newbie pheasant smoking

thanks - i've checked that. found very little in the way of pheasant technique - though i am heartened by Sasquatch's enthusiam for smoked pheasant! :-) I don't think my electric smoker will get up to the temps suggested in what i found, and so i expect i still need to bring temp up to "done" in an oven afterward.. but would love any comment on better to do so at 200' for an hour so at 350' for 30 min or..?

right now is smoking away on first pan of chips.. had to rewire my garage to get rid of the ---!!!--- GFI outlet that was inline as smoker kept tripping it..so getting started a bit later than i had hoped (i'll be smoking till midnight--west coast)..THEN putting in oven!

or do i need less (significantly) time as i'm only at about 1/3 capacity for this smoker?

thank you chipotle dude Richoso1 and ajthepoolman for the welcome!

thanks - i'll be probing with my thermometer.. i won't be getting this fancy this time, but not clear on "reheating"..? immediate plan is for a 1.5-2 hour smoke, then directly into over (sealed in foil, with butter.. or is bacon better? both?) to "finish" ensuring inside temp reaches 165' or better for ... as little time as possible? a few minutes? 20 minutes? ... then out and after all cools, in the fridge for next coouple days cold meat treats..

the two pheasants are each quartered. hoping will have "pull apart" meat when all done.

yes! what target temps should i be aware of?

well the job took longer than i had anticipated (as i said before, had to rewire a socket in the garage, etc!) but it all worked out!

what i did - reduced to my ultimate newbie level--

used two pheasants, no skin, quartered (8 pieces)

1/ thaw : took pheasants out of freezer day before, thawed in fridge 24 hours.

2/ brine : followed instructions in the Big Chief Smoker booklet for the brine. used their "Easy cure" brine.. 1 qt water with 1/2 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar (i used ordinary white refined sugar). put the (skinned) pheasant quarters into the brine and put all that into the fridge for 6 hours. put a healthy sprinkling of garlic powder into brine as well.

3/ air dry : after brining, put the pieces on a plate after patting dry and left for 1 hour on the counter (while i sorted out the wiring issue!)

4/ smoking : birds occupied two racks which i placed in the top two slots in the smoker. filled the wood chip pan twice (each pan had one hour dring which time it did totally consume the chips), total time in smoker, two hours. i did start smoker about 10 minutes before getting birds out to it.

5/ oven : when 2nd pan was underway in the smoker, i preheated the oven to 250' - its a convection oven so set to full convection. when birds came out of smoker, immediately wraped them up in foil and sealed seams. did not add any butter or grease or any other seasoning. put birds in 250' oven for 45 minutes.

and that was it. checked internal temps and up to 180 and more so plenty cooked. LOTS of water came out of them and the foil needed to be poured out into sink. again lightly patted the pieces dry and set in a covered bowl and after cooled a bit, into the fridge for the night.

next day, served cold and huge hit! great success! some thought amount of smoke was divine.. but I thought just a touch too much for the breasts. seems that the legs (dark meat) suited that much smoke, and breasts we're just a touch heavy on smoke--for "perfection" mind you. certainly and absolutely still enjoyable!

so that's it. my first go. i'll be doing more again real soon!

thanks for the tips and suggestions. will be sure to save some bacon fat for coating before smoking and see how that fares, too. in the same batch, can i separate breasts from legs and, for example, locate them lower to get less smoked flavor? or would that be the other way around?

best pheasant i've made in years!