In light of the Irish outrage over a New York Times pigeon-eating and desperate economic times article, We here at IrishCentral decided to highlight the best cooking methods of Irish Pigeon from some of Ireland’s top chefs.

Try your hand at this straightforward recipe by Irish chef Kevin Dundon below.

As Dundon recently told our reporter Cahir O’Doherty “I want to help people [to] remember how simple it is to cook really good food. You know what you’re eating because you’ve prepared it yourself.”

Well ye can’t get any better than shooting your own pigeon now, can you!?

Pan Fried Breast of Pigeon

Ingredients

- pigeon breasts
- olive oil
- garlic cloves
- thyme

Method

Marinate breasts of pigeon in a mixture of olive oil, chopped garlic cloves and fresh sprigs of thyme. Do not use too much olive oil, just enough to glaze the breasts. About 150 ml with 4 cloves of garlic should be sufficient to glaze 6 breasts of pigeon.

Heat a pan until it is quite hot and put the pigeons onto the hot pan, pan fry for 3 minutes on either side and then rest it for 5-6 minutes just to let the juices settle. If you like your meat very well done, you could leave it on the pan for an extra 2 minutes either side.
       
Here’s a tutorial from Treyvauds Restaurant High Street, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland and how best to pluck and prepare a Pigeon.

(BE WARNED: this gets graphic):