Is there anything better than buffalo sauce? This simple concoction of hot sauce and butter is brilliant. Rich, spicy, and slightly tangy, it's a unique American flavor that has no substitute. 

The best vehicle for this national treasure of a sauce is fried poultry. Lucky for us, we got to go on a pheasant shoot and came back with a fair number of birds. The only downside was that some of our birds got skinned and breasted out. This was a little bit of a disappointment because we lost a lot of wings, but we had such a good time there was no reason to make a stink about it.

The first thing we made when we got home was a batch of buffalo sauce and some pheasant schnitzel. Schnitzel is essentially tenderized and fried meat, similar to country fried steak but usually with a much thinner breading. Schnitzel is a great way to prepare skinless pheasant breasts. Because of the mechanical tenderization and short cook time, the pheasant stays tender and moist.

Buffalo Pheasant Schnitzel

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Pheasant breasts 

Flour

Salt & pepper

Buffalo sauce:

½ cup butter

½ cup Crystal hot sauce

Method:

Preheat frying oil to medium-high heat.

Tenderize both sides of the breasts with a meat mallet until a little less than ¼” thick. This is a great time to pick out any shot that you can find.

Pull the tendons from the breasts with fish tweezers. Season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Shake off excess flour.

Fry in small batches for about 45 seconds per side. Allow to drain on a wire rack or paper towel for a minute, toss with buffalo sauce and serve right away with an extra thick ranch dip. 

For the buffalo sauce:

In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Whisk in hot sauce until incorporated. Remove from heat.