the neck.

And then this is what I was tellin' you earlier,

for Utah, now, 'cause he hasn't fetched in a while,

gettin' to that joint right there

like you would a chicken wing.

Find it [popping] pop through it.

That, you said it like a chicken wing.

I mean, it is...

It's a bird. Same build.

So, it's got the same kind of anatomy.

Yup, exactly.

Cut it at the joint.

Got that little break right there.

[mumbling]

Let me start with the neck.

So, you just cut a little incision.

[Elias] Gorgeous.

[Brad] Okay.

Okay, yeah, we're free. Can you get your hand

around the whole thing? Yup, we're good.

Awesome. Clear.

Then we clip the wings. Good, clip the wings.

So, you whip it in and you raid on that this joint?

Yeah, right there.

That joint right there. On the inside.

So, just do a little cut through up

and then shine that little joint.

[Elias] Go ahead and give it the old...

[Brad] The old right there, Fred?

[Elias] Oh, god, I'm talkin, that you just can't teach.

[laughing]

[Brad] Pretty sure you can, but thank you.

[Elias] Gorgeous.

God, aren't they pretty?

I mean, look at that.

Vinny, I'll mount that on a piece of maple

for you to hang it on your wall.

Alright, where are we at?

We're on the legs. Go to the leg.

It's kinda brutal.

We snappin?

You're gonna break it.

Where are you goin, right at the knee?

Right at the knee.

See how that exposed? Just kinda pops open.

Okay, alright. Tail feathers.

Oh, so we're just grabbin' tail feathers.

Pull the tail feathers.

You chokin' up?

Where you grabbin?

Just get, yeah, get up in there 'cause those are nice,

epic fly fishing tying stuff.

Oh, right off.

Right for the kids.

Man. Look what dad brought home

to the big city.

Huh?

I mean, that's beautiful stuff.

[Elias] That's gorgeous.

Alright, Vinny, dip it in a little ink.

I'll write you a love letter, no problem.

You know, somethin' nice.

Alright, cool. And this is the easy part,

which is kind of baffling.

You're gonna hold the bird By the?

by the neck.

You're gonna release the skin.

Oh, it kinda just wants to come off.

Kinda wants to come off.

Then, that's why...

You know, you get these people that don't...

They just take the breast meat out.

You go on YouTube and there's people that are

standing on their birds and just taking out the breast meat,

and there's the best part of the birds are all the carcass,

all the leg meat, all the chewy stuff in the middle.

Just work your way around it, slowly but surely pull on it.

How you doin?

[mumbling] It's moving.

Yeah.

Yeah, if you're not usin' the whole bird,

What are you doing? you're doin' it wrong.

[Elias] Yeah, exactly.

[Brad] I mean, I'm already thinkin' about trying,

making stock out of it, what's out of the leftover body.

That's the kind of the best way I tell people.

Make sure that you know how to preserve 'em,

and that's we'll do.

Confit is the oldest way to preserve meat

and is also the easiest way to make game bird

taste amazing.

Look at that.

Vin, I'll make you a hat.

Now, look, so it looks like...

I mean, at the end of the day, we did shoot these animals.

So, they're shot in there. They're shot in there.

That's part of it. I mean, that's just a...

That's a bruise.

Yeah, that's just blood from...

That was surprisingly easy.

Now, what do you got in the middle of those, though?

We ain't done. No, we still go the guts.

Got the guts.

But look at all that meat, Vinny, get in here.

[Elias] Look at this.

That's a lot of meat.

[Brad] It's a lot of meat.

You know what I mean?

Those legs. I mean,

if you're just cuttin' of the breast?

I mean, look at...

I mean, what's one of the best parts of the chicken?

The thighs, the drumstick. The thigh, the legs,

and these legs have been workin, right?

These birds, you saw 'em fly.

Those things can haul.

These breasts have meat.

Lean meat. This is actual muscle.

You see people out there that are just takin'

these two inches of meat out of these birds.

Not to mention all the flavor

you're gonna get out of the broth.

So, we take the legs like you do, break it [cracking]

Alright, pop the hips.

Pop the hips.

Jess is gettin' us some water.

That was actually quite easy.

Gotta break it all the way open.

Yeah, and then remove?

[Elias] Yeah, you're gonna get...

You don't have to, but... We're just openin' it up?

[Elias] Yeah, just gettin' her open right now.

Go ahead and cut that little thing very gently.

Alright.

Now, when you get into the guts,

the internal organs, you don't...

There's a reason why, I mean,

you don't really wanna introduce that to...

You wanna kinda keep that all in tact,

right? Yup, it's taint.

So, if you were to...

If you weren't to instantly pull these out,

let's say you got home and you're feelin' super duper lazy

and you didn't wanna go to this part,

A, you're a bad human being

'cause you're gonna waste this meat.

So, first and foremost,

you gotta get these guts outta there.

If you do gut shot one of these and all those

innards just starts Endives and...

gettin' spread around the meat,

this meat will taste like the gamiest thing.

You hear a lot of people sayin' they don't like wild meat

because of that, right? Because it wasn't

cleaned and handled properly.

Yeah, it tastes all gamey

is the word it is. It makes sense.

Yeah, 'cause you left the pooper in there

and then it started tasting like, well, pooper.

Okay, so you opened, you went this way, too.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, so you're perfect right now,

and then we can go ahead and pull that all the way back.

And then inside there you got all your stuff.

[Brad] So, look right here, we got the heart.

[Elias] Yup, heart.

[Brad] So, we're removing all that.

Yup, pullin' it out. And this is all done

by finger, right? Yup.

Just pull it straight from the start,

work your way back.

It's kinda gnarly.

I mean, but you know, you say it's gnarly, right?

And then, yes, I agree, but at the same time,

if you're going to the supermarket

and you're gettin' your chicken,

this is happening on the scale of millions

An hour. A day,

an hour, yeah.

So, when you put it in that perspective,

I really don't mind doing the dirty work.

[Elias] No, this is what somebody's doing

to every piece of bird you've ever ate in a mass scale,

and this is... Right.

You're just not seeing it.

[Elias] Exactly.

Alright, cool.

Hey, look at that. Yeah, look at that doll, eh?

Full of stones. [mumbling]

So, they eat the stones and that grinds it up,

pures it out. Pick up little pebbles.

That makes it grind and makes it edible

so they can eat the seeds and then break it down.

It's pretty crazy. Yeah, very.

[Elias] Good talk.

Now, is there anything you can do with this?

I mean, It seems like it'd be Yeah, sear up the livers.

great catfish bait or something.

Yeah, we're gonna get the livers outta there.

You can sear those up.

And now we're gonna break it down

for pieces to confit or stew.

Beautiful.

You know, there is a fragrant right now, a fragrance,

but it's kinda good.

Oh, it smells delicious. It smells delicious.

Yeah, sagey. Exactly.

It smells like the sage brush.

It smells like where that animal was at.

[Brad] So, this we're just removing?

Yeah, then I like to slide the knife through,

get in the spine there, break it right down the middle.

[mumbles] that shotgun shell.

You know, that pattern we were talkin' about

in the first episode.

This is one of the BBs that is eventually,

essentially, the bullet.

I mean, this is...

I mean, at this point,

you can really just kinda do what you want.

Chicken. You can kinda treat it

like a chicken. Yeah, get it to

a chicken breast.

I mean, this would be a cool thing to roast whole.

Yeah, we'll do some of those.

Yeah, we'll get the fire goin'

and we'll grill up some breast.

This is just a way to preserve it.

So, if you don't have time to get to it,

you're goin' into your work week,

like you don't have time. Sure, now, at this stage,

say you butcher everything,

how do you feel about puttin' a vacuum seal on 'em

and freezin' 'em?

Totally fine.

Great if you have that idea.

This is for people that are just don't have that capacity,

but wanna preserve the boar, birds.

And don't go throwin' this away.

I mean, you can probably lop the head off.

The head is, yeah. Do what you wanna do

with that.

I mean, that's primo stock making stuff.

So, we got the two legs. Right, yeah.

Breast meat. Yup.

[Elias] Got the neck.

This was the wing, the other one was shot, unfortunately,

and then that's the spine.

Obviously not a lot of meat on those.

But there's some! Stock.

Yeah, oh, yeah.

Now, confit, for folks that don't know, what is confit?

Confit is, Matt, they're meat, Matt.

Pretty good. Yeah.

Meat preserved in fat.

Usually, it has to be its own fat,

but I like to use duck fat with these

'cause it's really hard to go out and find

a bunch of pheasant fat. Right, traditionally,

it is in its own fat.

It's in its own fat or in lard.

What you're doin' is you're...

You salt the meat and you spice it and you season it.

So, we'll just take this all in there.

Alright, put that in there.

How many pounds did that weigh?

If I had to guess, I'd probably say maybe two and a third.

So, two and a third, so two teaspoons.

That's what?

Two and a half. There we go.

So, that's it right there.

Gonna add that salt, a little black pepper.

That's nice right there. Beautiful.

Take some herbs.

I like to kinda break them up.

You did that, what,

so you bruise them? Just kinda get 'em all

movin' up, and you're gonna Yeah, open 'em up.

pick it up.

I mean, that's a beautiful thing.

It's gorgeous, gorgeous.

[Brad] I mean, what'd that take, 10 minutes?

10 minutes, and then you sit that in your fridge,

go to work, talk about how bad your boss sucks.

My boss is great.

[laughing]

Great catch, bud.

[laughing]

These birds, they're goin' into a bag.

Two days in the fridge.

For the sake of time, we have...

They got people

that are gonna eat. You guys started one ready.

So, what do we got in here?

[Elias] This is duck fat.

Do you sear the meat first?

No. No.

So, what you do is I bring my...

In the pot, I bring it up to room temperature,

and then once it's hot, I would just place my raw confited,

marinated, cured pheasant into the duck fat.

Room temp duck fat.

Melted. Right, melted.

Melted, melted duck fat,

and then you're gonna put the lid on it,

throw it in your oven.

If your oven's busy,

just keep it... What temp, low and slow?

Probably like 200. Oh, 200, alright.

Ain't nothin' supposed to cook in my life.

Nothing's supposed to boil.

Nice slow and low. I like that.

And now, how long...

Okay, so you cook this, 200 degrees in the oven.

How long?

'Til it's tender?

I start checkin' it in an hour.

Oh, okay, really?

Things happen fast. Yeah, exactly.

'Cause these are small little chunks of bird,

you know what I mean? Right, right.

And you're gonna know it's done...

What do you got there?

See what I'm saying?

Okay, wow, it's fallin' off the bone.

[Elias] Falls of the bone.

And the thing is is you get a little leeway

'cause you're cookin it

In fat. in super decadent fat.

That thing's gonna be the moistest...

Well, you kinda way to, too, because these birds,

they aren't some Overfed...

Corn fed beef or something, you know what I mean?

These things are lean and mean athletes, essentially.

Like you.

And you. A lot of people

say that, right?

Oh, I've seen the oyster episode, but...

[laughing]

What do you think?

Oh, man.

I mean, come on.

It's kinda what chicken wishes it'd taste like.

[Elias] Oh, so much flavor.

That's so good.

It's just flavorful.

It's got a depth to it. Chicken plus.

It's not just a bland white protein.

You've eaten so many chicken thighs.

And don't get me wrong,

a beautiful chicken has a lot of flavor too,

but right there you're getting...

God, if you taste it just by itself,

a little juniper, black pepper.

What do you got goin' on there?

So, you cooked it, it's tender, it's in the fat.

How do you feel about storing it,

and can you chill that and keep it as is?

Get that goin' hot. There you go, fuego.

Oh, so we're gonna pick...

We're gonna crisp 'em up.

We're gonna crisp some of 'em up

and then we'll make a rillette,

and so you can try the little crunchy bits too.

Oh, meow.

Now, how long can us store that in the fat

in the fridge? Just like this?

Three months. Three months.

As long as oxygen...

So, you're keepin' oxygen away from the meat.

In the fat. In the fat.

And so, the fat's giving it a tough.

It's not getting to go sour.

No problem melting the fat, taking some meat out,

or would you just pull it out cold?

So, I do that all the time.

I heat it up, put it back, cool it off,

heat it off, put it back, cool it off.

Pretty sick stuff.

I don't know. Man.

If you get sick, don't go callin' me.

No, we're cool.

Oh, yeah, that's it.

[Elias] Yeah, get some of those, get some crispy stuff.

Right, we'll do two. So, now this is...

Essentially, we're just crispin' up confit pheasant.

So, then the regular rillette making...

Now, what is rillette?

Rillette is when you shred it.

Take it off the bone and then it's a spreadable pate.

That's the one you wanna put, oh.

Oh. Hello.

So, you're gonna pull this half off.

See, it's gonna fall off the bone, all that goodness.

[mumbles] wild birds like turkeys, right?

They run, so you're getting all these...

Oh, look at that little buddy

that wants to hang out Beat it, yellow jacket.

[Elias] with ya.

And then, so we shredded this

off the bone. We got it off the bone.

And now what?

It looks like you're about to chop that up.

Yeah, I'm gonna go, but I don't like it over pureed.

And also, with this,

since it is a wild bird and we definitely shot these birds,

we gotta check for some shot. There's gonna be some...

[Elias] And so, as you're goin through it,

just start, just chop, boom, boom, boom.

[Brad] Now, these days, so what's the shot made of?

Water preserve, you should always shoot steel

because it goes into the water,

and you put lead into the water, that's bad.

They fly a little slower,

don't have as much knock down on it,

but it's better for the ground, the Earth, and the world.

So, once it's all chopped up,

we're gonna move the meat into the bowl.

Throw it in. What do you got there?

Oh, god, now we're talkin'.

That's epic timing.

Some things you just can't teach.

Drizzle it.

You know what I'm a big fan of doing

when you get to this point?

[Brad] A little salt on top?

A little salt, pepper, and you got some,

maybe some herb or whatever.

Sprinkle that all over the top a little bit.

[Brad] I mean, how easy is that?

[Elias] Take you like 10 seconds.

[Brad] Boy, that looks good, huh?

I don't suck.

Oh my god.

Oh.

[Elias] It's a little spread,

and that's in your fridge for whenever.

You know what I mean? I could eat that every day.

Look at that, it's hot. Oh, man.

Elias approves.

Little more, or that's pretty nice?

You just can't teach that.

You think it's gonna be crispy?

Confit, fantastic.

We made the raclette.

Raclette? I mean, that's a home run

derby right there. Raclette?

Raclette, that's what I said.

Rillette.

What'd I say, rillette?

Raclette.

What'd I say? The cheese.

What did I say?

Raclette. I said raclette?

Oh my god.

It's perfect. Oh, it's perfect.

So moist, so tender.

Oh my god.

Let's get some onion on there.

You could literally put that over anything.

Throw that in your taco, throw it on your salad,

put that over rice, a little pasta, whatever you wanna do.

I say this, you can preserve any meat you shoot this way.

And you have either pate that's spreadable on bread

or this little crispy stuff.

Toss that, crisp that up and toss it in any salad.

[Brad] You can put that on any menu.

I agree, yeah.

Come over.

Come over, let's have some dinner.

I mean, once you have, you break down, you clean the bird,

at that point, you can kinda just treat it as a chicken.

And you can really do anything with it.

We have a few things going.

We showed you a really cool technique that we like.

I'd love to hear how you guys like to cook

with certain wild game.

Anything you'd like to add about these bad boys?

God, I just wanna eat.

I'm sorry, it's so good.

Alright, Vince, what...

So, now you want me...

Should we just go in?

You know, at the end of the day, it's just,

it's bringing you back to your food.

And it's not for everyone, and I have no problem with that,

but for me, it's a great alternative to just goin' in,

gettin' conventionally farmed food and stuff.

I mean, Absolutely.

I think there's a lot of disconnect from food,

and havin' experiences like this and friends like you

really can just help you dive back into it.

It's so fun.

It's a truly special thing.

Thank you again for sharing

your world with us You're the best.

and havin' us at your home. Anytime.

Thanks for joining, guys.

Bon appetit.

We'll do that again.

That's pretty good, though.

[Brad] Don't overthink it.

What are we doin?

I have no idea. Outro?

Yeah.

So, we just showed you guys how we like to...

Elias showed me his way of breaking down whole

wild game birds.

Super easy, super approachable.

Don't be intimidated by it.

If you do get in that situation,

I'm sure there's another YouTube video

that can show you how to do that,

or just watch this one.

[chuckling]

And rewind.

I'm sure about seven minutes back

they'll show you how to do that,

and I'd really like to dedicate this episode

to my dad, okay?

Taught me how to bird hunt, taught me a respect for nature,

respect for the animal.

We don't just kill things just to kill 'em.

It's not about that for me, and I hope it's not for you.

It's more about providing good meals,

good, solid, clean protein for your family,

and making friends and havin' a good time doin' it.

This one's for you, dad.

Thank you, and it's also your birthday, so bon appetit.

I'm gettin' emotional.

Ah, Vince, move no further.

Nah, I'm mistaken, we got some blueberries.

He's got a great garden.

Alright, life goals, Vince.

If you look behind ya, alright,

Halloween's right around the corner.

I know you like that.

Got some pumpkins, wonderful.

Tomatoes.

What the freak is this?

Like a giant patty pan.

God, Vinny, what are we doing livin' in New York City?

Oh, look, row of corn, Vince.

Knee high by the Fourth of July, boy.

You nailed it.

Oh, we got a fig tree, Vince.

It's like the freakin' Garden of Eden.

Off the record,

I am definitely cutting its [bleep] hole out.

[laughing]

Get that tail off there.

Tail, sure, we'll call it that.

[upbeat music]