Birds With A Feather

This year, my Handsome Man took his work crew out pheasant hunting for a day.  He had a great time and when he came home he had a few clean pheasants to throw in the freezer.  I didn't really give them a second thought until the other night he pulled them out of the freezer and asked if I'd make them for him.  Mmmmm kay.  No biggie.  Like, chicken... right?  Apparently not.  I knew that pheasants were a bit dryer than chicken but that if cooked correctly, they could be delicious.  So I did what I do when I'm a bit unsure about how to prepare something... I head to Google, look at recipes, take what I can from that and create my own. 
I was totally ready.  I planned to inject the whole pheasant with delicious flavor (using an old family recipe I use for turkey) and then roast them in the oven.  However, when I took them out of the bags I noticed they were cleaned of skin AND had been cut up.  My plan kinda went out the window so I had to come up with something different.  While I thought, I rinsed the pheasant and noticed something I just seriously can NOT handle.  A feather.  A freaking FEATHER, you guys!  There were a few dark feathers stuck to them!  NOOOOO!  It totally ruined my whole, "I'm gonna try this" mood.  I reluctantly picked off the few feathers, made a couple gagging sounds and told myself I better make one hell of a side dish because I certainly wasn't going to eat that pheasant!
Feather picking aside, the rest of the experience went smoother than I thought.  I used part of a recipe that I've had for years for crockpot chicken wings and I'm telling you... it was AWESOME.  I think it would have been even better had I had the time to marinade them for awhile before baking, so if you choose to do that, great.  If not, this recipe is perfect as is.  I HAD to try it since I made it.  I was just completely surprised by the fact it tasted incredible and that I grabbed myself seconds.
My husband was throwing out the praise left and right so I knew that I definitely had to share this recipe with you.  I'm looking forward to fall when he goes pheasant hunting again and I already asked him to bring home double what he did this year.  Because what's better than sharing a new fav with friends?  I also learned that you don't need to hide pheasant in soups or stews (which is what I found most recipes did with it)... you can make it the star of the meal if cooked properly.  Very good!

Here's what you need to make this phenomenal pheasant:

*2-3 pheasants, cleaned, cut and skin off

*1/2 cup white sugar

*3/4 cup kikkomen soy sauce (use low sodium if you prefer)

*1/2 cup water

*1/2 teas garlic powder

Set your oven to 350.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray and place pheasant down in a single layer.  Whisk together sugar, soy sauce, water and garlic powder.  Pour mixture over the pheasant and bake for 45 minutes, flipping the meat every 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes or so.  Serve as whole pieces or slice the meat off and drizzle juices from the bottom of the baking dish all over the meat.  Or you can serve the meat with little bowls of pan juice for dipping.  ENJOY!

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