After graduating from college, my husband and I moved to Bozeman, Montana where we resided for a few years. Our lifestyle was quite frankly idyllic – skiing, hiking with our dogs, open spaces and an abundance of fresh venison and pheasant for our consumption.    Upon our move to the big city I was left mourning the absence of some of my favorite fresh game meals.  I was therefore thrilled to find fresh pheasant at Gepperth’s Market just a few blocks away from my home in Chicago.  If you can’t find pheasant use duck or chicken breast.

Serves 6

Broth

-  6 pounds chicken, you can use a combination of breasts and thighs

- ½ large yellow onion, skinned and roughly chopped

- 3 carrot sticks, chopped into three’s

- 3 celery sticks, chopped into three’s

- 2 large leeks, cleaned and roughly chopped, discard the green parts

-  2 bay leaves

- ½ cup parsley

- 1 garlic clove, chopped into four pieces

- 1 freshly squeezed tablespoon lemon juice

- 2 gallons water

Dumplings

- 1 ounce morel mushrooms

- 1 medium sized pheasant, about 2 LB’s, cleaned and pat dry

- Bundle of sage

- Bundle of thyme

- Bundle of rosemary

- ½ teaspoon pepper

- 2 teaspoon salt

- 2 cups flour

- 4 teaspoons baking powder

- 4 tablespoons butter

- 1 cup half and half

-1/2 cup grated parmesan

- ¼ cup finely chopped parsley

- Truffle oil

Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°.

Start with the broth.  Combine the onion, celery, carrots, leeks, bay leaves, parsley, garlic, chicken and water in large stock pot.   Bring to a boil over high heat.  Stir, reduce to a simmer and cover.  Continue to simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Strain the broth into a large bowl with a fine sieve.  Discard the vegetables and the chicken.  Return the broth to the stockpot removed from the heat.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan.  Remove the pot from the heat and stir in mushrooms.  Let sit for 20-30 minutes or until they are soft.  Roughly chop the mushrooms and set aside.  Save the mushroom water for basting the pheasant.

Place the pheasant in a large baking dish, breast side facing up.  Stuff the bird with the sage, thyme and rosemary and season the outside with 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper.  Bake for 20-25 minutes per pound, basting every ten minutes with a few tablespoons of the mushroom water.  Remove the pheasant from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.  Clean the meat off the bones and chop into ½ inch pieces.  Discard the bones.  Place the pheasant in a medium size bowl and toss with the parsley and cheese.

Meanwhile, make the dumpling dough by combing the flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt in a food mixer fixed with a dough hook.  Cut the butter in one tablespoon at a time while mixing on medium- high speed.  Slowly add the half and half and continue to mix until an elastic and moist dough forms.  Remove the dough from the mixer and roll out to ¼ inch thickness on a floured surface.  Use a knife or a circular cookie cutter to make the dumpling cut outs- they should be about 2-3 inches in diameter.  Lightly brush one side of the circular cut outs with the truffle oil.  Pile a small amount of the pheasant, parsley and mushroom mixture in the middle of each dough round.  Carefully fold up the edges of the dough to form a pocket.  Pinch the top of the pocket to ensure the contents stay in place while cooking.

Return the broth to a boil then reduce to a simmer over low heat.   With a slotted spoon, gently place the dumplings into the broth.  Cover and let the dumplings cook for 15 minutes.  Spoon the dumplings and stock into shallow soup bowls and serve immediately.  You can refrigerate the remaining broth for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 2 months.