Easy Flatbread Pheasant Pizza with Alabama White Sauce
This Easy Pheasant Pizza is your answer to how to cook pheasant. Topped with Alabama White Sauce, it's our favorite flatbread pizza recipe!I created this pheasant pizza in my search for a new pheasant recipe using the legs and thighs. People are always asking me how to cook pheasant legs and thighs instead of throwing them away for the coyotes. If you only kept the pheasant breasts from your birds this past season, I still want you to try this pizza. So I listed directions on how to make pheasant pizza with just the breasts. And while I plan to post more classical ways to show off this beautiful bird on a plate, I came up with this pheasant pizza recipe to try and mix things up from our traditional family pizza night we do on most Friday evenings. I'm always trying to brainstorm on how to get my wife and daughter to eat more of the ring-necked pheasant out of our freezer. I occasionally crave BBQ Chicken Pizza, but the girls can't stand it. I figured I would try my favorite white sauce instead (Alabama white sauce). It was a big hit, and many of our friends and family have used this flatbread pizza recipe with Alabama white sauce and sent me messages on how much they enjoyed it. I hope you do too!ALABAMA WHITE SAUCEI was born in North Carolina and lived there until my dad got transferred to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. If you've ever lived in the South, you know that BBQ, and the sauce that's served with it, is a matter of regional pride. Most folks like to serve Alabama white sauce with smoked or grilled chicken, but I've used this versatile condiment to jazz up everything from venison, duck, and pheasant.If you ever attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, it's highly likely you ate at the Red Pepper sometime after midnight. If so, you are familiar with their white sauce – Alabama white sauce. This mayonnaise-based sauce would have been drizzled on top of your turkey grinder with taco meat, tostada, or the famous Garbage Plate.WHAT IS A PHEASANT?A pheasant is about the size of a chicken. The average pheasant weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and will yield about 1 pound of meat if you keep the breasts, bone-in legs, thighs, and wings. Each breast only weighs about 4 ounces, so about 1/2 pound of breast meat per bird.To learn more about pheasant habitat and conservation issues, check out this great article from Project Upland.HOW TO COOK PHEASANT BREAST FOR THE PHEASANT PIZZA1. Tenderize each pheasant breast on a cutting board with a Jaccard meat tenderizer. If you don't have one yet, put each pheasant breast in between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound them with a rubber mallet or meat mallet. 2. In a cast iron skillet, sauté pheasant breasts for 3 minutes on one side and about 2 minutes on the other. Try not to overcook them! Use a meat thermometer to try and get them at a perfect 145 degrees F. Transfer cooked pheasant breasts to a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut into bite size pieces. Or using your fingers or two forks, shred the pheasant meat and set aside. HOW TO COOK PHEASANT LEGS AND THIGHS FOR THE PHEASANT PIZZACOME PHEASANT HUNTING IN NORTH DAKOTAIf you would like to visit North Dakota for some amazing pheasant hunting, check out the ND Game and Fish website here. You'll find all the information you need on the upcoming North Dakota pheasant season and how to obtain a North Dakota hunting license.MORE UPLAND BIRD RECIPESIf you are looking for another great way on how to cook pheasant or other upland birds, check out some more of our favorite recipes:– Buffalo Pheasant Dip– Pheasant Pot Pie– Pheasant Florentine– Pheasant Tacos– Grouse and Wild Rice Soup– Pheasant Salad with Grape– Gnocchi and Pheasant Soup– Pheasant GumboOr check out all my Upland Birds and Small Game Recipes here.CONNECT WITH ME AND JOIN OUR WILD GAME COOKING COMMUNITYDid you make this Flatbread Pheasant Pizza with Alabama White Sauce? I’d love for you to join our community and connect with me so we can all see pics of this dish and all of your wild game and fish creations. Be sure to snap a picture of your finished dish and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #wildgameandfish and tagging me @wildgameandfishDid you enjoy this Pheasant Pizza Recipe? Be sure to leave a 5-star rating RIGHT HERE!
Ingredients
Pheasant Pizza Ingredients
- 6 pheasant legs and thighs (from 3 birds)
- 2 teaspoons koshers salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 4 strips bacon
- 2 4-ounce Naan flatbreads
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
- 1/2 cup your favorite shredded cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
- 4 green onions, chopped
Alabama White BBQ Sauce Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp water
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp hot sauce
Instructions
Alabama White Sauce
- Stir together mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, water, Worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and hot sauce in a small bowl. Serve immediately or keep in fridge for up to 3 days.
Pheasant Pizza
- Season the pheasant legs with 1 teaspoon of the kosher salt.
- Set instant pot or other pressure cooker to sauté setting. Add oil. Once the oil is hot, add the pheasant legs, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until meat is nicely browned.
- Add chicken broth to the pressure cooker. Now secure lid on the pressure cooker and pressure cook for 30 minutes. Then allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes.
- Reserve all the liquid and transfer it to a bowl to use for a pheasant soup another day. Then allow the pheasant meat and bones to rest and cool for 10 minutes before pulling the meat off the bones using your fingers or tongs. Discard the bones and tendons and transfer the meat to a bowl and save for later. You can cook and shred the pheasant meat a day or two in advance, then cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
- Pull out the bacon from the fridge about 15 minutes before cooking. At room temperature, bacon just cooks up better (just like steak).
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon over medium heat. Turn the strips of bacon as needed until they reach the desired crispness, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain well on a paper-towel-lined platter.
- Place the naan flatbreads onto a rimmed baking sheet. Spread 1 tablespoon of butter on each flatbread and sprinkle each evenly with 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder. Divide the shredded cheese between the two flatbreads and spread evenly. Bake in the preheated oven until the flatbreads are golden and the cheese is melted, about 8 minutes.
- Take flatbreads out of oven and place on the cutting board. Spread pheasant and cooked bacon crumbles evenly between the 2 flatbreads. Drizzle the Alabama white sauce over each one, and garnish with chopped green onions.
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