Game Bird Recipes

Val’s Crispy Pheasant Schnitzel

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Breaded pheasant schnitzel topped with a fried egg, anchovy butter, capers and pickled walnuts on a serving plate

This is one of my favourite ways to cook pheasant. The breasts are flattened, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in butter and oil until crisp. Keep the rest of the bird for stock.

A fried egg goes on top, followed by a butter sauce with anchovies, capers, lemon and parsley. Pickled walnut adds another sharp note. Have everything ready before you start frying so you can get it to the table whilst the coating is still crisp.

For a whole-bird recipe, try George’s Roast Pheasant with Cabbage, Bacon & Marsala.

Serves: 2

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Method

  1. Remove the breasts and skin from the pheasant (the rest of the bird will make an excellent stock).
  2. Place each breast between two sheets of baking parchment and flatten gently with a rolling pin until about ½ to ¾ cm thick.
  3. Tip the flour onto a plate, add the salt and mix. In a bowl, beat together the mustard and two of the eggs. Pour the breadcrumbs into a shallow tray.
  4. Dredge the breasts in the seasoned flour, patting off any excess. Dip each one thoroughly into the mustard-egg mixture, then coat well in the breadcrumbs — make sure there are no gaps in what will become the crispy coating.
  5. Prepare your parsley, garlic and capers so they’re ready to go.
  6. Heat the olive oil and 25g of the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Once foaming, add the breaded pheasant breasts and cook for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Adjust the heat if necessary to avoid burning the butter.
  7. As you turn the pheasant to cook the second side, fry two eggs in a separate pan with a little olive oil so they’re ready at the same time.
  8. Transfer the cooked pheasant breasts to two warm plates and top each with a fried egg.
  9. Working quickly, melt the remaining butter in the same pan you used for the pheasant. When foaming, stir in the anchovies and capers, and grate in the lemon zest.
  10. Meanwhile, slice the pickled walnuts.
  11. Once the anchovies have broken down, stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Squeeze in the lemon juice and let it bubble briefly. Lay a few slices of pickled walnut over each plate and finish with a good grind of black pepper.
  12. Finally, stir the chopped parsley into the butter sauce and spoon generously over the crispy pheasant, fried eggs and pickled walnuts. Serve at once.

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Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer, broadcaster and business owner with a deep-rooted interest in nature, travel and provincial food. He describes his cooking style as “International Grandmother,” blending a strong sense of storytelling with an infectious love of cookery.

Val has a deep respect for ingredients, both wild and cultivated, and an instinctive ability to turn whatever’s available into something hearty, wholesome and satisfying. A firm advocate of native food sources, he shares common ground with Swaledale in championing meat that is flavourful, ethical and high welfare.

Originally trained as a portrait painter, Val has authored five cookbooks, run his own catering company, and is co-owner of Taqueria, a well-loved Mexican café in West London. He is also a partner in Hepple Distillery in Northumberland and Holmen Lofoten, a hotel on Arctic Norway’s Lofoten islands.