Baked Chukar Partridge

After my baked quail in May, that was so delicious, and doing a post on chukar partridge, I was delighted to find some chukar partridge for sale. I have had pheasant several times and I have always found it to be very dry. My concern was that chukar would be as well. I had hopes that the excellent quail recipe would keep the chukar moist and make it a wonderful meal. Each chukar was about a pound, or a little less.

The quail were about 4 1/2 ounces each, so the chukar were significantly larger.

While the quail were pretty loose and floppy, the chukar seemed tightly packed.

With a little variation, I followed the same recipe I used for the quail. I cut the chukar in half.

I wound a whole piece of bacon around each half, as opposed to a half piece for each quail, coated them in flour and then put them in canola oil in a frying pan.

When browned on each side, I put four halves in a casserole dish.

I basically doubled the recipe and made two batches. I diced a red onion and a yellow onion and put half in each dish. I added a bunch of cut-up asparagus spears as well as a diced red bell pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder to each dish.

Then I added cream of mushroom soup mixed with one-half cup of water to each dish, as opposed to the golden mushroom soup I used for the quail.

I then baked it at 350 degrees for an hour and took the cover off and baked it for an additional 10 minutes. While it was baking, I mashed some potatotes.

I put a helping of mashed potatoes on the plate and a half chukar, with sauce, on top.

I was disappointed with the result. The mushroom soup did not have as rich a flavor as the golden mushroom and was not anywhere as good as a gravy with the mashed potatoes. The chukar was also very dry and it was difficult to get the meat off the bones.

If I were to do it again, I would probably wrap two pieces of bacon around each half bird, I would use golden mushroom soup, and I would increase the amount of soup by at least half. I think those steps would help to keep the bird more moist and provide a richer flavor.