Wine and hunting dog for added effect.
What do you do after you have finished your hunt!?? You make Broken Arrow BBQ Bird Bites of course!! I used a Traeger pellet grill to make mine, but you can use any sort of grill or even roast them in an oven!
Ingredients: 4 pheasant breasts, 1 lb of bacon, season all, grape jelly, and chili sauce. I’m not a brand snob, but I will tell you what I used just in case you want to replicate exactly. One reason I like cooking over baking is that recipes for cooking are much more forgiving than baking recipes. Cooks can sub in pretty much anything to cater to a particular taste. As for me, I have a sweet tooth. I used maple bacon, an all-purpose seasoning blend from Savory Spice in Ft Collins, CO, Welch’s Natural Concord Grape spread, and Heinz Chili Sauce. If you’ve ever been to a super bowl party, you’ve probably had a fan favorite crock pot dish called Beanie Weenies…. this is that same magical secret sauce.
chop chop
Step 1: Cut the pheasant breasts into cubes and cut the bacon strips in half as shown.
Step 2: Season the pheasant cubes with all-purpose seasoning to taste.
Step 3: Place pheasant on an end of the bacon strip and roll. Place bacon wrapped cube onto a skewer. (you can also make individual tooth pick skewers or place seam side down on a baking rack) Repeat until all cubes are wrapped with bacon and skewered. I was able to get 6 bites per skewer. I didn’t want to pack them on too tight to make sure all sides get browned.
Step 4: Let seasoning cure on meat while you preheat your pellet grill filled with mesquite wood pellets to 225 degrees. I set at the highest possible temp to still have the ability to use the “super smoke” feature on my specific grill.
Step 5: Once grill reaches temp, place skewers of bites on the grates, set to super smoke, and smoke for 30 minutes. Flip and rotate and smoke for an additional 30 minutes.
smoke ’em if you got ’em!!
Step 6: In a small bowl, mix a 1/4 cup of grape jelly with 1/4 cup chili sauce. We’ll call this the beanie weenie sauce.
Step 7: Cancel super smoke and increase grill temp to 350 degrees. Using a brush, baste your skewered bites with the beanie weenie sauce, flip and baste the other side.
Step 8: Grill bites for an additional 10 minutes allowing the beanie weenie glaze to caramelize.
Step 9: (Optional) If you want additional sauce for dipping, you can combine the remaining grape jelly and chili sauce in a sauce pan and heat on a stove top, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until thickened.
Step 10: Remove from grill and serve warm. These delicious little bites pair well with an ice cold beer, comfy couch, and a football game.
These are just as good warmed up the next day…. or you could grill them up and drop ’em in a crock pot to keep warm so you can impress your friends at your next neighborhood pot-luck or tailgate party! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, so good!!!