Directions

1. Pour 5 quarts cool water into an 8 quart Briner Bucket. Add the 1 lb bag of Cattleman’s Grill Butcher House Brine and whisk.
2. Place your bone-in pheasant breasts in the brine solution. Lock the lid in place to keep the birds submerged. Place the lid on the Briner Bucket and transfer to the refrigerator.
3. Brine the pheasants overnight (about 16 hours). Remove the pheasants from the brine and rinse with cool water. Pat dry the surface of the meat.
4. Build a coal base with lump charcoal in your Yoder Smokers Loaded Wichita Offset Smoker. Feed the fire with splits of cherry wood, maintaining the grill temperature at 300ºF-325ºF.
5. Season the pheasant breasts moderately with Plowboys BBQ Yardbird BBQ Rub. Lay out 4-5 slices of bacon on your work surface. Place the bone-in breasts on top of the bacon and wrap the bacon around the meat, tucking the ends underneath.
6. Transfer the bacon wrapped pheasant breasts to the smoker, near the firebox end of the grill.
7. Cook the pheasant until the internal temperature reaches about 140ºF, about one hour, then begin brushing with sauce.
8. To make the sauce, combine the Firebird Grillin’ Sauce and Blues Hog Raspberry Chipotle BBQ Sauce in a Lodge 8” Cast Iron Skillet. Warm and whisk. Brush the sauce over the bacon wrapped pheasant breasts. Continue smoking.
9. When the internal temperature of the breasts reaches 155ºF, brush again with the sauce, then remove from the smoker.

10. While the pheasants are smoking, grill the green onions directly on the hot coals in the firebox of the smoker until lightly charred and softened. Dice fine. Combine all remaining ingredients for the Apple Slaw in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Toss to coat all ingredients with the sauce. Cover and rest in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

11. Remove the bacon from the surface of the pheasant breasts. Chop the bacon.
12. Slice the breast meat off of the breastbone. Pull and shred the meat by hand. Keep an eye out for any shot that may be left behind in the meat.
13. Combine the pulled pheasant meat with the chopped bacon.
14. To build the sandwiches, place the pheasant and bacon meat on a toasted brioche bottom bun. Drizzle some sauce over the meat. Top with the Apple Slaw, then the top brioche bun.