Barbecue Pheasant Pizza at Home

I realize I am a dork… and I’m okay with it.

Before today, I’ve never broke down a pheasant into parts.

Yet, there I stood, squared off with a boning knife, staring down at these two birds ready to attack. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and took a stab at it. 😉 I was amazed how unfussy it actually was! My knife slid down the keel bone and voila! I removed 4 breasts and then the tenderloins! And it only took me 10 minutes! I was proud of myself and not to mention I felt pretty bad ass!

If you need or want to check out an excellent step-by-step to learn how it’s done, then look here.

So when Pat told me we had pheasants, the first thing I thought of was barbecue pizza. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of trying bbq pizza… you are so missing out! You could easily swap out the pheasant for chicken, I simply thought how cool would it be to try one of my go-to pizzas this way.

Simply sprinkle a chicken (or pheasant) breast with salt, black pepper and a little garlic powder then grill them until they’re cooked through. For pheasants, because the breasts are smaller, it took me about 3 minutes a side. But, once cooked you only need a cup of meat diced up small.

For this Barbecue Pheasant Pizza Gather:

• olive oil for pan
• pizza dough
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons cup from-scratch sweet barbecue sauce, divided
• grilled chicken or pheasant
• red onion
• cooked bacon
• brick cheese or mozzarella

Lightly grease a nonstick rimmed baking sheet. Stretch the dough to fit the prepared pan. Spread 1/4 to 1/3 cup barbecue sauce out over the dough, leaving a little bit of an “edge”. Then, sprinkle 1 cup chopped grilled pheasant (or chicken), 1/4 cup diced red onions and 4 strips cooked and crumbled pieces of bacon.

Sprinkle with 6 ounces of freshly grated brick cheese. I get mine at the deli counter.

With the remaining three tablespoons of sauce, drizzle over top of the cheese. Bake in a 415 degree oven for seven minutes, rotate the pan and cook it for five to seven more minutes.

When the time is up, remove the pizza from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. It’s hard, but try your dependable to wait.

I have no words to describe how good this pizza smells and tastes! None. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

I’m completely a corner piece kind of gal. But I have a feeling I’m going to be making this pizza a lot this fall! Who’s coming over?

Enjoy! And if you give this Barbecue Pheasant Pizza recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!