Pigeon Breast Recipe | Game Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2024)

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Flying Steak Sandwich

Delicious pigeon breasts with caramelised onions

Pigeon Breast Recipe | Game Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2)

Delicious pigeon breasts with caramelised onions

“If you can get hold of some decent pigeon meat, this take on a steak sandwich is the business ”

Serves 4

Cooks In55 minutes

DifficultySuper easy

Jamie's Great BritainGameSteakBeefBreadSnacks

Nutrition per serving
  • Calories 487 24%

  • Fat 23.1g 33%

  • Saturates 5.1g 26%

  • Sugars 7.3g 8%

  • Protein 27.2g 54%

  • Carbs 39.2g 15%

Of an adult's reference intake

Recipe From

Jamie's Great Britain

By Jamie Oliver

Tap For Method

Ingredients

  • 2 red onions , peeled and finely sliced
  • olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme , leaves picked
  • 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 ciabatta loaf
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary , leaves picked
  • 4 pigeon breasts , skin on
  • 1 whole nutmeg , for grating
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • English mustard , to serve
  • 1 large handful watercress , to serve
  • cottage cheese , to serve

Tap For Method

The cost per serving below is generated by Whisk.com and is based on costs in individual supermarkets. For more information about how we calculate costs per serving read our FAQS

Recipe From

Jamie's Great Britain

By Jamie Oliver

Tap For Ingredients

Method

  1. Pigeon gets a bad rap, but good wild country birds (not the mangy kind you see wandering around cities!) produce one of the most delicious and underrated meats in the world (as long as it’s cooked medium rare). In the past, I’ve seared pigeon breast, put it inside some lovely bread and had people tell me it’s the best steak sandwich they’ve ever had! So here’s how it’s done ... This makes a brilliant casual lunch, dinner or snack with a nice salad.
  2. Turn the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Put the onions into a large pan on a medium low heat and add a lug of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and white pepper, the sugar and the thyme leaves. Put the lid on and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. After this time, remove the lid, turn the heat up to high and give the onions a good stir, then add the vinegar and stir again. Leave the lid off and continue to cook down until the onions are really sticky and slightly golden. Keep your eye on them.
  3. Put the ciabatta into the hot oven. Heat a large non-stick pan on a high heat. Finely chop the rosemary leaves and put them into a mixing bowl. Add the pigeon breasts, drizzle over some olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grate over a few scrapings of nutmeg. Toss the pigeon until coated. Once the pan is really hot, add a lug of olive oil and the bay leaves and put in the breasts, skin side down so they crisp up nicely. Cook for around 2½ minutes on the skin side and 1 minute on the other side for tender and blushing medium- rare meat, which trust me is what you want – anything over that and it will be tough and boring. As you remove the pan from the heat, shake in a few good drizzles of Worcestershire sauce, then toss the meat in the juices. Move to a board and slice thinly at an angle.
  4. Get the warm bread out of the oven, open it out with a serrated knife, put it on a nice board and spread as much mustard as you dare on one side (be confident – you can spread a little butter on if you want, but I don’t because the meat juices are enough). Put big pinches of watercress and those sticky onions down one side. Arrange the slices of pigeon around the sandwich, then dollop small amounts of cottage cheese in and around the meat. Push the top of the sandwich down and hold it for a couple of seconds so it sucks up all those juices. You can stab a knife through the sandwich to hold it together when you take it to the table. Serve next to a pint of good British ale.

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Recipe From

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© 2024 Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited

© 2024 Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited

Pigeon Breast Recipe | Game Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the famous pigeon dish? ›

Pigeon pie is a savoury game pie made of pigeon meat and various other ingredients traditional to French cuisine and present in other European cuisines. It has been eaten at least as early as 1670 in French cuisine. Similar dishes to pigeon pie exist in other cultures.

What is the best pigeon for cooking? ›

A squab is a young pigeon, and most restaurants are, in fact, serving squab no matter which word they use. Older pigeons tend to have tough, gamey meat thanks to their active flying. This makes them good candidates for low and slow cooking like stewing and braising.

How do you cook pigeon crowns? ›

Heat some oil in an ovenproof frying pan and sear the pigeon crowns all over until golden. Place the crowns in the oven (breast-side up) along with the pithiviers on a separate tray for 8–10 minutes – the pigeon should be cooked through but still pink in the middle, and the pithiviers should be golden-brown.

How long should you cook a pigeon? ›

Place pigeons into a roasting dish and roast for about twenty minutes. If you prefer your pigeon meat to be rarer then cook for ten minutes only. Check the meat and then if you prefer it to be cooked for longer roast further. Serve with roast vegetables of your choice.

How long does it take to cook a pigeon? ›

Put the pan in the oven for 20 mins, then remove and leave to rest for 10 mins. Serve the pigeon straight from the pan with the bread.

What is eating pigeon called? ›

More recently, squab meat comes almost entirely from domesticated pigeons. The meat of dove and pigeon gamebirds hunted primarily for sport is rarely called "squab".

What do chefs call pigeon? ›

In culinary terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon or its meat. The meat is widely described as tasting like dark chicken. The term is probably of Scandinavian origin; the Swedish word skvabb means "loose, fat flesh".

Is pigeon healthier than chicken? ›

Pigeon meat has quite high nutritional value, 9 times more than chicken meat.

What goes well with pigeons? ›

Alternatively, pan-fry the breasts until they are golden-brown but still slightly pink in the middle and serve with garlicky mashed potato. Tender slices of pan-fried wood pigeon also go well with bitter salad leaves or chicory.

Can you eat pigeon rare? ›

It's a much darker meat than chicken and is best served medium rare\ pink for me. It's gamey and even more so when wild and much better in my opinion. Back home in Ireland it's quite popular on menus and I love it but you always get a few jokes saying it better not be a gickna pigeon (dirty city pigeon).

Is pigeon meat tender? ›

If you're a wood pigeon eater, you'll know these delectable little birds provide tasty, tender meat with a rich and complex flavour.

Is pigeon meat good to eat? ›

Pigeon meat has quite high nutritional value, 9 times more than chicken meat. The dishes made from pigeon meat have a very good effect on nourishing the body, especially for women who are pregnant, malnourished children, or people who have just woken up. .

How does pigeon meat taste? ›

How do pigeons taste? Delicious! It's a much darker meat than chicken and is best served medium rare\ pink for me. It's gamey and even more so when wild and much better in my opinion.

What is pigeon meat called? ›

In culinary terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon or its meat. The meat is widely described as tasting like dark chicken.

Does Gordon Ramsay cook pigeon? ›

After shooting the game, Gordon shows us the perfect. way to cook pigeon with pancetta and black pudding.

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