Fire sticks - Pheasant style

Since my post yesterday had nothing to do with Ike, and he reminded me that the title of this is cooking with Ike not Steve I thought I should give him some time to shine. Ike is now 14 months old and a great addition to the family. Here are a couple of pictures of him with his first retrieves while in training. He was a natural. Because I had additional pheasants this year due to his training I had to find more than the traditional pot pie so I will intersperce some recipes focusing on pheasant in honor of Ike (and the fact I have so darn many of them in the freezer and had to get creative.)

Ike's training so far has consisted of pointing and retrieving raised birds as for those of you that are not familiar with Illinois hunting, the natural habitat and wild birds have disappeared due to urban Growth and increased intensity farming. Organizations like Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are grassroots organizations working on restoring the habitat and in turn the birds as well. In future posts I will share with you the exploits both culinary as well as hunting of some local sportsman's clubs.

The following recipe is for pheasant breasts but I suppose you could use chicken or turkey cutlets too... but Ike didn't point them, after all this is cooking with Ike. Enjoy!

Remove the breast of the pheasant and skin it as well
Check for shot
Soak them in saltwater for at least an hour
Cut the breast of the pheasant into strips
Marinate overnight in the following mixture:
Olive Oil
Apple Juice
Durkee Hot Sauce (or your favorite make them as hot as you like - after all it is called fire
sticks)
Couple drops of Liquid Smoke
Fresh Garlic sliced thin (this is where I think more is better)
Honey
(I add a couple slices of fresh Ginger here too-wasn't in the original recipe an old hunter gave
me but I figure it is my pheasant I can do what I want)
Prepare a dry breading of Bread crumbs (either Panko or original) cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt
Remove from marinate and dredge in the breadcrumbs and fry in 350* peanut oil until golden brown and delicious.

I tried baking them once, but honestly I didn't like them so I don't recommend that.

Great with a bbq dipping sauce, sweet and sour, or even various mustards, great finger food at a party.