Slow Cooked Pheasant Paella

Paellas and risottos are some of our favourite meals, in fact the first dish I ever cooked for Lucy was a paella. I love the versatility of them and over the years we’ve experimented with many different flavours.

Lucy has grown up eating a lot of pheasant, usually supplied freshly shot from friends of the family. She’s always recalled the times where she would leave for work in the morning to be greeted by a bunch of pheasants hanging outside the front door! Nowadays we get various game supplied via her Dad, who very kindly prepares them for us too.

We decided to make a pheasant paella after trying an excellent rabbit one during our trip to Las Vegas last year. As pheasant legs in particular can have a reputation of going very dry if slightly overcooked, we decided to slow cook it to keep the meat as succulent as possible. Using this method had another advantage too as we used the slow cooking liquid to make the paella, giving it a really rich, gamey taste.

Slow Cooked Pheasant Paella

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 6 hours hrs

Total Time 6 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

Slow Cooked Pheasant

• 6 pheasant legs
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 carrot
• 1 l chicken stock
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp thyme

Paella

• 200 g paella rice
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 1 red pepper (chopped)
• 75 g chorizo (chopped into small chunks)
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 10 cherry tomatoes (chopped in to halves)
• 2-3 handfuls peas
• pinch saffron

Instructions

 

• Chop the celery and carrots into small pieces. Add the pheasant legs, vegetables and chicken stock to a slow cooker along with some rosemary and thyme. Slow cook the meat for at least 6 hours.
• When the pheasant is cooked remove it from the slow cooker. The meat should fall off the bone. Shred it into pieces, making sure to remove any small bones and sinew.
• Strain the chicken stock and vegetable mixture through a sieve. Discard the vegetables. Add a pinch of saffron and mix so it dissolves into the stock.
• Start the paella. Fry the chorizo, onions and peppers in a little oil for 5-10 minutes. Then add the finely chopped garlic and cook for a further minute.
• Now add the rice and mix in. Add the stock a ladle at a time until the rice starts to become soft. Then add the chopped tomatoes, followed by the peas a few minutes later.
• Mix in the pheasant meat, season the paella to your liking and serve.

Tip:
Try using different game in your paella or even mixing game and seafood.