I recently roasted pigeon last week for my cousin who was over for dinner and we had a mini Christmas celebration. We like to eat a variety of meats especially over Christmas and pigeon is one of them. As Christmas is approaching I thought this was perfect.
My dad loved trying different meats and he grew up in Malta eating many different types of birds, as well as rabbit. This was passed onto us in Australia. During Christmas we traditionally eat rabbit and also adopted our English traditions of eating turkey. We however also sometimes ate a different variety of birds during Christmas including pigeon and quail. Pigeon is a great meat to try if you haven’t before.
Luckily my local butcher sells wood pigeons. We cook pigeon in a variety of ways including stewing them or in a pie. I decided to roast the pigeons this time by stuffing them with thyme and rubbing with a little seasoning and olive oil. Just serve with roast vegetables. I roasted beetroot, carrots, potatoes and red onions. Anything in season is perfect.
Enjoy your pigeon!
- Roast pigeon (1 pigeon per person)
- Small bunch of thyme
- 2 bacon rashes per pigeon
- Salt and pepper, and olive oil
- Preheat oven to 200oC.
- Stuff each pigeon with thyme sprigs.
- Lightly sear pigeons on all sides in a frying pan with some olive oil.
- Remove from the pan. Season and sprinkle some olive oil.
- Place a bacon rasher on each pigeon breast.
- 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.