Guinea fowl (Pintade) is very popular in France. It has a slightly more gamey flavour than chicken but not quite as gamey as pheasant. It’s delicious and you’ll find it on our dinner table regularly. Here’s a very simple yet tasty way to roast a guinea fowl.
I made a marinade with the finely grated rind of one lemon and its juice, 3 bay leaves, a really good grinding of black pepper, about a tablespoon of dried thyme sprinkled all over, and a little salt. I rubbed it into the guinea fowl and left it for about half an hour.
I preheated the oven to 180°C fan then placed another lemon that had been sliced in four longways plus 25g of butter in the cavity. I put it in a roasting pan breast side down, poured in a cup of stock and cooked it for 50 minutes. After 50 minutes I took it out of the oven, turned it over and then popped it in for a further 20 minutes. I checked that the juices from the legs were clear and removed it from the oven.
roasted guinea fowl
I put it on a warmed plate to rest and then deglazed the pan with a glass of white wine. I scraped all the crispy bits from the bottom of the roasting tin and then added a tablespoon of plum jam (you could use redcurrant). This dampens the acidity from the lemon juice and wine and gives a lovely rich, sticky jus that can be poured over the meat after carving.
I served it with some new potatoes roasted in the oven with rosemary from the garden and some plain steamed carrots.
This recipe is a slight adaption of one that I found on the Good Housekeeping Cookery page.
