Char Siu Pheasant Ramen: the Pheasant Cup 2020 winning recipe

This char siu pheasant ramen is a great way of cooking and serving pheasant. It is perfect for these colder, wintery nights too.

For the pheasant marinade:

• Two pheasant breasts (if cooking for one person)
• BBQsauce or char siu sauce
• 1 tbs of honey
• Chilli sauce (optional)
• Dash of apple cider vinegar

Other ingredients:

• 1/2 bunch spring onion, pale part thinly sliced, dark green part shredded
• Ramen noodles
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 2 baby bok choy, quartered lengthways
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2cm piece ginger, finely chopped

For the broth:

• Pheasant carcass for boiling (you could just use pheasant stock if just purchasing only pheasant breasts)
• Chicken stock x2 cubes (you could swap this for pheasant stock, if not boiling a carcass but I would still add at least one chicken stock cube)
• 2 roughly chopped garlic cloves and 2 roughly chopped ginger pieces. The jarred stuff is equally as good.
• 2 Kaffir Lime leaves
• Dash of hot chilli sauce
• Drizzle of honey
• Dash of soy
• Squirt of bbq sauce
• 1 small red chilli, sliced lengthways

Start on the broth

After removing the breasts, remove the legs and set aside for another meal- fried pheasant legs perhaps? Place pheasant carcass in pot of boiling water and allow the boiling water to break it down. Add salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients.

I kept the pot on the hob for about 3 hours, gradually reducing the heat and stirring the ingredients routinely. If you don't have as much time on your hands, allow 30 mins at least. Add any additional ingredients as you see fit, tasting as you go along.

Once this process is complete, be sure to sieve the broth into a new pot ensuring that any bones and larger ingredients are filtered out. You want to be left with as smoother broth as possible. Put broth to one side, on very low heat. Should you feel you need more water, add it.

Marinade

While this is going on, marinate the pheasant breasts for at least 15 minutes before cooking (you could of course do this the night before, longer is better).

Make the marinade by adding a generous squirt of bbq sauce and all the other ingredients into one marinade. You are aiming for a hot but sweet taste. Add the breasts to the marinade and put in the fridge.

I also marinated some sliced pork belly to add to mine, though this is optional (it worked really nicely, but if you do add pork, please keep the two meats separate as they require separate cooking times).

Then

Once your broth is ready, heat 1 tbs peanut/ sesame oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the sliced spring onion, garlic and ginger, then cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.

Add the stock, soy and fish sauces. Bring to a simmer, then add the noodles and bok choy. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes until tender. Remove from heat. Cover and keep warm.

In another pan, add the pheasant breasts skin side down to a hot pan (take them out the fridge about 15 minutes prior to frying). Fry for roughly 3 minutes on each side being careful not overcook. If adding pork belly, cook the pork belly strips off first and set aside before moving onto the pheasant. You can combine both meats once they are cooked.

Once your meats are cooked, boil the egg and aim for a runny yolk. Slice the yolk in half, long ways.

Serve up in a deep bowl adding the noodles, choi and broth first. Add additional spring onions for decorative purposes (chilli too if you wish) and then add the meat as if it sitting on top of the noodles and broth. Add the egg then too. Sprinkle over some sesame seeds if you have any to hand.

Enjoy!