Squirrel for Supper

Now what to do with all those squirrels you’ve taken on the hunt.  Well put them on the dinner table of course.  I’ll show you one way I cook up some fried squirrel with rice and gravy.  Making me hungry already.  There are plenty of other recipes out there and I love you to drop into the comments and list your favorite way to prepare them.

(Visited 1,634 times, 1 visits today)

6 thoughts on “Squirrel for Supper

  1. Credit where due; L.L. Bean Cookbook, Squirrel with Ham in Wine Sauce. One of my favorite recipes.

    1/2 lb. ham diced (I’ll freeze leftover portions of baked ham dinners for later use in this dish)
    2 squirrel quartered, young squirrels are best (or better yet, 8 hind quarters – save the shoulders for stew)
    1 cup dry white wine (chardonnay)
    3 cloves garlic finely diced
    1/2 tsp. marjoram (crumbled)
    1/2 tsp. rosemary (crumbled)
    1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
    Dash of Tobasco
    1 1/2 tb. butter
    1 tb. oil

    Shake the squirrel in flour with salt and pepper added (to taste). Dice & brown the ham until crispy, set aside. Add butter and oil to skillet, brown the squirrel, turning often @10 minutes. Add ham and all remaining ingredients except wine, toss and brown @2 minutes. Add wine and “cover,” cook over fast simmer @20-25 minutes.

    The sauce should thicken due to the flour coating. If not, add some butter and flour smoothed into a roux (the original recipe calls for 2x the butter and oil, personally I don’t think it needs it).

  2. Best recipe I’ve found yet. Fry half a pound of bacon, remove the bacon from the pan and save the fat. Roll your squirrel quarters in flour and brown them on both sides in the bacon grease for a minute or two on each side. In a separate large cast iron pot cook one small onion chopped, 3-4 celery stalks chopped, and 2-3 carrots chopped. Fry these vegetables on low in butter until the onion is clear through. Add your browned squirrel quarters and lay them on top of the vegetables. Add about 4 pieces of bacon chopped up, one bay leaf, at least 2 cups of chicken broth, salt, and black pepper. Cover with the lid and put the whole pot in the oven at 325 for 1.5 hrs, by then the squirrel will be falling off the bone. Check the liquid at least once during the cooking, you may have to add more chicken stock. After the 1.5 hrs you can add a little flour/water mix to thicken it, or some people add some sour cream…serve it over rice or a good thick egg noodle…Enjoy!

  3. My hunting Buddy down in Georgia (originally from Mississippi) did a Pirlau lke Morrey describes, that stuff was some kinda good, mostly around my part of NC we fry them much as you did, just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it. One suggest for equipment, get you a good set of Game Shears. Makes breaking up those whole squirrels a bit easier. My Wife wouldn’t cook a squirrel on a bet and you done gone and got me hungry, lol.

    1. They are pretty good eating if you do it right. I’ll have to find a good pair of game shears to make life easier. My wife won’t cook squirrel either so it’s all up to me.

  4. In SC, we are big fans of chicken bog aka chicken and rice or chicken pirlau, all of which originated from African roots meaning rice stew. Here is my adaption of bringing squirrels into the dish:

    I quarter my cleaned squirrels ( I usually want 3 or 4) and boil them in lightly salted water until tender. Mature squirrels take a bit longer so I’ll start them first, then add the younger squirrels about half way thru the cooking process. The squirrel simmering process usually takes about an hour or so.

    In a separate pot I take a few (3 or 4) skinless chicken thighs covered with water that’s lightly salted, a quartered medium onion and a stalk of celery. I cook these at the same time as the squirrels, in a separate pot, until fork tender. My favorite pot for this recipe is a large cast iron Dutch oven with lid which gives great heat distribution.

    When fork tender, take squirrels out of water and discard cooking water. When fork tender, take chicken thighs out of liquid but save broth (I simply leave broth in Dutch oven) while discarding celery and onion which have given the broth a good flavor.

    You’ll want to have 4 cups of broth at this point. If you are short, add canned chicken broth to make up to 4 cups. Adjust/add salt to taste, and I’ll add a teaspoon of black pepper in now, but suit your own taste. Bring your broth to a rolling boil and add two cups long grain white rice. Not parboiled or minute rice mind you, just regular long grain white rice.

    Stir rice for a minute while coming back to a boil, then turn stove down to low and cover pot. Set your timer for 12 minutes. While the rice is cooking for the initial 12 minutes, some low country folks pick the meat off the bone…while some leave it on the bone. Your choice but try to keep the parboiled chicken and squirrel warm while the rice is cooking for 12 minutes. When the 12 minute timer goes off, add the squirrel and chicken to the pot of half cooked rice by folding meat in. Don’t stir like crazy, just fold in kinda easy like. Too much stirring now makes the rice break down and your pirlau will be gummy.

    Set timer for 10 more minutes on the same low flame as before. No peeking now as the rice is gonna get just right by staying covered and absorbing all the liquid. After your timer of 10 minutes goes off, turn heat off and don’t peek for at least 10 more minutes. After that, uncover and fluff with a fork and get ready for a taste treat that will have you back in the woods hunting for more squirrels the next morning!

    Optional: Lots of low country folks like to add some Hillshire type sausage into the bog. If you try this, slice the sausage into rounds and brown those before you add to the rice at the same time you add in the chicken and squirrel. Serve with small sweet pickles if desired. Let’s eat!!!

  5. Hey Nate I’m surprised there aren’t any comments for more recipes here. I’m from Louisiana and we always eat our rice and gravy with a brown gravy. I currently live in Jasper, IN. and they eat their squirrel like you did in your video, fried. I haven’t had it like that yet but it looks good. My Dad always cooked his on the stove in a gravy. I haven’t tried it yet but here is how he says to cook it.

    Quarter up your squirrel like you did. In a good pot, preferably a nice Magnalite pot, brown your squirrel really good. In his words, “brown the $h!t out’em”. Periodically add water to the pot to scrap up all the good bits at the bottom. On those fancy cooking shows they call this “deglazing” :D. Once you’re satisfied with your browning remove your squirrel then add chopped medium onion to the pot. Brown them until clear. Add more water to the pot for your gravy. You’ll see it should get really brown. Return your squirrel and put on a medium to low heat for about an hour and a half. Season to taste. Once done pour the gravy over some long grain rice and enjoy.

    I haven’t tried this recipe yet but it brings back memories of him cooking squirrel on our hunting trips when I was a kid. Definitely my favorite dish of his. I plan on returning the favor and cooking this for him one day. Great site by the way Nate.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *