Wild Partridge Recipe

This post isn't precisely about wine, but without good food, good beer and wine would be rather pointless, so I wanted to share a wild partridge recipe my wife and I made together tonight.  Up here where I live in Maine, partridge season is something people anticipate all year long, and with good reason--prepared correctly, they are a taste of heaven!  I found the recipe at allrecipes.com: 

Recipe makes 4 servings

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

 

4 boneless partridge breast halves

8 slices bacon

1 cup chicken broth

toothpicks

1 cup white wine (we used Barefoot Pinot Grigio)

2 shallots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place the slices of bacon in the skillet and fry until they have released their juices, but are not crispy. Remove the bacon and set aside. Place the partridge breast halves into the pan, and brown them quickly, about 2 minutes per side.
3. Remove the partridge pieces, and wrap each one with two slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks. Pour enough of the drippings from the skillet into a baking dish to cover the bottom. Place the partridge pieces into the dish along with the chicken broth, white wine, shallots, garlic, salt and black pepper.
4. Roast uncovered for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove drippings from the baking dish using a turkey baster, and place in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Serve gravy with partridge.

25 minutes for prep, and about an hour total for cooking.  Well worth it!

 We served the bacon wrapped breasts with a simple rice pilaf mix, and some steamed broccoli.  The wine we used both for cooking and serving was Barefoot Pinot Grigio, but any white will go well with this meal--I've got a few more breasts in the freezer, so I think next time we may try a Sauvignon Blanc.  Partridge being a wild game bird, even a mild red would not be inappropriate. 

Chew slowly to enjoy this meal to its fullest...and to avoid cracking your teeth on any shotgun pellets you may have missed!